LIFE IN A MAORI KAINGA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 33, 19 August 1893, Page 100

LIFE IN A MAORI KAINGA.

By

FRANK MATHEWS.

(CONTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE.!

DO not say this of all, but it is the prevailing type. So with the young Maori of the presentrace: a new era has dawned on him with a new language opening out vistas of unexplored knowledge and possibilities, to which the old race are utter strangers. He looks on the history, traditions, etc., of his ancestors with half contempt as old women’s tales, and has few ideas in common with the old stock who still survive. He is no longer ruled by the wise precepts of his ancestors,

and has really no moral law but expedient. Instead of industrious cultivation of the land which was enjoined and insisted on under native rule, he passes his time in loafing, smoking, riding about, and villages which were at one time surrounded with cultivations supplying the inhabitants with a rough plenty, aie now without any signs of culture, the owners living,

or half-starving, on money accruing from the sale of tribal lands or rents of the same. If some are inclined to be industrious others are not, and those who cultivate would have to share with loafers, on the ground that the land belonged to the tribe, whereas native law compelled all to cultivate, as the sustenance of the tribe depended on it. Referring to the relation of the sexes, according to Maori custom unmarried girls were, from a very early age, permitted to receive the attentions of the other sex at pleasure. If in consequence a contraband baby occasionally presented itself, it was looked upon as one of the tribe, and no discredit or detriment to the damsel. Certainly the girl’s parents had a right to destroy it if the connection was particularly obnoxious to them, but this was seldom done. When the girl married it merged into her husband's family, ami as polygamy was the rule, all young women got married sooner or later. The consequence was that there were (and are) no old maids or celibate bachelors amongst the Maoris, and marry evils were thus avoided, which civilisation entails. Once married, infraction of the marriage laws was punished by death or heavy confiscations. I believe this to be a far better system than ours, but it would

not answer except in tribal relations, where there is a community of property to a great extent, and young and old share alike. For the first part, sin is the transgressor of the law, and as neither the law of nature, nor the tribal law was transgressed there was no sin.

With regard to the second, referring to the marriage state, the commandments were made by the Deity for a wise purpose, and though the rulers of this people knew not His laws, as in this case the Seventh Commandment, they thoroughly understood that it was essential to the well being, in fact, to the very existence of tribes that held right by might that the rising generation should be numerous, strong and healthy, hence their strict laws with regard to those women set apart for purposes of procreation. Nominally the Maori now follows the customs of civilised life, really they are much the same as ever, with this difference, that there being only pakeha laws now to enforce marriage fidelity (which laws are a mere farce) there is not much of it, and promiscuous intercourse is leading to the gradual extinction of the race. Old Tamihane Pakoro advocated habits of industry and cultivation of the ground, both by precept and practice, though formerly such work would have been beneath his dignity as

a chief and warrior, but now all caste work without distinction at times. He was very sententious, having many wakatauki or proverbs, as, for instance, * Tama tu, tama, ora, Tama noho, tama mate kai ( The man that rises to work will be satisfied ; the man whosits still willbe hungry).’ Also: * Ehara te toa tana, he toa pahekeheke, ko te toa ngaki kai ekore e paheke (Vain is bravery in war, for it is an uncertain thing, but he who is brave in tillage is certain of reward).’ The Maoris have as many proverbs and wise saws as we have.

The cultivations of the kainga were enclosed with a tiepa, that is a fence, made by driving in a double row of stakes, between which branches, etc., are laid transversely, the stakes being tied together at intervals with twine. The whites call it a tienp fence, the Maoris taiep, words very similar and having just the same meaning. The cultivations were carried on by the old men and women. They grew tobacco, the Virginian pink blossomed plant. They prepared the leaf by putting it in heaps when green to sweat, that is heat ami ferment. It is then rolled into plugs which are tightly bound round with ilax lashing till they become hard aud set. It is mild to smoke, and not as well

flavoured as the tobacco of commerce, that is if good, but it is far better than a good deal of the rubbish that is sold. Indian corn grows aud ripens well in the northern parts of the North Island. It is grown, too, in the Middle Island, but does not thrive much ; the summers there are not hot enough for it. The Maoris either roast the cobs at the fire and gnaw them, or else put them in baskets, which they keep in a water-hole till the corn is rotten ; it is then beaten up into a paste and boiled. It smells very nasty, but it is very pleasant to the taste. The natives of the South Sea Islands prepare bread fruit in a similar manner ; they call it poi. Then besides rewi or tiwa, the names of the common potato, they grow kutneras or sweet potatoes, which is an arum ; the gourd or calabash, called hue, also pumpkins, water and rock melons. Kumeras are rather smaller than the ordinary potato, and they are pink-skinned ; when boiled they are about the consistence of a turnip, and as sweet as a carrot. The gourd is hollowed out and used as a vessel for food, water, etc., but these are now giving place to European utensils.

