Original Tale.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1775, 4 October 1862, Page 5

Original Tale.

MAHOE LEAVES,

Being a Selection of Sketches of New Zealand and its Inhabitants, and other matters concerning them. By Thomas Moser, Esq.

RUNANGA S

In the days of old, oro this delightful Island of New Zealand wits visited by war, and ths aboriginal inhabitants seized with the desire to have a king to reign over them, this term " runanga " was little known among ordinary folks. But no sooner does agitation commence and it becomes a matter of necessity, as well as policy, to discover the political bearing of the various tribes, than we hoar nothing but " ruuangus " going on all over the country. Archdeacon Williams translates the word " runanga " " a council," and illustrates it with the remark, " Kei te runanga to tatou hoa ;" Anglice: " Our friend is at the Council." Honorable members of the Colonial Parliament who profess great sagacity in -native matters, term a " runanga" a " conference," which certainly sounds more imposing if it in reality means no more than the other. A few years back we used to hear a meeting of tribes simply termed a " korero, " a " talk." or a " ko-raiti," a " committee ;" and it is dnly lately that our ears have been regaled with the high sounding term, " runanga." Dr. Baith in his " Africa," observes, " that the natives of warm climates do everything indolently, but talk," and his remark most certainly , holds good in these Islands and to the inhabitants of both colours. Among the Maories nothing can be done without a talk, and not only in ordinary discussion of a topic, but in a systematic churning of the subject over and over again, viewing it in every conceivable light and aspect. A marriage will not unoften cause them two or three nights discussion before they give their consent, the most ordinary commercial transaction involves an amount of talk most extraordinary, while the 3ale or lease of a small block of land, furnishes such a subject that it is quite ica possible to calculate the amount of wind spent on its consideration. As an old inhabitant of these islands, I, among others, was somewhat stunned when I met the tremendous accounts of runangas held over the counliy, and duly chronicled in the colonial papers, and fully determined that when an opportunity offered, I would make it my business to attend a runanga, and for the benefit of my friends, who might not have had that pleasure, to duly chronicle an account of the proceedings. It so happened, that when 1 was engaged on my inland station in the only occupation there that I did usually personally take part, that the door of the woolshed being suddenly darkened, I was somewhat surprised to see the cause of the obstruction of the light, was the familiar form of my old friend Jeremiah, who, as passing that way, deemed it a duty he owed to society to call in a friendly way, and, as a further duty to himself, to beg for some tobacco. 'Ihese two objects of his visit he •xpressed by a most comprohensive pantomimic performance ; raising his eyebrows to express his salutations, and tapping the bowl of his pipe with his forefinger nail to call attention to its emptiness. I very shortly discovered that he and his brother Ezekiel with their wives and children were all en route for a runanga to be held some thirty miles further on, and in consideration of my supplying him wilh a few figs of tobacco, he graciously invited me to attend it, as a further inducement observing, that there was to be a great " kaikai," or •'feast," and that hospitality was to be most lavishly bestowed on the visitors. Being fully determined that I would attend a runanga, I accepted the invitation, and promised to be there on the following day ; which proposition on my part thunderstruck my old friend, who led me to understand that I should be in plenty of time a week hence, as he had to pass several pahs on the road, at all of which there would be "koreros," and thefjourney itself would at least cost him tbree days travelling, on account of the tamaites (children), who were not strong enough to walk over ten miles per day, and iv further consideration of the old women having heavy loads of provision to carry. Of this latter fact, I speedily became painfully aware, as I glauced at the procession forming in Indian file, for the poor old creatures were bent almost double between potatoes and years. My old friend of che Horse Shoo had gone so far as to carry a small child on his back, but, with that exception, the men seemed to carry nothing but their clothes, nor is it a point of aboriginal gallantry usually to do otherwise. Promising my friend Jeremiah that L would be duly a£ the meeting, I not unwillingly got rid of him, as [ have not the least doubt that he would have talked for any indefinite period. Punctual to the time, I and my friend Harry Briggs, who (in consequence of his domestic arrangements, which I need not here more particularly enter into) talks Maori like a native, saddled our horses and made for the rendezvous. •' Halloa," cried Harry, as we pulled up our horses about a mile irom the pah, " there go a suing of darkies a-head, we are in plenty of time it fiaems." It was not long before we came up with them, and sure enough it was Jeremiah and his troop, who had in the course of their wayside bivouacs been joined byascoreor more of their acquaint-

