RAW MATERIAL OF HISTORY

Evening Star, Issue 14515, 5 November 1910, Page 12

RAW MATERIAL OF HISTORY

THE HOCKEN LIBRARY. A SKETCH OP ITS CONTENTS. [By Annie E. Trimble.] VII. MOKOMOKAI. We can now understand how. highly prized as a fine Moko to its possessor And if desirable in life, it was equally so when lifo was over; for.'while untatued heads were simply kicked aside on the battlefield, the head with a beautiful Moko would be neatly taken off and preserved. All of which was exceedingly gratifying both to the survivors and to tho spirit of the head' 6 former possessor. Au exchange of heads, tho parallel of our exchango of prisoners of waff, frequently formed a part of the terms of peace, and so the precious head would be restored to its own people and treasured as a family relic. After the traffic in heads began there arose the danger of their falling into tho hands of traders. Tho fear of this happening gave the first great shock to tho practice of Moko. The chiefs began to abandon the custom and to confer that somewhat doubtful privilege upon their slaves instead. What the missionaries had labored in vain to accomplish, the traders. by their greed, quite unintentionally effected. The missionaries fulminated against tatu, and taught their disciples that it was a heathen and an immoral practice, and displeasing to Gcd (Leviticus, six., 28). This tailing to be efficacious, they prescribed the garments of civilisation, for most missions en tortaini a bias towards clothing more substantial than tatu. The Maori accepted the garments, and wore his Moko underneath. So the native, who had hitherto lived gladly and morally (according to his lights), with neither sense of sin nor superfluity of clothing, took on both with the dogmas of the pakeha. But Moko continued to bo practised. A custom which makes strong appeal to manly pride and feminino vanity dies hard. To men, Moko meant courage, endurance, dignity, and tank; to women, marriageableness or marriage. The flood of modern commerce and civilisation has almost swept away these mate records of a past era. Most of the magnificent old heads have long since tieparted to To lieinga ; s::m> are in museums and private collections; tome (a few) are still left on the broad shoulders of old . chiefs. Their number grows fewer yearly. Soon Moko will be a forgotten art, remembered only by the collectors and suchlike enthusiasts; "to the general public re- ' called only by a sight of a Mokomokai, or : smoked head, on a stand or shelf in a ! museum. These heads we owe to the fore- ] thought of the Maori, who had a quaint ' little habit of decollating the heads of ■ both friends and enemies and of preserv- ' ing them by a process peculiar to himself. J Fortunately, heads were " tapu," and were therefore not considered good eating even by that non-vegetarian community. The preservation of their own chiefs' heads was a phase of that ancestor-worship common to humanity. On great occasions the heads would bo brought out and set up with many rites, and suitably wept over and belauded. It was anoft-recuTring ] excuse for indulgence in the luxury of ' woo. The young chiefs had to parade be- ■ fore them when making their earliest at- . tempts at oratory, that essentially savage < art. The youths would tell how bravely . these forefathers had lived and how splen- , didiy died, and their heads had not fallen s into the hands of enemies. Surely no J other audience could havo more stirringly \ awakened the springs of eloquence. We j who have listened in much discomfort to , the artless first attempts of nervous and J ambitious young men, both from the plat- j form and pulpit, would eagerly welcome \ the adoption of a similar custom among6t , the pakehas. 1 The unredeemed heads of enemies were stuck up on pole 3 round the pah, a gruesome spectacle of warning to outsiders. , They were subjected to the greatest contamely. They wcro placed just where the fumes from the women's cooking fires , would Teach them, than which few worse ' insults could be offered. Or some fierce , old dame would stick a head on one of ' the corner-poles of her mat-weaving, and , beguile the hours of weaving in cursing it , in original and flowery phrases. But these \ simple and inexpensive pleasures were • cheerfully foregone when the natives dis- ( covered that heads were the most acceptable sort of payment that could bo made . for the indispensable muskets and gun- , powder. Then, indeed, " loose notions | about heads" were rife. No man, not a ] great chief, who was handsomely tattooed, j was safe for an hour. He would be ] watched till ho was off his guard, then , knocked on the back of tho neck, killed, j ind his head sold to the trader. j Tho first Mokoed head was brought to j England by Sir Joseph Banks in 1770. i He writes that " the Maoris showed great , reluctance in soiling it to him," an admir- ] able sentiment which they speedily over- j came. First, the heads of enemies were , parted with; then the heads of prisoners, i both brown and white, after being suitably treated. Then slaves wero admitted to the privilege from which they had hitherto been debarred, and the best-look- ] ing of them were Mokoed Bret and then ' decapitated; or the process was reversed, nnd their heads wero cut off first, and } then treated to a post mortem Moko. ' Probably, though life is sweet, the slave would cave voted for. tho latter, if his ; opinion had been consulted. He would thus escape the pains of anticipation and ] the agonies of the operation. Not only ' individuals, but tribes perished in the efforts made to supply the demands of the j traders. When the current stock became , scarce, a murderous attack upon a neighboring tribeora predatory excursion would j be undertaken expressly for the purpose of , renewing the stock of Mokoed heads. Eire- • arms became plentiful, and so, too, did j heads. They fell in price, and tho , museums and private collections of Europe were well stocked. Neither New Zealand ]:or Australia has anything like so fine an assortment as may be seen in Continental i and American collections. i Between 1320 and 1830 the traffic was < briskest. New South Wales was the great < market. The first head was sold there in < 1311. It had been stolen from, a Foveaux 1 Strait citizen. Nobody knows how many ! more found their way there during the I next twenty years. Polack tells us that 1 "baked heads were entered into the books 1 of Customs of Sydney .under the head of ! imports." The trade became a scandal, 1 but in spite of the noble efforts of the < missionaries it could not bo stopped. Like tertain other threatened trades, it brought j to the traders quick and large profits. ' In 1831 those most interested in maintaining the trade overreached themselves, and so came tho end. The master of a trading ' schooner purchased from tho Bay of Islands ■ natives a quantity of the heads of theirslain enemies. The schooner shortly afterwards ( called in at the very place where the heads ; •were all known. A number of natives came aboard and were shown the treasures, which were emptied from a sack on to the deck by the master. The commotion and indignation immediately resulting caused the schooner to get away as quickly as possible, being followed by shots from the shore. Arriving safely in Sydney, the master sold his heads and indiscrectly told his story. It reached the ears of Governor Darling, who instantly issued his proclamation forbidding the traffic, and imposing a fine of £4O on anyone importing a head, also gazetting the name of the importer. So heads became contraband and the traffic died out. In a note on the margin of his book General Robley has written: "The last head brought from New Zealand to England that I can trace was fin 1857, a specimen from Taranaki, and it is now back in the Cantermry Museum."