The Maoris had many resources for food in the indigenous productions of the country, but these are now seldom made use of. Edible fern, for instance, which is seldom found except on the richest land, the roots; a foot or two beneath the surface, containing a good deal of farinaceous matter. It is cooked by laying it on hot embers till sufficiently roasted. It is then scraped with a shell to take off the blackened outside, then beaten with a wooden mallet to separate the farina from the fibres; it was thus considered a good antidote for sea sickness. The shoots of the nikau, an indigenous palm that bears no edible fruit; the shoots and tap

root of the ti-tree (commonly called the cabbage tree), which is something like the toddy tree in India, from which a spirit is distilled ; the root of the toi, a giant grass with lofty plumed reeds growing sometimes twelve feet high ; the roots of the raupo, a species of bulrush growing in swamps, all when baked in a kopa Maori form food more or less nutritious and palatable. The mamaku, a tree fern generally known to settlers as rauniuk, which sometimes attains a height of twenty feet, is nearly all edible ; the outside bark or shell being removed, the rest is a vegetable substance with scarcely any fibre in it. When cooked it is pleasant to the taste. Several kinds of fungus growing on dead timber are edible. The pirori is held to be the best of New Zealand indigenous fruits; it grows on a trailing plant called gigi. It is something like pine apple in con-sistence-sweet bitter in taste. But none of the native vegetable productions are very palatable to Europeans though the native European children seem to relish them. The Maoris are not without amusements. Of an evening they often assemble in the larger whares. Some of the Kotiro, or young women, will sing haka songs, whilst some of them dance the haka dance. In this the dancers grace-

fully wave their hands and arms in measured time to the rythmic chanting of the singers, whilst they sway their supple forms'in various attitudes of amorous suggestiveness.

SAMPLE OF lIAKA SONG. HAKA. FREE TRANSLATION. Patna ki t-e rihi Hark ! listen with yonr ears Ki a huia rauri To the patu of tlie drum, Nga ta rintfa To the dancing, to the ringing Ki a m itou ai Of the haka. of the singing. Ki le Wakarongo Come listen to this music Eau. Of mine. 1 give no more of the song as it is apropriate to the dance and not fit for general reading.

The singing is a monotone in a high key, the singers beating time on tin dishes or any thing suitable. They don’t seem to have had any tomtom, drum, etc., like other aborigines. The only musical instrument 1 know of is the koanau, a sort of Hute with three holes, but it is not common. Then some of the young men will dance the patare, or Maori step dance, this is performed by hopping on one foot

and doing various steps with the other, combined with assuming various attitudes as legs apart, one stretched out, falling on one or both knees, all in time to the song they are dancing to. It is not equal to pakeha step dancing. Then they recite humorous dialogues in character, or relate fables and stories. The Maori women asked me why white women would not marry Maori men. They said, 1 White women marry negroes and Chinamen. The Maori is a finer man than these,’ which is true. I have never known an instance of a European women married to a Maoii, though I believe there are some. I could give no reason at the time, but think lean now. The other men though coloured, are civilised ; live in European fashion, with houses and appliances of civilised life, follow some civilised trade or calling, and are generally well to do. A good home and money go a long way in matrimonial speculations. It is not the Maori so much the women object to but his surroundings. If a Maori were to live apart from his people in a decent house, and follow some civilised calling, it is probable that he could get a white woman for a wife. But they never do.

One of the men with whom I was working, named Monoa, had been educated in the Maori college in Auckland. He could read and write English as well as Maori, and used to read novels, and he had been on one or two voyages between New Zealand and the Australian colonies, and passed some time on the Victorian diggings. He was a cousin of the notorious Te Kooti, for whose capture £l,OOO was at one time ofl'ered. Te Moroa’s mind was a strange mixture of civilised knowledge and native superstition. For instance, one day there was a slight earthquake. ‘ Moki kite riri ’ (Moki is angry) said Te Moroa. I enquired what he meant, and he then told me that long ago two chiefs were crossing Lake Taupo, and in the canoe was an old slave called Moki (which is also

the term for a slave). The canoe was pursued by a taniwha or water-spirit, and to save themselves they threw Moki overboard to the taniwha, by whom Moki was conveyed to the infernal regions, and appointed to stoke the fires. At times he becomes weary of bis task, then in his rage be fiercely stirs the subterranean furnaces ; this causes earthquakes. ‘Do you believe that ?’I enquired. ‘Certainly, why not ?’he replied. ‘ I have read just as strange things in pakeha books.’ ‘But,’ I said, ‘they are only fables.’ ‘ The pakeha,’ said Te Moroa, ‘ don’t know what they believe, and only believe what suits themselves. Sometimes

