MAKUTU.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1791, 13 November 1862, Page 5

MAKUTU.

In a copy of a very old book oiigtnally published at Newcastle, which purposed to give some of the receipts of the noble science of witchcraft as practised on the Borders, among a lot of these receipts, the concoction and ingredients of which make the witches cauldron in Macbeth appear a pleasant soil of soup, I

found the following: — " To see strange sights, i anoint your eyes with the gall of a bat and the \ fat of a hen." Without killing either bats or ji hens, for this said purpose, I have seen some c strange sights in this country. I have seen t the Biitish flag as it floats over these shores, (r instead of tough bunting, turn out to be sorry * I fustian, blown all to ribbons in the gale of re v bellion ; I have seen English law and order s set at defiance by a pack of semi-barbarians.— v Military men with a couple of thousand v Btiiish bayonets at their disposal, beaided by , t a handful of half naked savages armed with old muskets and fowling pieces ; and property v destroyed by a band of half armed natives, F under the nose of a garrison. The bats and v fowls may go to Hades, before I slaughter s them for the purpose of "seeing strange i sights." Some of the strange sights I have s seen, I have already chronicled in these 1 sketches, and one of the strangest I now pro- * ceed to describe. The noble science of Makutu t (witchcraft) as practised by the inhabitants of i " Our Pah." — Whether owing to bad sanitary { regulations, personal uncleanness, over eating, i or the third plague of Egypt, I do not know ; * but many of the inhabitants were " taken < woise " some time ago. One or tsvo of the £ children died, old Lazarus was laid up, and so I many. complaining, that things began to look 1 rather serious about there. A very offensive i tattoed parly, whose name I did not enquire, s so will here.tertn him Beelzebub, (as being most < appropriate to his calling), was sent for, he J being a poropiti (prophet) of the mysteries of 1 Makutu, who at once gave it as his opinion, < that lizards were at the bottom of the mischief; ' the tapu on some land had been broken, and suggested the expediency of a (kai ngarara) 1 forthwith. Except to a person well up in < Maori, it is not an easy matter to make out ] how the lizards are to blame for these evils; ' but so far as I can understand, it appears, that < when old Maories die, their shades haunt cer- i tain places in the form of lizards ; and that ( parties walking over the spot where these ( lizards dwell, are forthwith bewitched. Tf the ' lizards are caught and killed, the enchantment is at end, and no fear of any further mischief. This very likely is a very vague and unsatisfactory explanation, but no matter for that, Makulu exists as an institution, its practice is on the increase, and that is sufficient for me at present. Some days after receiving the intellii gence of the arrival of the poropiti, I was out near the pah, when I suddenly came upon a group of individuals promenading in a circle, apparently engaged in search of something, and arranged so that if the first man missed it, the next being close on his heels, might have a chance of finding it. It was Beelzebub, Malachi, and a number of his people at work lizard hunting. If lizards are vermin, and their object was simply to get rid of them, I have heard of a simpler plan than this I am about to describe, which, while I remember I may as well quote. Och ! Antrim hill is very high, and so is the hill of Howth too, But I've heard of another hill, that's higher than them both too ; 'Twas on the top of this high hill, St. Patrick preached his sarrnint, He drove the frogs into the bogs, and banished all the varmint. But St. Patrick was a saint, whereas Beelzebub is exactly the reverse, hence their systems differ. But to my tale. The circular promenade continued for some time, when suddenly they came to a dead stop, and Beelzebub pounced like a torn cat on something in the fern ! This was unfortunate lizard number one. The procession continued, gradually contracting the limits of the circle, and by the time they had finished, Beelzebub had caught two more. AH this time the greatest solemnity was observed. The poropiti then kindled a fire, and proceeded with the greatest coolness to roast these wretched reptiles ; repeating in a low moaning tone an incantation, as the poor liz-irds were slowly frizzling. The burden of this incantation, I did not then know, but have since seen a translation of it. I can't remember the exuct words, but I can give a quotation from an Ameiican poet that will give the reader a fair idea of its import. The passage occurs in a chorus to one of the songs of the Christy Minstrels, and runs as follows :— " Flip up in the scidamadinck jube up in the jubin jabe!" The lizards nearly calcined; the poropiti sung out something, and the whole crowd at once covered their faces and dropped into the attitude of prayer; and I was subsequently led to understand, that at this identical juncture, the souls of the departed vacated the bodies of the lizards — as well they might. Whether they became stars in the firmament, or entered the bodies of other lizards, I, did not enquire. Beelzebub swore hard and fast " that he saw them go;" so I suppose they did. Anyhow, the " tapu" was gone, and no one going over that spot would catch the lumbago, colic, or any other disease. And, so far the arrangement was satisfactory. After this, the poropiti produced some potatoes, which he proceeded to roast in the ashes, and during the process of cookery, some sort of a hymn was sung, or rather chanted, the name of which I did not learn j but the words sounded (sinking the final ) like ;the chorus of frogs in the JbVmsß of Aristophanes, " Brekkekkikex! Koax! Ko<ix!" The above very senseless mummery, was enacted by the most eulightened aborigines in the world, in the year of grace 1862, in the forty seventh of the introduction of Christianity among them, and close to a mission station. If this had been au isolated case, I do not know that I should hare writtenanything about it; but as Mdkutu happens to be in full force all over the country at present, and is by no means confined to the " old people," rather the reverse in fact, it is worth "making a note of," as Captain Cuttle would say. Beelzebub shortly after, tried his hand at curing a sick man, not by electro-magnetism but by Makutu. I had the curiosity to have some conversation with him upon the subject. I found him to be excessively stupid, but he had su?h a lot of nostrums for healing the sick, causing ladies favourable confinements, and banishing evils generally, that the disciples of fteichenbaeh, and Odic Force, may in future shut vp — Beelzebub beats them hollow — Iv the course of conversation, I asked him if be was a Christian, and believed in the Bible? which he said " he did" — " I asked him if he was not afraid of being punished for idolatry, as the Israelites were?" He replied "that I could not possibly understand the Maori gods — my god was a very good god, but Maori gods were very (Mauahara) revengeful, and that unless he looked out, and appeased them, the Maories would suffer—lt was a system far beyond my comprehension." I did not bandy any further remarks with him — A few days later, he commenced his Makutu on old Lazairus. This very wretched old man had got the idea into his head, that some lizard was in his ' inside, and preying on his vitals ; Beelzebub said it was the case likewise, so that between ' them, it must have been so. Anyway, the ■ lizard had to be got out, or whatever it was. i Lazarus had been shifted about, from place to ■ place for many months, never stopping above