auces, and what between " koreroV and " ko-tniti's " had not made any further progress on their journey than where we found them. Of course, the whole corps fraternised with us at once, aud the high spirits of the party seemed to promise rather a happy hakari than otherwise. The old mon jabbered, the old women chattered, and the small fry gabbled away at a great rate, the burden being all respecting the " hakari '' and the " runanga." I remarked some very agreeable costumes amongst (.hum, mediaeval and unique. Ono old man was habited in a beaver hat. considerably worse for wear and an old shirt ; an old woman had nothing on but a tattered chemise and a rusty black handkerchief tied round her head, her withered skinny limbs and weazeu face appearing to great advantage. The children were habited in various cast off garments of the older people, ingeniously shortened to meet the smaller proportions of the youth, by tearing off the bottoms of the legs of the trousers and the sleeves off shirts, but as the seats of the former and the shoulders of the latter were not affected by this curtailing, and as rarely one child owned both garments, the effect was very diversified and lively. The old women who had for some time appeared in excellent health and spirits, and with whom I had beeu endeavouring to hold an animated conversation, no sooner arrived within about four hundred yards of the pah, than they appeared to me to be all suddenly seized with colic or some similar internal disorder. Their faces assumed one of the most hideous expressions I ever beheld, and twinge followed twinge in such rapid succession, that I said to Briggs " Bless my soul Briggs, what's the matter with these old wretches, look what horrible unearthly faces they are pulling." "Why man ! said he. don't you know ? they are only getting ready for a " tangi." As the reader may not know what a " tangi " is, 1 may briefly say, that when Maories meet alter a long absence, they invariably have a good cry for an hour or so, that the same " tangi " is likewise held over their dead whether mau or beast. It is usualfy performed, by the parties sitting iv a circle, and commencing a noise, which, without being a groan or a howl or a whine, partakes of the properties of all three. Ido not know what these old people had to cry about, but I may safely assert, that they pumped up tears from some hidden recess in about five minutes, aud by the time we arrived at the pah, presented one of the most perfect pictures of wretchedness that it was possible to conceive humanity could be brought to. "My word, said I to Harry, '• If one of those old women could keep that face up and kick up that horrid row for a few days on London Bridge, she'd draw more money than all the pavement artists, sore legs, and blind men since the days of Adam. Whyjihey'd be bankrupt in a week." " I believe you my boy ! replied my friend. " Why I once poisoned an old woman's cat that used to prowl about my hen roost, and pitched it into a ditch, and can tell you that horrid old hag came " tangi-ing " away by the side of that ditch for days; she nearly drove me mad. I had to give her a pound of tobacco and a lot of fruit to get rid of her." Having arrived at the pah, we found about a couple of hundred natives assembled, who greeted our party with shouts of welcome, firing of guns, and an amount of yelling that was overpowering. Whatever their opinions might 6e respecting us as Europeans, I know not ; but they professed to be very glad to see us. Jeremiah, who had kindly undertaken to act as my chaperone, if I may use the term, gave me a hand to tether out my horse, anc' during the operation gave me confidentially to understand that he had taken a slight survey of the preparations for the feast and that they were spleudid. " Ka-nui, ka-nui, ka-nui te kai " said he, which [ may interpret, " Lots, lots, 1-o-ots of food." The pork was remarkable for '• pata,' (butter or fat), and there was rice, sugar, and flour in abundance. In fact, the extraordinary aud almost frantic delight of my old friend at the prospect of this feast was one of the pleasantest pictures I saw that day ; more amusing perhaps, by his winding up with the singular enquiry as to whether " I had a spoon in my pocket," and receiving an answer in the negative, stated bis regrets as he should not be maro-ro (strong) at the rice ; but however he would make shift wilh a muscle shell. During this time, the tangi was going on at a great rate, and my friend Jeremiah deemed it, I suppose, a matter of duty to join it; and seating himself in the group, he in one moment changed his face so completely, aud set up such an unearthly howl, that I could stand it no longer, and made off to some distance; but as 1 got to about twenty yards from him, and cast my eyes back, I saw the tears running down his face, and he a model of abject misery. Jeremiah was evidently an old hand at a " taugi." Out of such a motley crow as were gathered about the pah, I should have difficulty in individualising, the groups, consisting of old and young, male and female, in every kind of dress from the most select slop fashions of Messrs. Moses and Son, to the normal knitaka (bordered mat) aud pihepihe of fig-leaf simplicity. My friend Harry, with true English gallantry, had fraternized with a bevy of Kotiro's (or young girls) with whom he was flirting prodigiously, doling them out pieces of tobacco, wilh a degree of generosity that seemed to evoke the greatest contempt from a lot of conceited young fellows that lounged about him. In the

