GIFT OF HIS FATHERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

GIFT OF HIS FATHERS.

A CUSTOM 'OF THE PAST. knowledge transferred.

(By J.C.) /

Te Apanui, the old chief of the NgatiAwa tribe, lay dying, in his village on the tidal riverside at Whakatane. He was a man of wisdom and much curious! ancestral lore, and lie was, for one I thing, a skilled artist m wood carving, an art for which his forefathers had been famed. Skill in such a craft, which the highest'chief did-not disdain, I was often to a large extent hereditary. There are families in which the one _or other of the sons have been noted for their beautiful wood carving for one generation after another. The art of the whao, the carver's chisel, was taught by skilled father to son, but beeidee the manual instruction ■ there was a sacred ceremony of one kind or another'for the purpose of implanting the knowledge firmly and of rendering the tauira, or pupil, a worker of special skill. 1 The old chief's son, Wepiha Apanui, had had some instruction in carving and he hoped to inherit the remarkable talent for which hie father and grandfather had been famed. But the ceremony to fix finally the knowledge in his mind and give sureness of touch to his hand had yet to come, and that would not be until his old father was on his death bed. The Fishers and the Death Guns. Wepiha intended to be by his father's side when the wise man died, but as that moment seemed long delayed he agreed to go out for a mornings fishing near the mouth of the Whakatane River with a pakeha friend, who was on a visit' to the village. The pair anchored their canoe just inside the bar and began their fishing, but scarcely had they dropped their lines overboard before they heard the bang-.banging of double-barrelled guns and the crack of rifles in the village. / ■' . "Aue! Aue!" exclaimed Wepiha. "Kua ngaro te whao!" ("The art of the carving chisel is lost!") He pulled in his line in. great agitation, and in furious haste hauled up the anchor "It's all your fault!" he cried to his companion. "You would insist on coming on fishing, and now the old man's dead!"

Seizing his paddle, the young chief sent the spray flying) and his pakeha Iriend plunged in his blade just as vigorously, urging the light canoe towards the beach. Dashing ashore at the village waterfront, Wepiha rushed up to the old man's house, thrusting the people aside right and left. "I may yet be in time!"he-exclaimed to his companion. Te Apanui lay under an awning spread in front of the house. Was he dead yet ? . Wepiha, with one glance, saw to his joy that the gun firing in announcement of the end was premature. The kaumatua was still breathing; his dim eyes opened at the sound of his son's voice; he smiled faintly at him. It .may have been that he rallied his fast: failing vital forces until his beloved eldest son had reached him. The Carver's Thumb.

Wepiha instantly dropped down at his father's side and seized the old man's right hand by the thumb. He bent low and put the thumb in his mouth and closed his teeth on it for a moment. As he released it, - the old man gave a long expiring sigh; and' his spirit passed in peace to the Reinga land. Wepiha, after a fitting display of filial grief, walked away' secretly, elated. His father had gone the way of all flesh, that was natural, and could not be averted. But the inner art of the whao, the sacred "hau," the soul of wisdom, had not perished with him. By that act of biting the thumb of his' father's well practised right hand, which had wielded so long the mallet and chisel of the. carver, he had absorbed the sacred essence of the "whakairo" art. Only in this way could, the manatapu of such.expert knowledge be transmitted to him in full. And next: day, the first- burst of the tangi over, while the dead ma.n lay in state in. front of the carved meetinghouse, the pride of Whakatane, Wepiha was busy in his work shed, carving a paddle for his pakeha fishing mate. That was one method • of' transferring the "hau" of expert wisdom from the elder to. the "tauira." This example of within the memory of 'Maoris still living at / Whakatane. In the- higher departments of knowledge there was the custom of "ngau-taringa," that is, biting the ear of an ancient wise man who was in "the article of death." In this way a neophyte, it was believed, absorbed the mystic manatapu, and spiritual power of the priest. An example of this, in the Heuheu family, of Taupo, will be related another article. 1