ANCIENT BELIEFS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

ANCIENT BELIEFS.

TAPU AND MAKUTU. SOME RECENT EXAMPLES. 4 (By J.C.) Now and again comes a story which indicates that the ancient beliefs have not all been pressed out of the mental fabric of the Maori by the iron of the pakeha. The faith in the law of tapu and the dread of makutu, or witchcraft, still linger, and are not likely to disappear for a long time to come. The reverencefor sacred things as embodied in the tapu rules of life is rather a salutary custom. The real Maori does not care to discuss such matters in a place where food is being eaten; and an offshoot of this olden inhibition is the pre-sent-day practice of leaving pipe and tobacco outside a church before entering, tobacco being regarded as food.

The veneration of ancestors produces an intense regard for the last resting places of the dead; and the recent interference by some Europeans with a native cemetery on the West Coast aroused the deepest indignation among the people whose forefathers' bones had been stolen in the cause of "scientific research." Not so long ago those King Country Maoris would have enforced respect for their sacred places with their double-barrel guns. Infringement of Tapu. An incident which occurred at Botorua, according to an account that reached me lately, illustrated the fear of infringing the mystic ban of tapu. An elderly woman of Ohinemutu, when walking over the ancient pa'and burial place on Muruika Point, behind the Maori Church, thoughtlessly took out a cigarette to smoke. Before she had time to light it, she remembered that she was on tapu ground, and refrained from smoking there, but she broke the cigarette and allowed some of the tobacco to fall on the ground. This unintentional and trifling breach of the unwritten law brought serious consequences. When she left the sacred ground she smoked the portion of the cigarette she had kept, but her conscience was uneasy, as she related afterwards. That night the retribution of the gods fell upon her. She felt a sudden pain shoot up her right arm, and she knew her punishment had begun. In a little while the arm had swelled up to twice its ordinary size, and. she was in agony.

It was no use calling in a pakeha doctor. She asked her' family to send for her elder brother, .who. lived somo miles away. He was a wise man, learned -in the olden rites. He came and dealt with the case according to the manner of the tohunga, with the ancient recitals and magic touch. The relief was speedy; the woman's suffering was relieved, and her arm soon was down to its normal condition; her fears vanished. She had suffered her punishment; that offence had been expiated.

Who can explain the exact physical and mental processes which operate in such a case as this ? We know a little of the influence of mind over matter, but science has only touched the fringe of the problem. To the old Maoris, however, the inter-relation of the two incidents, the infringement of the tapu and the sudden illness in the. night, is perfectly clear.

As for' the power of makutu, there are still very many Maori people who believe that men and women with uncanny powers practise their magic arts and possess the keys of life and death. The tohunga makutu still exists. I know several men who in their own belief and that of their people are possessed of unusual psychic mana, and who are on occasion called upon to use their powers to combat the evil spells of others, to cure mysterious illnesses, which are soon diagnosed by them as due to makutu. At the present time a certain old chief in the Arawa country is grievously concerned over the deaths in rapid succession of all his grandchildren. He and his friends attribute the visitation, otherwise inexplicable, to the evil magic spells and. incantations of an enemy. Thejv believe that the object of that jealous enemy is to wipe out the family, so that there will be none left to carry on the name. Influencing a Court. It is a very serious thing in Maoridom to accuse a person of: practising the arts of makutu. It is no matter for. ridicule. There have been actions for slander in tho law courts over such accusations, and the evidence adduced has revealed the strength of the popular belief in occult arts. There was a curious incident in a Native Land Court on the East Coast in 1916, when formal complaint was laid that one of the parties had approached an old woman tohunga, otherwise a witch, with a request that she should influence the Court's judgment in favour of the applicant. The judge perceived that he could not ignore this, and he felt it necessary to reassure the people by telling them . that they need not have any fear of the tohunga's influence over the Court or themselves, and warning them to pay no attention to claims of supernatural powers.

, There have been many more recent glimpses into the mental attitude of the Maori towards the cult of makutu. The young and educated generation may deride the mystery man's business, but events in the pakeha world frequently remind us that even in this material civilised age old and primitive influences are strong. The layer-on of hands still plies his trade, the strong mentality commands the weaker; great is the power of suggestion.