THE UREWERA MAORIS.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 219, 13 February 1897, Page 2

THE UREWERA MAORIS.

A Peculiar Race. The following co'raplimentary notice of Mr Elsdon Best's pamphlet " In Ancient Maori Lund " appears in last Saturday's Star. We extinct it in its entirely because we think that it shows more clearly than we could ourselves the motive of Mr Best's work. "Wo can only add in acknowledgement of the compliment paid to us that the little pamphlet in question is the first book (if we may claim the title for it) published in this region of hot springs and geysers. "A pamphlet which gives some very interesting details of the history and old beliefs of the TJrewera or luhoe natives who inhabit the country lying between Galatea and Lake AVaikaremoana, and inland of Wha L atane, on the East Coast has lately been written by Mr Elsdon Best, Government agent and storekeeper at Te Whaiti, in the Urewera Country, and published at the Hot Lakes Chronicle Office, Rotorua. Mr Best has spent considerable time in studying the peculiar traits and eventful history of the Tuhoe people, who are to-day the most primitive section of the Maori race in New Zealand. Mr Best considers that the Urewera are a far older race of inhabitants of this country than the ordinary Maori, and in fact arrived here long before the historic Maori canoes from Hawaiiki. He says : ' Since I have been brought into contact with the descendants of the original people of this district, I have come to the conclusion that the primary ancestors of the tangata whenua of New Zealand came from a totally different part of the Pacfic to that which sent forth the fleet of canoes known among ethnologists as the historic migration. Not only were they of a different grade of culture, but many of their tupunas did not come from Hawaiki, but from Mataora, which is a different place, and that they were descended from Maui. It is certain that this (Urewera) district was populated by a numerous people at the time when the Maori arrived, when Mataatua and Te Arawa ended their long voyage on the shores of the Bay of Plenty. Most of natives at present living in the district have a heavy strain of aboriginal blood in them, and although many of the younger men deny the existence of the tangata whenua, yet the old men are well versed in the traditions of the remote past and speak with pride of Toi and AWa, of Haeana and Tama-ki-hiku-rangi. It would be interesting to know what peculiarities are derived from the ancient people of the land, peculiarities of speech, custom and appearance seen among the Tuhoe' people. Whence comes the Want of the pronounced nasal that obtains among these people and the roanyjmcient words still preserved by them and not known in other parts of the land ? Prom whence come the numerous " urukchu," the fine featured, redhaired people seen among the bapus of the interior, and Tama-kaimoana of Maungapohatu and the Ngai-TawhaM of Buataihuna ? Prom Avhence is derived

that old-world custom winch obtained iil I the Land of the Ur<-v t Ta since '.he days before that tune ; the worship of winch is as old as the oldest race and as far spreading as the great sun myths —the custom which was probaV.v one of the earliest forms of religion—the cult of the phallic symbol ? Many such thoughts come to one when looking upon this singular tribe, and I hold it as a fac; that no more interesting people exist south of the line than the Tuhoe of tip UVewera Country. ' The state of isolation in which tbes s people have lived for many centuries has preserved the peculiarities Vhioh tbey probably derive from " the n)ultitude of Foi," and it is certain that a close study of Iheir dialect, customs a'nd legends would amply reward the ethnolojnst—if he does not come too late. The descendants of Tuhoe- potiki are the most conservative of Maoris, and never tire ci telling the wondrous tales of old, of the old warriors who' lhade history on the battle grounds of Ruatahuna and Te Wairoa, of Te Papuni and Te Whaiti-nui a-Toii They tell in serious tones of the formation of the Waikaremoana Luke, of Mahu and Haumapuhi; and of the huge Taniwha Ruamano at Te Papuni, of the enchanted dogs at Taneatua, and the woman demon, Hine-rttarungi, who appears in the form of a bird and whose appearance is a sign .of death.' Two of the most interesting chapters i:i Mr Best's book refer to the relic of phallic worship amongst the Vieworu. There are two sacred hinau trees, one called 'Te Iho-o Katakn,' which is at Ruatahuna, and the other "Te Hunahuna- a-Po,' at the Horomanga Creek. Until recent years barren women who desired children were accustomed to visit these trees and embrace them. One side of the former tree is called the taha-tane (niale side), and the other taha-wahiiie (female side). The Ngati-manawa and Ngati-apa people still retain a belief in these tapu trees. After giving particulars connected with the sacred hinaus, which Mr Best has been the first to investigate, he remarks : ' The cult of the phallic symbol has never, I think, been traced to New Zealand, but the foregoing item will serve to prove that most ancient form of worship to have been introduced here at some remote period, either by the ancestors of the present race of natives some twenty generations ago, or by their predecessors in the days of Tiwakawaka, or Maku, or Toi. There is no doubt that phallic worship was one of the earliest forms of religion practised by primitive man, and even now it retains a strong hold among more than one oultured nation of the East. The traces of it are even yet noted in Western Europe, and it has probably been carried from the Asiatic fatherland by the ancestots of the Maori, far and wide over the great ocean during many centuries of wandering, and finally expires as To Iho o Kataka of the Urewera and Te Hunahuna-a Po of the descendants of Apa of old/