The Origin and Destiny of the Maori.

Maori Record : a journal devoted to the advancement of the Maori people, Volume I, Issue 4, 1 October 1905, Page 6

The Origin and Destiny of the Maori.

PART 1.-THE ORIGIN OF THE MAORI. CHAPTER 111. Mr. Smith quotes what Tare Watere Te Kahu, with whom I am acquainted, told him, thus—-“lTawaiiki-nui was a. mainland (tuawhenua), with vast plains on the side towards the sea, and a high range of snowy mountains on the inland side. Through this country ran the River Tohinga.” It is difficult now to identify the mountains, but they exist up to 10,000 feet; and of the river mentioned in the tradition, most, if not all, the names are modern or modified. On the western shore of Sumatra there is a range- of mountains with plains between them and the sea. There .arc many rivers, and at one part apparently a particularly fine harbour, formed

by the Siabung Peninsula. This is in the Residency of Benkulen. But to return to the tradition. Mr. Smith says:—“ Over this land of Atia-te-varinga-nui there • ruled, in very ancient days (B.C. 450, according to the genealogies) a king or ruling chief named Tu-te-rangi-marama, who is accredited with building a temple twelve fathoms high, which he enclosed with a stone wall, and named it a ‘Koro-tantini,’ or place with many enclosures. It was built as a meeting place for gods and men; and here the spirits of the ancients after death foregathered with the gods. It was a ngai tapu kaka, a sacred glorious place, a great space within, and filled with many beautiful and wonderful things. Here were originated the different kinds of takuruas, feasts and games,” etc., etc. Mr Smith adds: —“What the great temple built by Tu-te-rangi-marama was I am unable to indicate, but that it was something quite out of the common is obvious, for it is the only instance in Polynesian traditions, that I am aware of, in which any such building is mentioned. That it was one of the celebrated temples of Java is quite out of the question, for they were built by the Hindu Buddhists somewhere about A.D. 600, and we cannot allow that the Polynesians as a body were in Indonesia at so late a date as that, though doubtless some few branches remained there, and are to be found there at this day. If this temple was of the height-—twelve fathoms, 72 feet—mentioned in the tradition, or even half that height, and considering its purpose, it seems a fair inference that it was built of stone, or something more permanent than the usual edifices we know of in the Pacific. Of course the Polynesians did use stone in their sacred places, as witness the several pyramidal structures found formerly in Tahiti,” and so on. Now ruins, such as one might suppose would be left of a like ancient building and enclosures, are found in Western Sumatra. Says Professor Keane in “Man: Past and Present,” p. 243 : “In Sumatra also occur some remains of Hindu temples, as well as other mysterious monuments in the Passumah lands, inland from Benkulen, relics of a former culture, which goes back to prehistoric times. They take the form of huge monoliths, which are roughly shaped to the likeness of human figures, with strange features very different from the Malay or Hindu types. Tire present Sawari natives of the district, who would be quite incapable of executing such works, known nothing of tneir origin, and attribute them to certain legendary beings who formerly wandered over the land, turning all their enemies into stone. Further research may possibly discover some connection between these relics of a forgotten past and the numerous pre-historic monuments of Easter Island and other places in the Pacific Ocean. Of all the Indonesian people still surviving in Malaysia, none present so many points of contact with the Eastern Polynesians as do the natives of M-entawei Islands, which skirt the south-east coast of Sumatra. On a closer inspection of the inhabitants the attentive observer at once perceives that the Mentawei natives have but little in common with the peoples and tribes of the neighbouring islands, and that as regards physical appearance, speech, customs and usages they .stand almost entirely apart. They bear such a decided stamp of a