With his customary thoroughness when dealing with any matter of interest to New Zealand, the late Dr Hocken parchased from General Eobley the wood and copper blocks (nearly two hundred) used in illustrating Ma great work; and ateo the general's own interleaved copy of the book. The interleaves are fairly well filted»"WTtb- aaxnotatioos and corrections, the

result of twelve additional years of investigation and research. A great number of letters passed between the two old friends on this subject of mutual interest. Those, the corrected book and tho blocks, are now in the Hocken Wing. It was the doctor's intontion to bring out a second edition of this valuable book, the unique record of a vanishing art. Possibly with all this valuable matorial to facilitate it, tho work may yet be undertaken by some other hand. There can bo but little additional information henceforward to bo obtained; for, with tho/-paesing of each grand old chief, passed one of the last chances of adding to our knowledge of Moko. Oi tho method of preserving heads, much has been written. Briefly, according to lUitherford, it was this : the skull was completely emptied, the eyes and tongue extracted, alter which the nostrils arid the whole interior of the head were 6tuffed with flax. The head was then wrapped in a quantity of green leaves, and-in this stale exposed to the lire until well 6tcamed. The loaves were then removed, and tho head was hung up to dry in smoke, causing tho llesh to become tough and hard. The hair and teeth wore preserved, and the i'acc-moko was seen as well as in a living person. The head thus cured would, if not exposed to damp, .Jong nuvifain its appearance. Cruise- speaks of "a current of hot air" as the drying medium; but Ilobiey decides in favor of the smoke < f a wood fire.. It is probable- that various artists varied their treatment in order to acquire an enviable distinction, and also probable that extra care and a more elaborate system of treatment would bo given to the more distinguished subjects. I'olack tells us that theembaliners "sewed together the lips of chiefs of their own tribe, to give them a pleasant and pouting appearance: but in the heads of enemies taken in battle, the lips were stretched and sewn apart, making the features as hideous as possible" Judging from the drawn-back lips and exposed '.'learning teeth, the mokoed head in the "llocken Wing fell by the hand of an enemy. Its long, line, brown features are adorned with beautiful spiral lines, ami the short, curly black hair looks every bit as vital as it "did on the day that that .Maori "passed out.'' In the samo case, but behind tho head, is a plaster cast of a Maori face, made, colored, and tattoed by General Roblcy himself. Ho thought of making plaster duplicates of the whole of his heads; but found both the work and tho cost too great to be worth his while; and Dr Hocken became the owner of on© of the few that was finished. Of all the treasures gathered here, none brings us more sharply in touch with tho past than tho sight of these'mokoed heads. Hero we end our glance through the Hocken Wing. All wo have noticed has but touched "tho veriest surface. The depths are left still unexplored. An enormous mass of miscellaneous papers and manuscripts, perhaps the most valuablo part of the collection, yet remains untouched, unbound, unclassified, and uncatalognod. Only when the wholo is easy of access can tho value of this magnificent gift be approximately estimated. The year's will tell its worth.