a week or two at one spot, and wherever be went, the lizard would persist in following him, at least so said Malachi.- I urn not naturalist enough to know what lizards (red on exactly, but if they are partial to fleas, :ind other vermin, I can understand thei:- following old Lazarus — I happened to drop in upon h'm. when th.c Makutu was going on. Beelzebub sat alongside him muttering away, and fumbling with two pieces of stick, while three or four women sat at some distance away from him, tangiing sotto voce. It was a particularly solemn sight; a trifle stupid perhaps, but that was nothing! They had read the Churc? prayers over him in the morning, and now tlie? were doing a liitle Makutu.— Beelzebub "sail, something about " sacrificing a dog to Eraaru, if Lazarus got no belter," being about the only sensible idea, that I bad heard from him ; for Lazarus owns a vile cur, that it would be a good riddance if he were annihilated — Anyway, the devil, or ngarara, or whatever it was, was ultimately got out of Lazarus — Beelzebub saw it go like a blue flame, at least so he said, and in three months Lazarus was to be himself again. This was capital news for the old man, and he gave himself an extra scratching on the strength, of it. It is now six weeks since the Makutu took place, and if anything, Lazarus is rather woise. He got much better for a week, according to bis own account from the effects of Beelzebub's incantation ; but this temporary recovery, I attribute to n good dose of Epsom salts that I gave him, and if he used a little soap and water, and left off eating putrid corn and other filth, I see no reason why there is not " life in the old dog yet."