Polynesian tribe that one feels more inclined to compare them with the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands.” This quotation is from Van Rosenberg, and Professor Keane further quotes in a note : —“Among the points of close resemblance may be mentioned the outriggers, for which the Mentawei has the same word (“abak”) as the Samoan (“va’a-vaka”); the funeral rites, tapu. the facial expression, and the language, in which the numeral systems are identical; of Mentawei limongapulae with Samoan limagafula, the Malay being limapulah (fifty), where the Samoan infix ga. (absent in Malay) is pronounced nga, exactly as in Mentawei. Here is a case of cumulative evidence, which should establish, not merely contact and resemblance, but true affinity, the vast liquid intervening area presenting no obstacle.” Mentawei is still -seldom visited. It was only annexed by the Dutch in 1863, and lies some distance to the north-west of Benkulen, the district where the stone monoliths are found. From the “Encyclopaedia Britannica,” Yol. XXII., I extract the following account of that district of Benkulen “The Residency of Benkulen, or Bencoolen (i.e., Bang Kulon, west coast), lies along the west coast from the A land jut a to the south end of Sumatra. It is divide®, into eight districts : Alokko-Alokko, Lais or Sungai Lama, the district (ommelanden) of Benkulen, the capital of Benkulen (which was once in possession of the British), Seluma, Mana and Passumah Ulu Manana, Kaue-r, and, lastly, Kru.” To a Maori what suggestive names! We seem to have arrived at the heart of the matter when we get such a name as Pa-uma-Uru-Alana-, the bosom stronghold, into which enters Mana (power, influence, sacred authority), and in which is the tuahu, the shrine. One can almost hear the echo of Mr. Smith’s words sacred, glorious place,” “a place for gods and men.” In that gentleman’s valuable- big-little book an account is given of Tangiia, a chief who lived about the year 1250 A.D. He being in great grief for the death of his sons, and being in want of higher protection from the danger he was in from a relentless pursuit by the owners of certain gods his people had stolen, made his way north and west, thousands of miles, to the home of the race in Hawaiiki. Distance to him was no object, neither does it appear that it was at any time to such a people, who indeed visited the Antarctic regions and Tangiia himself, after returning from Hawaiiki, went to Easter Island to fetch some relations a direct connection, 1 think, between the stone images of that island and those of Sumatra, but without significance at that date. But if my memory serves me, there is a great similarity between the features of the Easter Island figures and the Papuan charm, depicted by Wallace in his “Malay Archipelago.” Mr. Smith thus mentions Tangiia’s visit to Hawaiiki: —“The vessel’s course was now directed west from Tahiti to many islands until she arrived at- Hawaiiki-te-varinga, Tangiia all the while, with excessive grief, lamenting his sons. Tamaru-pai came from Tahiti with Tangiia, and he was apponted navigator of the vessel. As they approached Avaiki, they heard the beating of drums, and the blowing of trumpets, denoting the performance of a great ceremony and feast. Pai is sent ashore to interview the gods, or as it probably may be interpreted, the priests of

their ancient gods, and finally Tangiia himself had an interview and explained his troubles. After much discussion it was agreed to help Tangiia, and Tonga-iti says to him : There is a land named Tumu-te-varovaro; thither shalt thou go, and there end thy days. Then was given to him great mana, equal to that of the gods, so that in future ho should always conquer; and they delivered to him numerous gods (idols) and their accessories, which he now possessed for the first time, together with directions as to number of ceremonies, dances and songs, and new customs, which were afterwards introduced into Rarotonga.” Air. Smith confesses himself quite at a loss to identify the island Tangiia visited, but thinks it may be Ceram. I shall have to speak of Ceram, Celebes, and Gililo presently, but I would with deference ask, What objection is there to Tangiia visiting Mentawei, near the mainland of Sumatra, where the stone images appear to testify of Tu-te-rangi-marama, perhaps such figures as the Maoris carve in wood, and where the very names of the places to this day seem to indicate a sacred plane of old? For as he approached the coast, where the monoliths lie, “Mana Point” would indicate to him, though drums and trumpets were silent, that he had arrived at the place whole the Mana he sought dwelt, and Pa-uma-uru-mana, in which all sacred things wore housed, was there to receive his plaint. The names of the places reek with the mana of the gods, and Mana town is close to Mana Point. “Ethnologically .some considerable advances in our knowledge of the Indian Archipelago havo been made. The Ala] predominate in the Sunda Islands, and have spread sporadically over the eastern half of the Archipelago, in which the ■Melanesian is now the race of the soil. The Malays, as known to us in the purer Aitchinese and Soudanese—a race developed through the commingling of Caucasian and .Mongol blood in Indo-China— the last incursionists into the region. They followed an earlier pure Caucasian migration, known as Polynesians, whose last remnants in the archipelago linger in the Mentawai Islands, on the west coast of Sumatra, who drove the Negrito (Qy. Papuan) autochthones of the Archipelago out into the remote interior of the Philippines and other islands, and were overwhelmed by the half-breeds of Mongol and predominating Caucasian blood, now known as Indonesians, of whom the Battaks and Dyaks are the survivors. In like manner the Melanesians of the Solomon and New Hebrides Islands, migrating westwards over the eastern part of the Archipelago, partly supplanted, partly commingled with the Negrito auctochf Irenes and these Caucasian (Polynesian) pre-incursionists, whoso strain appears still in many peoples, as well in their language as in their customs.” (Forbes), quoted in “Ency : Brit.” by Keane. It will thus be seen that the Maoris arc Caucasic, that they have lived in Sumatra, and were driven out by the Battak or Battas. It is mentioned elsewhere that the people the Battas drove from the Aitcheen district were Mantirs. There seems a similarity between this name and Mentawei, and, if any survive, enquiry would probably pay valuable results. But we have splendid evidence in the existence of the Eastern Polynesians in Mentawei Islands, and this brings within reasonable identification the island to

