LIFTING A TUPU

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1931, Page 19

LIFTING A TUPU

A COSTLY. VIOLATION >

(By "Ajax.")

"Legends of.the Maori." By thcHou. Sit Maui Pomaro, K.8.E., etc^and '•■■ -.Tames Cowan, in collaboration. ■•■lllustrations ■by-'-Stuart Peterson. Vol. -I.: Mythology, Folk-lore, Tra- '■ .' ditiori, -and- Poetry. By .Tames ' ■ Cowan. Fine Arts (N.Z.), Ltd. , j. .■'■ [Fourth, Notice.] '." ..' '. :«What the exports would probably 'in regarding as the most valuable chapter in Mr. Cowan's first .Volume ,is, entitled ''Tho Bite of the with the sub-title "The Carved' House ana the Two Priests: A Ta'Je of Tapu." The Kawa-Wharewas a -sbtt of'- house-cleaning and' housewarming * ceremonial which had to bo performed to freoa new house from'the 5-tap.u'"that might otherwise be fatal 'id-the occupants. As-Mr; Cowan explains in "The Maori: Yesterday and T6-3ay," this ritual for the removal of tapu was doubly necessary; if the building included any : new carving. ~'.."'..■':...'.. /*..;.'" *; ■ '.'■ * , : -'.. / ■■■A "■special tapu,:: he there writes, attaches to the; timbers'of a newly-carved house, because the trees which have been felled to'build"the Svhare are the sacred children of-Tane-Mahuta, the God of the torest, and because they have been carved-into ■ the" seniblauce of revered ancestors and iiito representations of- national and tribal deities. The tapu must be laid, its dangerous • powera averted before the house ■<san be'.pecupied safely. . ... . - . " >\.' peculiar sanctity., surrounds all. the oijerat.idi-is'"of constructing an-important carved house,"'from- the felling- of the tree to "(he- day that -the last worked'slab is •■placed iti position. The carvers of to-, dor are very careful not to infringe _apy of the unwritten*laws, of-the- art and of tapu.-"Neither.they nor any of, the people .-would ever-think of .using the.chips-and jsliaviiigs'from thei carvings for a fire for ' rSoUitig. food; neither ■ will a workman •bioif'thc shavings'• off while' he is ehiagea -with1. bfliseT and mallet- and axe. The' bi'e"ktb^'pollution; he- tufh« the tiny ■bee on -it* ttde-jand shakes th« shavings off, or brushes them away. ' -.... v , ''.'■. .•; : .-•; r*tri. ' '.'4-- '. • .'■ .-■-'■ . ;."\V!iat-makes illi'.iGowan's chapter- in the'''Legends of "'the Maori" of unique value is that the elaborate ritual.there described was . ; -...-.. ,:- the last Kawanga-Whare ceremonial, performed by-the priests.of the old school of sacred, wisdom, tho last, ritq-of its class 'in which the' tphunga Maori carried., oiit .their duties .wi.th'. ; tlie .complete Karakia '.of, tho"..atcien,t,"religion. ; ;.; ,;■ -./. ' ".•.':UiiltK<l -ithe 19>th. century Christians ■whom Matthew Arnold describes as Light half-believers of our casual creeds, these -men -had., * ..complete., faith i» the efflcacx,.pi..the spells ana incantations of-tMi-old-time jritual. They were spirit-perfect..o&_le.9S.. .than letter-per-fect in'their parts. ""' f' count':'fniyself' tortuiiate,' " says'; Mr. £owan, to have! been an eye-witness of that taingakawa episode, for never, again can fiuch a picture be Bee^- prayer* aria spells" are' not forgotten; there are tfsrtein .-adepts among: the elder,-Maon .who ,oan.. wite them. .....But the . men of_. the irrue" priestly order" have all passed to the "Spirittand; ■• the fdhuwga' Maori' can.:no more djyjne^;^1 .;..{.■; -.-.;, -.:.' ■ •-. •. ; v:. ;■:" ■■■:,■■; >;>:/■■ *i • ;"i *?. v ;■."•''■ ' .'.-■■■ ' ' .-- .for. the pe9ple,'hoVever,; there was Home'tjiing'rnore tragic about this celebration tha'n'-'.that it-was a last tribute r tKi:^ff'K^'.Wom.''Jho.;lasr tohnn^M, ''pr/W^^l^.Vchooll'""'^'':...'■'"'...,'..'.." •vIfcTOS,-'Wy« ilc.'CQwan, nomere-formal service-,- of ■ -kwakia ,to, ■ the gods ot ,-.Jtne Maori." 'There was death- in.; the, : bact ground; and the fatal spell was to cos^ mote,. Uyes still -before'toe ..tapu wasUp: pcased.