meantime, great preparations were going on for cooking the feast, all the pots in the neighbourhood, I think, had been pressed into the service, round which, numbers of old men and women hovered like so many vultures, poking bits of stick underneath the" legs of the tripots to expedite the cooking, and blowing and puffing away out of their asthmatic chests, till a violent fit of coughing threatened to burst all the blood vessels they hud in their superannuated old carcases. Thini£»s, however, were got ready at last, and served up in baskets made of flax, known as kits, calabashes, and pots and kettles ; and a roar of" kai-kai ! haeremai," created a sudden sensation amongst the outsiders. The girls vanished like a lot of columbines in a pantomime, leaving my friend Briggs to the cure of ti maugy old dog, who I have reasons for believing was deaf, as every other dog about the place seemed to be perfectly aware of the cause of the commotion. The " tangi " ceased instantaneously, and Jeremiah showed more agility on that occasion in making for the pots than I should ever have given his old limbs credit for. Harry and! as ruanawhiri's (strangers) wore not forgotten, and to do old Jeremiah credit and give him his due, he dived iv among the hot food with his skinny fingers and rummaged about the mesa for the choicest morsels he could discover to give us. It is true that the heat of the fish and pork caused him to withdraw his hands rather suddenly, and to carry his fingers convulsively to his mouth to ease the pain, but one must not be particular on these occasions, and seeing an old man half scalding his fingers off to do the duties of host, increases one's respect for him. It was a great sight ! I cannot say that knives and forks rattled, but those natural tools that the old saying goes, had their origin before them, certainly went at an awful pace. I could not look at it very much, the scene was too overpowering, but when I did, I was sure to catch the eye of old Jeremiah, who invariably jerked up his eyelids and tremulously pointed with his greasy finger or the shank of some defunct porker, at the mess, as if he would say, " Isn't it prime old fellow. Did I overdraw the picture when I told you what a great, lot of food there would be," and motioning to us to fail to again. But his ectasies became perfectly indescribable when the rice was served up. Having no dish fit to hold enough, thoy cleaned out a canoe some thirty feet long, two feet and a half wido, and about the same depth, and emptying I imagine about two bags of boiled rice into it, they tilted in a bag of sugar, and mixing up the whole lot with a spade, they crowded round the steaming mess with oyster and mussel shells in their hands, and set to in earnest. And now I saw the advantage old Ezekial had over a great number of his fellow guests, for that artful old man had hoarded up a fragment of an old gravy spoon in the corner of his blanket which he now produced, and by the systematic way in which he tackled the rice, however the younger ones might be qualified to teach him to suck eggs, he certainly shewed them what rice-eating was. Perhaps as singular a sight was that of an old fellow who was tabooed or sacred. I don't know what for, but so it was, and as such, was forbidden to touch food with his own hands. It fell to the lot of a young woman to feed him, aud she certainly lost no time about it. There the old fellow 3at with his mouth wide open like an unfledged pigeon, while she crammed him with large lumps of meat, fish, potatoes, and such solids as she could lay hands on. Briggs' gallautry, however, would not permit him long to look on at this exhibition, and he very kindly undertook to relieve her. At the first mouthful, Harry, not being very expert, had his fingers sharply bitteu by the old man, who invariably shut his eyes whon he opened his mouth. Knowing Briggs' weakness for practical jokes, I fully expected to see a bit of mud or some similar substance thrust in, as the old fellow never looked at the morsel, but put implicit confidence in his jackal. Harry, however, did not do so, but when he came to feed the old man with rice, he got the loan of Ezekial's spoon, (that worthy having arrived at as near a pilch of suffooation as he well could without choking on the spot), and with this tool he ladled the hottest mouthfulls he could find, diving to the very bottom of the canoe, into the old man's mouth. In vain the old fellow jabbered and sputtered with the tears streaming down his tattoed cheeks, Harry paidjio attention/and the other natives were too intent on their own private gorgings to pay any heed to anybody or anything else; and the exhibition finally ended, by the old man making off somewhat hurriedly and Harry's rolling on his back and laughing till he was nearly black in the face. Nature, however, refused to hold out longer, and the body of feasters being now pretty well filled, the canoe was taken posaessiou of by the prowling curs about, who with their tongues finished off what morsels had escaped the attack of the fingers and mussel shells. I saw old Jeremiah lying down on the ground, his face beaming with smiles, and shining with grease, but that good old man's heart and stomach were too full to permit him to speak, and when I speak of Jeremiah individually, I may most safely include five sixths of the company about him. I may here too passingly observe, that however extravagant this sketch of the hakari may seem,, it is in reality not a panicle overdrawn. On the contrary, I have studiously avoided a great deal of matter of an of-