which Tangiia returned, but only on the proof that .Mentawei remained neolithic to so late a date as A.U. 1250. I shall later show how surprised Wallace was to find an island where the people were ignorant of metals, closely contiguous to where l am inclined to allocate Hawaiikikai, and almost within cooey of an advanced civilisation. I shall also show that close to Sumatra lived, contemporaneously with the Maoris, a Malayan tribe where albinos are remarkably numerous, and thus assist in filling materially another Maori tradition. What is very noticeable in the explorer Forbes’ writing is the broad distinction he draws between the Indonesians and the Polynesians, from whom spring the Maori people. I take the following from Forbes’ “Naturalist’s Wanderings,” p. 200, a description of Sumatra “Some of the most interesting objects in the Passumah lands are the sculptured figures found in so many parts of it. The greater number of these are so broken and defaced that no satisfactory results can come from their examination, they have been ascribed to Hindu origin by at least one writer. Hearing that there existed two of these men turned into stone” at Tangerwangh not far from my camp, I paid them a visit. I found them to be immense blocks of stone, in excellent preservation, which certainly could never have been seen by the writer to whom I refer. They are carved into a likeness of the human figure, in a posture between sitting and kneeling, but which is not quite easy to make out from the way in which the stones are lying. Besides the two of which I had heard, I discovered by clearing the forest first, a third, and then a fourth, both prostrate on the ground in such a way that they probably fell from the result of earthquakes, or by stones ejected from the volcano at whose base they had stood. Each figure has a groove down the back, and they laid apparently stood on a fiat pedestal, with their backs towards one centre and with their faces more or less accurately to the cardinal points of the compass. The features of all four are of the same type of countenance, but the race now living m this region did not form that model, and it is equally beyond question that the Hindoo features are not represented. It is not certain that the Hindoos, who, as it is well known, settled in some parts of Sumatra about 1000 8.C., over were in the Passumah lands; but if they were, there is no reason for supposing that they should depart from their wont in Java and elsewhere, and figure- in their sculpture the features of another race than of their own. If these stones are not the work of the Hindoos they must have been carved by the then people of the district or by foreign sculptors. If by the Pass amahs, did they depict their own features or those of another race? But who these former inhabitants of the Passumah were, whence these foreign artificers came, and for what those sculptures were used, is shrouded in mystery. (The traditional existence of the great house of 1 uterangimarama may explain it.— R.S.T.) It is quite certain also that the present inhabitants could not conceive, much less execute, such works of art. Hie postures are peculiar; the figures have the appearance of persons bearing burdens on their backs. The ringing on their arms, which the natives call bracelets, must be taken, I think,

to represent cords, as the same marks appear also below the shoulders, where it is not the custom of the Passumahs to wear armlets. The eyes are immense, and protruding to a great degree, lending weight to this idea. The sex of the persons represented is also doubtful. There is almost no tradition respecting them, beyond that they are the handiwork of Samang Sakti and Sidah Bait (Bitter Tongue), who, wandering about the country, turned all who displeased them into stone; or that they represent the people who, m the far, far back time, used to inhabit the land, and who possessed tails, which the renowned ancestor of the Passumah people, Atum Bung-os, cut off. Near Pagar Alam I saw also two stones, but quite of a different kind of sculpture ; one was the representation of a woman sitting in native fashion, with an infant on her hip, in the way that their children are generally carried about. Her features might represent a Passumah woman. The other, distant a few yards only, is a sculpture representing two children, one of whom has fallen, while its head is partly in its mouth. The action of the smaller boy in thrusting off the snake with all his strength is natural and well designed, though somewhat wanting in execution. These stones differ in character so much from me others at Tangerangi, and have besides so little relation to one another, that it is impossible to conceive for what purpose they can have been made. The only conclusion is that a superior race, possessing considerable knowledge and refined taste, and with technical skill not possessed by the natives of any part of the island at present, occupied this region, but who they were and when they dwelt here is absolutely shrouded in oblivion.”

The chapters of the “Origin of the Maori” were written in 1904, and in the present year, through the kindness of Dr Pomare, I came into temporary possession of Nicholas’ “Voyage to New Zealand” in 1814-5. John Liddiard Nicholas was the companion of Marsden, and the latter, as is known, had previously published an account of his researches in Sumatra in a bulky volume. Nicholas identifies manners, habits, and customs of Maoris with those of Sumatra, and gives so circumstantial an account of similarities in this respect that, had I seen the book before I undertook the tracing of the Maori origin, my attention would certainly have been turned to Sumatra in search for the traditional Hawaiiki. But in the result it is quite satisfactory that my search in that respect was guided by quite independent causes, viz., the apparent identification of the stone ruins of the Passumah district of Sumatra with the account of the house of Tu-te-rangi-marama, given by Mr Percy Smith. The result of two independent lines of investigation meeting in Sumatra is specially valuable. Nicholas says at page 288, et seq., vol. 2:—