-So said Tangata Maori. :."ItiiHtt'^Fe.,' ;Waru> formerly. <mcl.o£ .Te KootiV-; besf ";flgfiting men, who had started 'th.eCfro.uble. He was': building 4 new house in' honour of his-young wife, ana the carvers were, engaged in ah aping the totara riabs into the forms of gods an^h^roes when He Waru committed the inadvertent-.but none the less terrible;;..blunder of -entering the partly-flnisaed house smoking. ■ TobacA;Mr. Cowan tells us, is food; •molting, 'id • kai-paipa, orVpipe-Wting. No on* may'eat or smoke in'^a sacred place, or near •cwdpiblema; : *n4 the caivcr's%ork isj'as we have ieen-jipecially, aMiired. ;:Te Waru was Warned by aj^'oW"toßtinga thit if after Ihii b vfea6h v 'dttapu he proceeded with the building, he or some of his family ■wouia die. But-'he. persisted, and not ling afterwards hislwife died. • '■ ••.•;*H#; .' "',"# ';;.. .•• • . ' ■ Th.e_ho'iise-carving wa"s"'tlien,stopped, bn£.af tfir..^e..\Y.3 l iru. had..mar.ried .again and the fear of tapu had passed it was resumed.-;Hardly,-had this been done when the second wife .died. Years had passed after this1 Second warning, and a third wife -had.-born©..him children before Te Waru set the carvers to work ■tyga,uif -Theft ''the'- heavy' hand 'of 'Aftua" (misforturie)1: was .laid "upon hjm"orice;more. The death of his third .wife and one or two-chiidren was proof '■poaltiV.e'.that-' the "power behind the "trtpu wai not to bo trifled with .any Tpiigcr. Tho work'was again stopped, ,ait(V this time for'good. The- finished and unfinlsh'ed slabs and posts were re.ra6ved out-of harm's way to a distant ■patt.bf .the' kai'nga, and afterwards— ireariy" fifty years since the beginning ot the -v/ork—they'were handed oycrto""Tare," the" White' Tohunga"~the Maori name for Charles E. Nelson— vifto: undertook:, to' supply other carv> ings and complete the house. ■ ■ ..Xh'A-hovtse^.said Tai;e T to. .Te Waru, shall be the finest carved house ever built by"ithc-.:MaoTi, and- the tapu removed from it l)y"th'e"'most''wise and skilful of all our Maori .priests. — - •••- ---;: -r-; I ■■■■•:* ■■;■ '■...-* • • '.' * ..•--. - T4re";was: as" good as' his word-. cln 'three -years --the "house was furnished •^with new carvings and finished by the ■'•■three .best'wood-workers .that the Arawa -could supply, and by that time, says Mr; GoVr.a'n,- it: was ... . ■ ],jiioi:h'..c.9nipktcly carted than any other .JVlaori" building before or since. >i]]cse 'carvings, with their repregcustations of Jegend and history, of gods ; and heroes, of fabulous monsters and risos and fah'tails" and other, small birds * are described by Mr. Cowan with a detailed accuracy which cannot be rerproduced or '-^unimariscfd here. The saitie remark applies to the minuteness "with which he records every step in the .elaborate ritual attendant on thelifting ■■of the tapu. It is equally certain that ..what Mr. ■ Cowan saw and heard". in rMarQhi 1900, can" never be seen and heard' again, and, that the ' account .: which'he. has given of it in nine quarto pages wist become a "locus classicus" ph'-.the.subject". .. ~'■-. ... •• ': -.' -■•■■ :•■♦:■' ".. ' *■■ '. * -It js' hardly necessary to say-that Mr. .QoWin^ scientific interest m" the "grsijievent1, flaps' not lead Tijin to over--71 %pk'its "dramatic aspects; "Jlven sifter, ■ 'the iif tingf of the fepu; 'Hhegoas,'-' ho " 'asyi;; '■" were '. not - appeased.'' l Two j ''tribes had taken :part in it-^-tho- Arawa 'Wtl' the Kgati'Awa, aiij each had sup'''^iiftd^p'iie of t'he.fwo renowned tphungas, Svho' coiiduiitccV'th-f! cerembiiy.' Of these, one died suddenly olglit days afterwards, tiro'-■victim,' as it was commonly supposed, of the counter-incantations of his rival, or possibly of «omo slip or otnisgion of his own in the rocital of

Karakia. Tho"other" tphuuga . was not long in following him to the Maori Spiritland. The. death of «ach; was due, as most of their cou;fttrynie« believed, "to the makutu, the wizazdly powers, of the other."■"•"■"■:.■'.; "■..;='. i '"""1' r :»:: . .-* ■■ •; # - - :. :: And old Te Waru? He was-satisfied, Mr. Cowan writes; the tapu was laid forever. ;He had himself been dubious about his .friend Tare Nelson building the hotisu and using those tapu carvings, for the tohungaof his tribe had told him mauy years ■ ago. that mb"re victims would be required before the tapu wos propitiated; and he feared that Tare or his wife —whom the Maori called Kura-ngaituku, because of her fondness for pet birds— would dip. But whea, the news came of the deaths of the two tohuuga who had bedevilled each other, Te Waru breathed freely again. .