IN ANCIENT MAORILAND.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 178, 29 April 1896, Page 3

IN ANCIENT MAORILAND.

n t oTE s COIXECTED FROM THE DESCEJT-''n-KWCI-IAIKIVALLKYAXnTIIKI RBv . v COUNTRY, AXD FiiOM THE MATA- ',, s Tmbes. jiy ELSDOX ItEST.

(iivon by members of theNgafa-Mana- " V„ :1 ("i-"vVhare, Tuhoe, Ngati-Apa, Voiti-Awa, Ngati-Hamua and Patubeuheu Tribes.

NGA MARAMAHA O MaTAATUA."

w o tes on the Ngati-Ira, Ngati-Apa, ' \-,-;it:-Whare, Ngati-Manawa and Tuf„~- Tribes, with a sketehof the ancient Jlaruiwi. CHAPTEE IX.—(Continued.) Tuhoe on Te Urewera. The bulk of the Urewera (as the 'f ~]„„: are generally termed) reside at Jhiatabunn and its vicinity, which districl eoutains many old pas and I ■ j, -grounds. In former times they m fo many forays against distant tribesand thought little of marching! j,, mid-winter across the snow-covered mountains. To enable them to do this tliey wore sandals .(tumata-kuru) I formad of a netted fabric and stuffed with moss (rimurimu). To collect their TVuinois from scattered hamlets, .rben threatened by attack, they used the huge war trumpet (pu-tatara) and also made use of signal fires or. the hilltops. A favourite proverb —"Tho eves of the fisherman are closed, but the eye-i of the fighter are open " will tend to show that it was a difficult matter to catch the Urewera unaware, and an enemy trying to surprise them at night was pretty sure to be met by the booming of the (palm). These gongs, which were formed of Diatiiii, were suspended between two uprights upon the watch tower (puhara) situated within tho earthworks (maioro) of thejfort (pa). The watchman (kai-mntaara) occupied tho platform at night and struck the gong at intervals to let any prowling enemy know that tho garrison were on the nlert. He also beguiled the weary hours of the night by chanting some of the numberless watch songs (wha-ka-araara) known to the Maori. The Tuhoe loved fighting and en-! tored into it with his whole soul, even from the days when Tawhaki, son of Awatoiie, came from Whakatane to liuatahuna and destroyed the Ngatijln : nd Ngapotiki tribes who formerly held the land as far Maungapohalu. Hero is another of their proverbial savings :—" Do not make your bed too comfortable, 10-t you be overcome by deep; rather sleep on rough ground that you may awaken easily and thus escape the war'pariy." As the Tuboe of old were inured to hardship, so were they accustomed to hard fare and the old men inform me that they thought littlo of living on one meal a-day. Possibly their most prized food w.i- the so called hinau bread, a heavy pasty mass made from the steeped berries of the hinau tree, hence the 1 -aying, " If you awaken me let it bo forte whntu turei a Eua." Another and important article of food was the fern-root (aruhe), the meflof which was made into cakes (komeke). The saying for this is, "Te manawanui o Whete." Whote was an ancestor .vlio relied on the aruhe as a strength-giving food. Trior to going into a fight he would eat two large komeke of fern-root. They also had dweet potato (kumnra), thehue(gourdj, the perei and the indigenous taewa- - tap .pa. parareka, aud pokerekahu. The Tuhoe tribe are largely descended from the original people of the land and this combined with their long isolation in a mountainous country causes them to be a singularly interesting people and well worthy of study. To the old men of Ngai-Tawhaki and Tama-kabmoana am I indebted for many interesting items in regard to these singular people, but the relation thereof must wait until such time a* wo shall endeavour to collect some more " fragments of M itnatua." Having lately visited the Tuhoe people in their secluded kaingas I am free to confess that the hapus of Euatahuna, Te Umuroa and Maungapohatu contain some of the most interesting types to be found in this country, and which may be ethnologically divided into —1. The Polynesian. 2. the Melanesian. 3. The Mongolian. 4. Tho Urukehu. The Polynesian type we know well, it can be studied in any nitive kainga ; but there is a fair, large featured type which I have often noted among the Ngati-Raukawn. There are many of these among the "Urewera. I have seen them in hundreds on the beach at Apia in the Saino.m Group, and the pjhn groves of Tutuila kuow them full well. The Melanesian or Papuan type is most pronounced among the Tuhoe. Some of these have tho we.-tern features and huge, outstanding mop of Lair so well known in Fiji and the Western Islands. I had previously seenthistypeat TeEeinga in 1 875 when some Tuhoe were on a vi-it to NgatiKowhatu of that place. Some of them looked as if they bad just stepped out of the plates in "Belcher's Voyages " It would be most interesting to know if these types, 2, 3, and 4 are derived from the aboriginal people ( I am inclined to think that they are) and if so whence came the marked difference in the types. Was there a pre- Toi race of Melanesian extraction occupying this strange laud in the dim past? If so,whence the Mongolian aud Urukehu. the third or Mongolian type is in marked contrast to the others. It is the Mongolian with the heavy features

