MAORI MEMORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

MAORI MEMORIES

ART OF BIRD CATCHING

(By

J.H.S.—Copyright).

Trampers who delight in finding the few remaining spots of native bush nestling in valleys and ravines near the mountains would have four-fold joy if they could only visualise the Maori methods of woodcraft. The haunts and habits of every kind of bird, the making of hooks or spears, nets or snares, and how to use them, constituted the education of every Maori boy and girl. It was also the greatest pleasure in life for the young pioneers of the 50’s and 60’s, as it now is their most vivid memory.

The kereru (pigeon) in size and numbers, flavour and tameness, together with its warm and handsome plumage for clothing, made it the prize objective. The hunter, concealed in the foliage of a fruiting forest tree, would set snares of which he held the strings and pulled them at the right moment. Or a wooden trough of water surrounded by noozes was placed among the miro berries. A skilled hunter would thus capture 200 a day. The kaka (brown parrot) needed a Gecoy bird which was trained (or tortured) to make shrill cries of distress, when a hundred sympathetic brethren would flock to its rescue, only to be seized by a hidden hand The tui, another imitation of the human voice and the cries of birds, would be similarly attracted and caught On winter nights its claws would be numbed by the frost and thus bound to the perch, when it was captured by a climber.

The putangitangi (Paradise ducks) swim in long parallel lines. A flax rope stretched across the lake, with suspended loops would catch them in scores. When moulting they are fat and almost featherless, so cannot fly. Trained dogs released from canoes would retrieve them in large numbers. Titi (mutton birds), attracted by night fires on their cliff haunts, would be caught by thousands in a long fishing net held in their line of flight toward the glare. The kiwi, a stupid wingless night prowler, was easily captured in the glare of a fire. ■ The weka or woodhen, a born fighter, like a mad bull or a “red fed,” was the victim of his own pugnacity. A red rag on a stick blinded him to every danger, and he was caught “fighting the flag” like De Valera.

The Great Bird. No evidence as to the century in which the moa finally died out is available. Rumours concerning the discovery of feathers have never been verified, though archaerologists have stated that discoveries of human hair and bird s feathers a thousand years old have been made in Egypt. It is known that bones of the moa with skin, tendons, and ligaments adhering have been found on or near the surface from which it would appear as though the bird had died not more than a hundred years before. The most numerous finds of bones are made in swamps where the wingless moas have apparently been overtaken by flood waters. The skull of a man was found in an old burial cave resting on a moa egg, which perhaps may have been carried there. None of the bones of the larger species of moa have been found mingled with those of man. though many of the smaller species are found near the the ancient ovens. Scientists have traced the remains of many distinct species. Feathers of the moa are not mentioned as heirlooms, on weapons or mats, nor do legends include its flesh in the lists of food, though there are many such references to that of the tui, kaka, kereru and other birds. Old chiefs declare that the moa was destroyed in a legendary deluge “ten generations past.” A Maori proverb refers to the moa as T- Manu hunua a Tane (the birds hidden in the dark forests of the God).. Allusions in story, proverb, and song of three hundred years ago indicate that the disappearance was an ancient occurrence. “Lost as the Moa” was a familiar saying of a past age. There are many references in the language to the moas, which presumably are as old as the race. Tatara moa (the prickly bramble) may mean the spear points of the moa. Moawhr.ngo a place nairie (hoarse voice of the moa); where numerous bones were found gives some idea of its once familiar cry. The Sacred Law of Tapu.

Had the pioneer missionaries and settlers realised how sacredly the Maori regarded his universal law of tapu, there would always have been peace and goodwill for us. We mistakenly treated it as a gross superstition, whereas it was the restraining influence which alone preserved this war-like race from extinction. Its effect upon the sacred relationship between man and woman was apparent in the health, vigour, and long life of both.

The meaning of tapu is really “prohibited,” rather than sacred or defiled commonly applied. Great chiefs and priests were tapu by reason of their ancestry, as also from innate wisdom concerning the welfare of the tribe. On the other hand the law often applied in a ridiculous way because the original purpose had been lost or obscured. There was a literal ceremony akin to our communion of flesh and blood, which to the savage partakers, was absolutely binding. For some obscure reason, cooking utensils and cooked food must on no account touch the head, the hand, or the house of a tapu person, who was fed through a narrow necked gourd. Prohibited traffic on a river or bush track made tapu by a tohunga for reasons disclosed secretly to the priest of a rival tribe, was always respected. Breaches of this sacred law would be punished by all tribes to whom it Became known. They would send parties to muru (plunder) the offending tribe, even if they had been unaware of the tapu. Tapu for touching the dead, except in war, was defilement of the worst kind. Die kai tango atua (the carrier to the spirit land), was the scapegoat of each village. Sickness and death, except in open warfare, were always attributed to a breach of tapu, which in these instances would be the sacred law of oranga (health). Even among these cruel savages the memory of Hine, the beloved daughter of Manaiapoto, was oreserved for centuries by the sacred law of tapu. Te Marae o Hine (the garden of Hine) in any place attacked is still sacred from intrusion.