AO-TEA-ROA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 29 September 1926, Page 9

AO-TEA-ROA

THE MYSTERIOUS TAPU

PRIMEVAL RELIGION: OF'THE MAORI. A CODE OF THE LAW. 'Whatever .racial difference may have been developed between the various tribes, whatever internecine .struggles may .have set them one against the other, there was one bond of union among all the Maoris in New Zealand before the advent of the white man, and that was the mysterious tapu. It shall be my endeavour, writes Mr. I*. R., Waddy in the ’Lyttelton Times, to expound the principles of this rite, or-code, for it was both a religious’rite, and at the same time a code of law; and to remove some of tne fantastic ideas which have been conceived about it by early explorers. So intimately associated with the reUnion of the Maori was the tapu, .hat itTis essential that some little explanation of the religion of the early Maori should) preface iany dissertation upon the tapu. The religious, belief of the early Maori was similar to. that which is generally found among a race in its. infancy. It was pantheistic, land akin to the religion which existed in tlie cradle of civilisation before the time of Abraham. A multiplicity of gods were, believed’ to exist, and these .resembled the Elobim or. nature gods of primitive man, rendered (to meet the monotheistic ideas of the Hebrews) as “God in the first chapter of Genesis, as opposed to Yiahweh or Jehovah, the One God of .subsequent times, and rendered “Lord God”, in the second chapter ot Genesis. . . These gods were supposed to he deceased arikis,. while the arikis were themselves supposed to be living goivs resident upSn tlie earth, and, consequently, these latter were not to bo killed by inferior men, but only by those who had more powerful atua ill them. ' . „ , , These gods, and deified ancestors ot living arikis, had a. priesthood on eai th for' communicating tlieir wishes to men, and they were believed to have other ambassadors on earth in the person of a long Lucifer, called W hiro, a sea monster, called Taniwlia, and various sorcerers, for the purpose ot punishing evil-doers. ■ Believing thait death was but a transition from the stage of a living ariki to the exalted position of a god in the world unseen, death had no terrors for the' ariki, who looked upon it in the light of the bursting of bonds preparatory to tlie entry. to Ins father’s home, and a participation m liis throne on. high. • Tlie religiin of the Maori was dictated bv two dominant ideas —wants and fears. To their godfe they prayed for food, and modern writers speak of the “barbaric” religion of these “savages,” overlooking the fact that we in our own day do precisely same, and probably with much less faith ana sincerity. . The Maoris believed m a future state of existence, and that there was a spirit within their bodies which never died. There were two distinct abodes for the spirits of the departed; one, called Rangi, was in the sky; the other, called Reinga, was-in the mnlst of the sea, its entrance being through •a cavern in a. precipitous rock near Cape Maria van Diemen. Although thev believed in a future spiritual existence, there was no trace of any belief in the resurrection of the body, nor was the Maori troubled with dreams of everlasting punishment, or with visions of a hell burning with five and brimstone. There was believed to be but one apartment in the submarine underworld, but the celestial abode insisted of ten dwelling-places, following out tlie Christ ion idea of there being many mansions. Between the lowest of these, and the earth, there existed a clear substance, probably akm to the modern conception of ether, wherein dwelt the nature gods of winds and storms. Above this dwe-lt the spirits of the de-

parted, while, in the highest place, lived the ■>gods themselves, but these were by no means all on a equality. The celestial ‘powers were not iutrequently at- war noth eiich. other, just as the Grecian and Roman deities waged.war with each other, and the mythological idea has survived , the ages so far as to find a place in our ancient and modern hymns of today. The priests were the ambassadors of tlie gods on earth, and these were selected from the noblest- families in the various tribes. Each tribe had several priests, and the offices of ariki and chief priest were generally united, and. hereditary. It must not be. imagined that the priests were rogues. Admittedly they were cunning, and played upon tne credulity of their followers by the use of ventriloquism, and such devices, but they entertained a. supersititious belief in their own powers. The priests wore no distinctive dress or badge of priesthood, they had no temples or sacred edifices, held no Saint’s Days, and observed no .holy days or set festivals, such as many modern sects do at the present day. They were, however, tlie- learned men of their day, and, in this respect, resembled the monks of the Dark Ages, and they maintained a high reputation for wisdom. Wo arc now in a position ,to discuss the subject' of tapu, and the connection between it and the primal religion of the Maori will soon become apparent, although many and diverse ideas and opinions have been expressed about it, some so fantastic as to bo absurd in the extreme, and not worthy of serious consideration. According to Montgomery’s “Religions, Past and Present,” Tapu represented the “maim” of the gods, which must not- be interferred with. Here wc see at the outset the prohibitory character of what was a powerful moral force. The “niaua” of the gods requires explanation. “Maiia,” says Air. Johannes C Andersen, the versatile and cultured libariaii and litterateur, “is a thing greatly to be desired,” and the author of “Maori Life in Ao-tea” proceeds to show that it embraces many ideas, such as luck, success, position, prestige, power and influence. The victorious ariki, who had slain numbers, and swallowed their eyes, and drunk-their Wood, was believed to have thus added the spirits of his victims to his own, and so increased his own “mana.” The grand idea, of the tapu was to perpetuate, and foster, this belief. Pie Maori “tap a” is only one form of a. word which is common in Polynesian. Melanesian and Micrones'ian languages. The Tongan form, “tabu,” was first met with by Captain Cook in 1777, and front his narrative of ],is vovages the word became known in England, where it became Anglicised into “taboo.” In Hawaii it is “kapu:” in Fiji and some ot the Solomon Islands it is “tamlm.” Even the French have adopted the -word as “tabou.” ’ In Captain Cook’s “Voyages to the Pacific” (1785) we find the following passages : “Not- one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of anything. . . On expressing mv surprise at this, thev were all tattoo, as they- said.; which word has a. very comprehensive meaning, but, in general, signifies that a. thing is forbidden. AYhy they “were laid under such restraint, at present, was not expected. _ ' . ■ ~ “When anything is forbidden to be eat (sic), or made use- of, they, say that it is taboo.” • It is really remarkable how quickly tlii s word, picked up from the South Seas, became incorporated into the "English language. We come across it in Charlotte Bronte’s “.Shirley” (1849): “Tlie gentleman .. . regarded me as a fabosed woman.” In “The Athenaeum” of March 17, 1906, we read: “We doubt whether M. Rein•ieh is entirely aware of the difficulty and complexitv of the problems of the taboued animals in Leviticus.” The Sanskrit deviation of the Maori word “tapu” is believed to be “ta, meaning “to mark,” arid “pu,” meaning “to purify.”