But it is among a people who inhabit that part of Sumatra bordering on the Straits of Malacca, and who have preserved their genuineness of character from the first period of their origin to the present time, that customs and institutions, obtain which, in the aggregate, resemble those in New Zealand almost to identity. The people I allude to are the Batta nation; and I shall conclude this enquiry with stating some instances of coincident similitude between them and the New Zealanders. Looking, in the first place, at their respective forms

of government, we shall find that they are. with very little deviation, completely similar ; the superior authorities claiming a certain allegiance from the numerous petty rulers, while the latter are in every respectindependent of each other, and possess an absolute control over the lives of their subjects. In the Batta country, as in New Zealand, female succession is recognised ; and here is also a class similar to the rangitiras, diverging from the rajahs, or chiefs, in the junior branches of the families. The Government, therefore, of the Batta people, considered in all parts, approaches nearer even than that of the Malays to the system of polity existing in New Zealand. In the kampongs (the Batta or Battak have adopted the language of the Malay conquerors of the country.—R.S.T.), or fortified villages, of these people, we see almost an exact description of the New Zealand pahs. Constructed like the latter upon elevated ground, they are fortified with large ramparts of earth planted with brushwood ; and outside these ramparts, or mounds, is a ditch, in each side of which rises a high palisade of camphor timber. The whole is encompassed with a hedge of prickly bamboo, which, when it arrives at a certain growth, is so very thick as -entirely to conceal the town from the view of the spectator. The natives of Batta, influenced by a similar propensity for war and rapine as the New Zealanders do, in a state of perpetual hostility among each other. There appears also a correlative affinity between these two nations, with respect to their systems of mythology; the Battas acknowledge three deities as rulers of the world, whose names are Batara-Guru, Sora-Pada, and Mangalla-Bulang. The first of these may he classed with the chief deity of the New Zealanders. Moerangaranga; and of the other two they entertain precisely the same ideas -as these latter people do. to their gods Tawhaki and Moemuhaone having the rule over the air between land and sky, and the other over the earth. The Batta people have likewise, in common with the New Zealanders, a great many inferior deities, whom they have invested with local authority ; and they entertain some vague notions of the immortality of the soul. But in addition to these characteristic assimilations, I have to observe that the Batta, as well as the people of New Zealand, devour the dead bodies of their enemies—a practice which, though it renders them abhorrent- from civilised man, yet connects the two nations in a unity of revolting barbarism. [ln a note Mr Nicholas says: “Mr Marsden, in adverting to this horrible practice as it prevails in Sumatra, observes exactly as I have done with respect to the New Zealanders: ‘They do not eat human flesh as the means of satisfying the cravings of nature; for there can be no want of sustenance to the inhabitants of such a country and climate, who reject no animal food of _any kind, nor is it -sought after as a gluttonous delicacy. The Battas eat it- as a species of ceremony, as a mode of showing their detestation of certain crimes, and as a savage display of revenue and insult to their unfortunate enemies.’”] The same principle, too, of inhuman revenge is the actuating cause in both; but the cannibals of the Batta country offer, by a more horrible enormity, still greater violence to our feelings than those of New Zealand; for they not only gorge themselves with the flesh of their enemies they have slain in battle, but tear asunder also the dead bodies of their criminals, with which, in separate parties, they glut their appetites. In their domestic institutions these people equally approximate to the New Zealanders; the men, who are allowed as many wives as they can support, lead comparatively an idle life, while the women are obliged to dp

all the drudgery, and are treated as complete bond-slaves. The females are held in exactly the same degraded state in New Zealand, where, though a man takes a number of wives, none of them but the head wife is allowed the least privilege, as I have already shown. Adultery is punished among the Batta people with exile, and in aggravated cases with death. The mode of wearing the dress in this country is the same as prevails in New Zealand; it is made of cotton cloth, manufactured by themselves, and tied round the waist, while another garment of the same material hangs down the body, suspended by the shoulder. These garments are dyed with mixed colors. The New Zealanders generally dyed their inferior mats with red ochre, and work borders round the better kind, in which they contrive to blend three or four colours with much taste and ingenuity. The Battas are certainly more advanced in knowledge than the New Zealanders; they have a written language, and many of them are found who can both read and write ; they have likewise subjected to their use the services of the horse and the buffalo; and they have some defined ideas of trade and commerce; but with these advantages, which they owe entirely to place and circumstance, they are still hardly raised above the condition of wild savages. In drawing this line of comparison between two nations so little known, I do not mean to assert that the New Zealanders are descended from the Batta people, but that they are coeval with them, and have sprung from the same continental origin to which, according to the preceding enquiry, the population of their respective countries must be referred. (To be Continued.)