and sulken exprcssioa of a. Klamath Indian. You may pee them ou any reservation from Cups Mendocino to Alaska. Tlie Haiilas of Queen Charlotte Islands, with their Polynesian c irving and wbakapakoko—there you have the Mongolian typo of the Urewera people. The Umkehu.—This is the most interesting and singular type to be found in New Zealand. People will tell you they are albinos. It is not so. The albino I have met among Anglo-Saxon and Castilian peoples and :imong the negroes of the Mississippi bayous They are a freak of Nature, a sickly and weak-eyed caricature of humanity and abhorred of the true ethnologist. The urukehu of the Urewera are a distinct people, a white, fine featured, in a word, an Aryan people. There are a goodly number of the.-e white mountaineers in Tuhoe-land, aud the old men inform me that they have always been there, always dwelt a mong the darker people, from remote times. Some say they are descended from the Turehu, a race of white people who originally occupied this island in times long past away. In later times these Turehu appear to have obtained as a species of wood-elves or fairies who dwelt in forests and on mountain ranges and were often heard talking and singing, aud who wrought strange tricks unon the luckless individual who offended them, as witness the sacred totara tree which stands uear I'e Ana-o-Tawa on the shores of the Sea of Waikare—for should any man dare to molest that tree he was surely maltreated by the Turehu and l'atupaearehe of the Great Forest of Taue. Evidently a mythical race the e Turehu, but who can tell what sub-stratum of fact may underlie these wild legends. For the urukehu is in evidence. He camo to stay. He is a mystery to his compatriots and a thing of joy to the anthropologist. Probably the best specimen I saw was at Kuatahuna—a young woman of some twenty years of age. We were seated in the "marae" before To Puhw>>Mataatua, the great Council House of the Tuhoe tribe. The people gathered aiouud us to view the pakehas, the pakehas from Tarapounamu, from To Whiiti-nui—a-Toi. It was quite an event in their lonely mountain valley. We spoke of many things, of the days of old, of the Iho-o-Kataka, that blessing to childless homes. And of the brave days when Taue-atua and lra-kewa and Tawhaki and the host of old time heroes of Mataatua were in the flesh and performed great deeds in the World of Light. And the faces around me lighted up with pleasure and the tribal pride of the mountaineer. A primitive people and a kindly, these Tuhoe of Kuatahuna. who gave unto us their best whare and such food as they had, the fruits of their soil and fresh milk and the bread of the hinau. And as we talked of the brave days of old I looked at the faces around me, the faces I had seen long years since in the redwood forests of Humboldt Bay, on the beach at Honolulu, beneath the cocoa palms of Samoa. Aud the urukehu was as the remnant of a longlost race and I could not place her in any of the old but well-remembered camps. For the mass of gold red hair took mo far away to the land of Thor and in tho small mouth, thin, i.ps i.nd .straight nose I saw an Arya of the Aryans, the strong, slightly prognathous jaw located her among the ancient Celts, the Esthonians of the Baltic, But her surroundings were Polynesian as her languago, The Urukehu is a Sphinx. [TO TIE CnjJTIVTJVD.]

gave rao mediemos, but I got only temporary ease from tbem, and in a short time was as bad as before. All tiiis time I was so nervous and depressed that I had no desiro for eompauy. <)n the contrary. I seemed to want to be alone with rny misery. Even a knock at. the door frightened me, as though I expected bad news, yet I did not really. My nerves and fancies ran away with my knowledge and judgment. Thousands of women who have suffered in this way will understand what L mean. " Year after year I remained in this condition, aud what I went through I cannot put in words, nor do I wish to try. It will answer the purpose to say that I existed thus for eieveu -snd a half years, as much dead as alive. I spent pounds on pounds in physic, but was not a whit the better for any of it. " In October, 1892, a book was left at our house, aud I road in. it cases like mine being cured by Mother Sei gel's Syrup. I got a bottle from Mr liardel, the chemist, in Normanton Street Derby, and when I had taken this medicine for a few days, my appetite was better and I had less pain. I kept on taking it, and soon my food agreed with me aud 1 gained strength. " After this I n>~ -r looked behind me, but steadily got stronger and .stronger. When I had taken three bottles I was quite like a new woman. All the nervousness had left me, and my heart was sound as a bell. Since then I have enjoyed good health, and all who know me say rny recovery is remarkable. I am confident that Mother Seigel's Syrup was the means, in the hands of I'rovidence, of saving my life; aud out of gratitudo, and in hope of doing good, 1 freely consent to the publication of this sta ement. (Signed) (his) Ann Scuffham, Coopers Lane, Lacoby, Grimsby ( May Ist, 1895." This letter is endorsed by Mr William J. Tollerton, of tho same town, who vouches for the truth of what Mrs Scuffham has said, as he personally knew of thecircumstaucesof her illness at the time they occurred. No comment can add a jot to the force of this open, candid, and sinceie communication. "Whosoever reads it must needs be moved and convinced by it. The disease which filled this woman's life with pain and misery for nearly twelve years was indigestion or dyspepsia, in ailment sly and cunning as a snake in tho grass—and as dangerous. Send for the book of which Mrs Scuffham speaks, and read the symptoms in order that you may know what it is, an 1 Itow to deal with it. The book costs you nothing, yet it would be worth buying as if every leaf were hammered gold.