NEW ZEALAND A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 25, 29 January 1921, Page 15

NEW ZEALAND A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

MAORI LIFE AND CUSTOMS IN 1820.

(From the Journa. of M.j Or R| ckard A . CruUei of th , Mth Reg , ment FeeU)

CHATTER XX.—Continued. SOME OF THE ORNAMENTS. Their ear? arc always r i Prce d during their infancy, and particularly those of the women. The perforation is praduallv distended by means of a piece of stick passed through it; and the larger it becomes the more ornamental it is considered. From it the bettor class of people suspend the tooth of a fish, rather scarce o n this coast; and so punctilious are the person authorised to use this distinction, that the kuki (slave) dares not, under any circumstance, infringe upon the prerogative. They also wear, fastened round the neck by a cord, and hanging on the breast, a piece of green talc, carved to represent what cannot be deemed human. They attach much value to it. nm from any superstitious notion, but from it* antiquity, and it is hereditary in families. fhe dress of the women is precisely the same as that of the men: among the latter, nudity at any time, or on any occasion, is not considered indecorous; but a dereliction of feminine "modesty by the former is seldom known. The females arc slightly tattooed upon the upper lip, in the centre of the. chin, and above the eyebrows. Some of them have a few lines upon their legs: and a woman was seen at Hokianga. who was described as having come from a j>W.- far to the southward of it; she had lines on her breast, not unlike the links of a chain: while a female prisoner of Korokoro's was tattooed almost as much es a man. The New Zealand women are as fair as those of the southern parts of Europe, "well made, and, in general, handsome. Before matrimony, concubinage Iβ scarcely considerd a crime, nor is it an impediment to the highest connection; after it. they are faithful and affectionate wives, and very fond of their children. They bear with the greatest patience the violent conduct of their husbands, who. considering women as beings infinitely inferior to themselves, often treat them with great brutality. SUPERSTITIOUS RELIGION - . It would be difficult to define what their religion is. They have innumerable superstitions, but no idolatry. They believe that 'the chiefs when they die go to a very happy place, "but that the kuki (slave) has"no further existence beyond this world. They address prayers to the sun, to the moon, to the stars, and even to the "winds, when their canoes are becalmed or in a storm; but their prayers emanate from casual circumstances, not from any regular form or time of adoration. They believe in a Supreme Being, designated the Atua. or something incomprehensible; the author of good and evil; the divinity who protects them: in danger, or destroys them by disease. A man who has arrived at a certain stage of an incurable illness is under the influence of the Atua, who has taken possession of him, and who, in the shape of a lizard (see Note 1G) is devouring his intestines; after which no human assistance or comfort can bo given to the sufferer, and he is carried out of die village, and left to die. He who has had his hair cut is in the immediate charge of the Atua; he is removed from the contact and society of his family and his tribe; he dare not touch his food himself; it is put. inro his'mouth by another person; nor can he for some days resume his accustomed occupations, or associate with his fellow men. An elderly female, or kind of priestess, of the tribe of any warrior who is going to fight, abstains from food for two days, and on the third, when purified and influenced by the Atua, after various ceremonies, pronounces an incantation for the success and safety of him whom she is about to send forth to battle. But die attributes of the Atua are so vague, and his power and protection so •undefined, and there is moreover such a want of unanimity among the people themselves in many things relating to him, that it is quite impossible to discover anything like system in their theology. THE FOOD OF THE NATIVE. Their general food is the kumara, or sweet potato; the root of the fern, roasted and pounded: the indigenous taro, which is very sweet; the common potato; the cabbage plant; and fish, wJiich they take in great abundance. They dry their lish in the sun without salt, and it continues good for many months. They use an immense quantity of cockles; and though they sometimes eat pork, it is only on great occasions: they generally reserve it to barter with the Europeans. The pigs run wild in the woods, and are caught with much difficulty, and with the assistance of dogs, which themselves are sometimes eaten, and are considered a great delicacy. Dogs and rats are the only native quadrupeds of the island; the former are like our fox in shape, but variable in die colour; and the latter are so much smaller than the European rat, that a chief expressed a wish for an importation of some from England to improve the breed, and thereby give him a more bountiful meal. The taro plant, which has been imported from Otaheite, is cultivated by a few natives with much success. Their appetites are immense;-and all their food is cooked in one and the same manner, namely in hot stones covered over with leaves and earth, so as to form a kind of oven; and. certainly, their regetables and cockles are particularly good when dressed in this way. They were very fond of our biscuit: and although it was literally so full of vermin that none of us could eat it, the tribes in the neighbourhood of the ship very eagerly bartered for it their potatoes and the other esculent plants introduced into the island by Captain Cook. Keckless, however, of the future, they had soon disposed of their little stock, and they afterwards lived in comparative misery. ADMITTED CANNIBALISM. Though well aware of our abhorrence of cannibalism, they never denied it to be one of their customs;. on the contrary, they too often expressed their predilection for human flesh. The limbs only of a man are eatable, while, with the exception of the head, the whole body of a female or a child i≤ considered delicious. Besides the crew of the Boyd, other Europeans have from time to time fallen victims to their ferocity : but they describe the flesh of a white man as tough and unpalatable when compared to that of their own countrymen, and they attribute its inferiority to our universal practice of using salt with our food. It is from superstitious motives that they devour their enemies when slain in battle; but there is every reason to conclude that anthropophagy is practised on other occasions. Instances occurred during our residence among them, and under the eyes of Europeans, of female slaves having been murdered for crimes too trifling to justify such severity; and as their bodies were immediately cut up, washed, and removed to a place where they could be eaten without interruption : and as the intended feast was publicly mentioned by the natives themselves, it is to be presumed the horrid propensity was gratified. Except the sailor of the Catherine, no Englishman witnessed the act of cannibalism during our visit to New Zealand; and the people took every precaution for its concealment. But the immediate prelude to it has "fallen under the observation of the missionaries, who have had unequivocal proofs of its existence: and what from the information we ■were able to collect from them, and the confession of the people themselves, it is quite impossible that the most incredulous person in the Dromedary could have returned to England without a firm conviction that anthropophagy exists., and is practised, in New Zealand, not only as a superstition, but as a sensual animal gratification. (To be Continued.)

Note 16. In the shape of a lizard. This curious hypothesis was accidentally discovered by one of the gentlemen, who having found a lizard, carried it to a native woman to ask her the name of it She shrunk from him in a state of terror that exceeded description, and conjured him not to approach her, as it was in the shape of the animal he held in his hand that the Atua was wont to take possession of the dying, and to devour their bowels.

PUBLICATION IN BOOK FORM. Major Cruise's remarkable narratiVe will be published in book fpnn early this year. Orders can be sent to the "Star" Office, when they will be filled in rotation. .