This intense]} insane system, has been carried oq throughout the country, at a great rate, during the pastyear. Strange effects have been produced by the Poropitis and Arikis of the temple of Makutu. Peccant Magdalenes have divulged their liasons ; lovers the names of their inamoratos ; thieves given up stolen property, or been terrified into it ; and no cud of diseases cured. What does it all mean ? If I ask Clericus, he is down on me with every paralell instance he can gather, from the Israelites and the Golden Calf, to the worship of idols by the early Christians. — He travels the wide world through, civilized and savage, and points put so much idolatry and superstition existing, that Makulu sinks into insignificance. This of course is very well, so far as it goes, and I may as well state here, that I am glad to find Clericus setting manfu'ly to work, to root out Makutu — He falls foul of, and routs old Beelzebub and his gang, wherever he can catch them at their Makutu, or lizard hunts ; and he won't admit any of them to his sacraments, when he finds them out ; and so far I applaud him ; but I object to his arguments altogether., I don't believe in his comparisons between Maories and civilized nations. He has no more right to compare them with those nations as a community, than he has to compare gipsies and the scum of Christendom, with the English Bench of Bishops. He may talk indeed of foolish old women hanging horseshoes to their doors, crossing knives in a thunderstorm, or believing in all sorts of messages from the other world, by coals flyiug out of the grate, howling dogs, the dregs of a tea cup, or flaring candlewicks ; but because be finds so many foolish old women in a community! — is that any reason why the whole natioH is to be dubbed superstitions or benighted ? If darkness spiritual, appears in theagricullural districts of England, or in the purlieus of English and continental towns, have the inhabitants had the same spiritual advantages as the Maories ? I rather doubt it. Has the old religion of the Makutu been eradicated, or is it only slumbering? In a word, are the religious opinions of the Maories permanent? or do they possess any? We look with, dismay, at the Jesuit Missions and the system they adopted, where four or five thousand Indians were baptized, a small crucifix suspended from their necks, thereupon termed Christians, and enrolled among the list of proselytes. This was a very melancholy aiid queer kind of evangelization. When Mrs. Grundy read it in a Missionary Magazine, she was shocked, and when an honest grocer at Peckham, with whom she deals, who is the minister of the chapel of Little Bethell, next door to Mrs. G's., read it in the number she lent him, and forthwith told it from the pulpit; there arose such a groaning among the congregation (they can groan some — the Little Bethel folks can) that it was dismal to hear. Yet the quesion is, are the Maories any better than these Indians ? Is not civilization turning out Christianity f An obscure minister of the church (of whom nobody has heard of course), stated at the commencement Of the N» Z. Mission, that *' cm* lization must be the pioneer of Christianity " (vide life of the Rev. S. Marsden, p. 56 — Peruse that book reader!) Have subsequent events proved him right? — Are the Maories, who in anything move by fits and starts, relapsing into tkeir old religion ? I know that the wpiship of Bongo (the god of crops), has been restored to the northward, and only a short time ago, a tribe had it under consideration, whether they should not renounce Christianity altogether. These things look rather queer ! In the. midst of all tkese un pleas an tries, however, it is a source of satisfaction, not to have heard as yet, (hat the settlers are the cause of this. This (Makutu) is one of the very few evils that they have not introduced, (that is to say according to Clericus) — We have not introduced Makutu ! What a gratifying reflection ! So much so that I can lay dowu my pen, and take leave of this subject, with a conscience clear upon the point, that I have had nothing to do with it. Makutu and Cannibalism, appear to be the only two I am not blamed for, though I encouraged the latter by buying dried heads for my museums — I have been a horrid wretch to these Maories, and no mistake ! But I am clear upon one charge — I did not import Makutu! — What a blessing ! !.

Gold on the Opawa. — We have had an opportunity of examining some specimens of gold found in the Opawa and Tenawai streams, near Timaru, between the 21st and 23rd October. That found in the former river is the coarser specimen, it consists of three or four flat pieces about the size of a crushed mustai'd seed, not much worn. The gold from the Tenawai which is smaller, was found on bluish slate rock. We hear that the prospectors, who are experienced diggers, are so satisfied with the prospect that they have started on a two months' trip, having been liberally sup* plied with/unds to commence operations|by some gentlemenresiding in Timaru.— Lyltellon Times. Hollo-way's Pills. — To Nervous Sufferers. — Nervousness so called, has been said to arise from foul blood or a guilty conscience. When the first is the origin the afflicted may be cheered by the knowledge that a course of Holloway's Pills will dissipate both cause and effect. Many nervous invalids of long duration have afforded the most remarkable recoveries under these purifying Pills: they have assuaged sufferings of the 'severest character, and restored the a fSicted to comfort and health, after change of climate, and' every other means had signally failed. Holloway's Pills renew the lost appetite, and conduct digestion without permitting those feelings of fulness, flatulency, distension, faintness, and palpitation, which seem to threaten instant death to the , timid and enfeebled. \ ... ".'.'.'''.':, ,'.\r-