fersive kind, that I might truthfully have introduced. Gluttony in its coarsest form, greediness and filth that were manifested by not one or two individuals, but the greater portion; and I have merely alluded to these incidents that gave the affair an amusing character. Since I witnessed the above, l have hadnumerous far more convenient opportunities of being present at native feasts, but I have never attojided another. Ido not say that I had expected the proceedings to have exhibited a more delicate character, nor that all things considered it was a more offensive exhibition than I anticipated ; but I do feel myself justified in remarking that the reader has the most pleasing aspect of a hakarai presented to him in this sketch. This, however, is a digression. So soon as the digestive organs of the company had so far recovered themselves as to permit any return to animation, the " runanga " began. It professed to be a general tribal confereence respecting the sale of some land to the Europeans, a discussion on the king movement; and a variety of other matters relating to marriages and other domestic matters that I need not here dilate upon. The meeting was summoned by a man blowing into the mouth of a •' kahaka " (calabash) in the side of which were punctured two or three holes. I think the native name for the instrument is "re-hu." They succeed in some way peculiar to themselves in extracting a most hoi rid noise out of the thing at all events, which was not rendered the' more melodious by another individual perseveringly banging with a short stick at an iron pot. It had the effect, however, of summoning the whole pah, and seating themselves in rows on the ground they left a sort of avenue for the speakers to stand in and spout. Their elocution is, if not of a very high order, of a particularly vehement kind. The first old man who spoke, and who seemed to be a sort of chief among them, commenced by walking up and down between the rows for some time, brandishing his" tai-aha"or spear, and saying nothing. The spirit, however, moved him very shortly, and with great gesticulation he commenced a long rigmarole about the " waka," the canoe of his ancestors. He jumped, raved, shouted, and roared until I thought he had taken leave of his wits altogether ; but what he was talking about I have not the mosf distant idea. The majority of the confeienoe did not appear to pay much attention, one observing to me that he was talking " nukerau," (nonsense) and another "that the koroheka (old man) was " porangi " (foolish), from which I gathered that the old feliow was merely bent on giving vent to his feelings, without having «my other definite object in view. Jeremiah, who spoke shortly after him, did not appear to make much better of it, but he gave me confidentially to understand that his " korero " was the most " maroro " (strong) of the lot, and that he had said great things for the pakeha's (white men), I subsequently however, learnt that in private conversations he had done precisely the reverse ; and I afterwards discovered that those who may pin their faith on what they hear a<; these runangas, may not unlikely find themselves most woefully deceived. It is scarcely worth while to enter further into an account of the proceedings, for it was very little I could make out of what the speakers said, their style of oratory becoming so monotonous and so grievously wiredrawn, that one gets very shortly sick of the whole concern. I saw it howvever repeated afterwards in one of the public journals, although I can honestly say, that ueither Harry or myself who were the only Europeans present, ever made any report of it; and so far as regards any version that might be rendered by any of the natives present, though I do not say it would be essentially false, I certainly should accept it with groat caution. We left them talking, and I believe they kept it up for some two or three days. Jeremiah and his family returned past my door about a week after, and told me that he had stopped till all the provsions were finished, and I subsequently learnt that the parties who had given the feast were nearly starved for some months afterwards, having been uearly eaten out of house and home, in return for their misplaced hospitality.