what is written in their books is said to be false ; at yjjt.her times much more incredible stories are said to be * *ne. And, besides, I read in one of their books about a pakeha who fought against Te Atua (God), so for that he was bound hand and foot, and put under a burning mountain, and when he tries to get loose it causes eruptions and earthquakes. This pakeha, too, had a hundred arms, while Moki had only two, or we should be told about them.’ ‘ You mean Enceladus,’ I said, ‘ he fought against Jupiter, who bound him and placed him under Mount Etna, but that is only heathen mythology.’ ‘I know the book you mean,’ said Te Moroa, ‘ and have read some of it at college. Who

were these heathen ’’ ‘ Oh, people who lived thousands of years ago.’ ‘ Well, if they lived all that time back how is it possible for people of the present day to know what they did or did not do 1 In the Bible it is written : there were giants in those days; why not then men with a hundred arms ? Your writers think they know more about the ancients than they did themselves. How foolish is the pakeha I’

‘Who is Jupiter’’ inquired Te Moroa. ‘He was the supreme god.’ ‘ Well, if he was the supreme god then, he is now. We believe in a supreme God, we call Him Te Atua. I have read that the Indians call Him Manitoa, the Mohammedans Allah. We also believe that there are other inferior gods. The Jews, from whom you have your religion, believed the same thing, for does not the Bible speak of Baal, Ashtarot h, Moloch, etc., and is it not written, “ Thou shall have none other gods but me,” implying the existence of others. You Christians believe there are other inferior deities. Is there not Satan and his angels or ministers, and what are they but inferior powers’ You think, too, that the Maori used to worship wooden images ; but the Maoris have more sense. When an image was made to represent a god, it was, of course, nothing but wood until consecrated by the ariki or high priest, then the spirit of the god it represented was supposed to pervade it for the purpose of receiving worship and karakia (invocation, incantation). The Christian religion is good, but your priests make it no good, for some tell us that a man cannot be saved unless he is a Protestant ; others that only Catholics will be saved ; and at one time I have read that one sect used to

burn and kill the other. Then you have other

preachers, who denounce both Catholics and Protestants, and say theirs is the right doctrine. The pakehas are very foolish.’

Te Moroa firmly believed in the power of tapu, that is, the power of consecration possessed by chiefs and priests, so that they could declare anything or place tapu or sacred, set apart, and then anyone touching what was tapu, or going into any tapu place, suffered terrible illness or death, unless the tapu was removed from them by the karakia or incantations of tohunga (priest). He said the tapu was the same in ancient days, according to the Old Testament. Was not the ark tapu ? The place where it stood in the Temple 1 Priests’ vestments, sacrifices ’ Do we not read how when the ark was removed at one time, a man not a priest placed his haud on it to steady it, and was struck dead 1 He said that before the missionaries came such deaths, through breaking the tapu, were of common occurrence, which I think is likely, for the tapu was too much dreaded to be spoken of or broken wilfully, and anyone having done so unwittingly, would be, as it were, hypnotised with terror, and die from sheer fright, unless the incantation of the priest, by removing that terror from his mind, saved him. But this very power of the tapu has been the means of its own destruction, and a powerful instrument of conversion. For when the natives of New Zealand, and other South Sea Islands, saw the missionaries, who had no

such mental impressions, break it with impunity, and ex orcise it by uttering karakia (in this case prayers, which are in point of fact incantations) in tapu places, they considered the tohunga pakeha (European priests) to be more powerful than their own, and the whole superstitious fabric fell at once. By the way the belief has not quite died out, for while I was there a fever broke out in a kainga lower down the river, and the old natives attributed it to some of the surrounding places having been tapu in olden times, and that they had unwittingly broken this tapu for which they were sutl'eiing. So they sent for an old tohunga to find out these places and remove the tapu. He came amt brought a dog with him. This dog would hunt round, and stop at some tree, rock, etc., like a pointer, the Tohunga would examine the place, and then produce some piece of greenstone or other relic, which he professed to find there denoting tapu. He then repeated karakia, which removed the tapu. Most of them seemed to believe in his power ; but old Tamihana I’akoro said privately to me, * Kakino te Tongata karakia, ia perangite Whiro.’ (’No good, the Exorciser, he likes the Devil.’) There was an old woman who lived in a little hut by herself. Her name was Rita. She used to perform the last duties for the dead, was supposed to have occult powers, and was much dreaded. (To be. continued.}