Chapter I: The Belief in Immortality Among the Maoris (2)

The body was kept for three days because, we are told, the soul was believed not to quit its mortal habitation till the third day.[52] The mode of disposing of the corpse differed in different districts and according to the rank of the deceased. In some places a grave was dug in the house and the body buried in a sitting posture, the legs being kept in that position by bandages or doubled up against the chest. In the grave the dead man retained the fine garments in which he had been dressed together with the family ornaments of jade and shark's teeth. With him also was usually interred his property, especially the clothes which he had worn and everything else that had touched him during his last illness. The weapons of a warrior were laid near him that he might be able to fight his battles in the spirit land. In other places the corpse was laid in a box on a stage; or two pieces of an old canoe were set upright in the earth, and in the hollow between them the body was seated on a grating so as to allow the products of decomposition to drip through on the ground. In other places again, the corpse was laid in a sort of canoe-shaped coffin and deposited among the branches of a tree in a grove, where it remained for several months. This burial in the branches of a tree seems to have been usually adopted for the bodies of commoners; the corpses of chiefs, enclosed in coffins, were placed in mausoleums, carved and painted red, which were raised on pillars. Whether buried in the earth or placed in a tree or on a stage, the body was left until the flesh had so far decayed as to permit of the bones being easily detached; there was no fixed time allowed for decomposition, it might vary from three months to six months, or even a year. When decay was thought to have proceeded far enough, the bones were dug up or taken down from the stage or tree and scraped; the ornaments also were removed from the skeleton and worn by the relatives. In the south, where the custom was to bury the dead in the ground, this disinterment took place four weeks after the burial; the bones were then buried again, but only to be dug up again after a longer interval, it might be two years, for the final ceremony. When this took place, all the friends and relatives of the dead were summoned to assist, and a great feast was given: the bones were scraped, painted red, decked with feathers, and wrapped up in mats. The precious bundle was then deposited in a small canoe or a miniature house elevated on a pole; or it was carried to the top of some sacred tree and there left on a small stage. Sometimes the bones were concealed in a hollow tree in a secret place of the forest, or hidden away in one of the numerous limestone caverns or in some lonely and inaccessible chasm among the rocks. The motive for secret burial was a fear lest an enemy should get possession of the bones and profane them by making fish-hooks out of them or converting the skull into a baler for his canoe. Such a profanation was deemed a deadly insult to the surviving relatives. After a burial the persons who had dressed or carried the corpse, and all indeed who had had anything to do with it, repaired to the nearest stream and plunged themselves several times over head in the water.[53]

[52] J. Dumont d'Urville, _op. cit._ ii. 541.

[53] J. Dumont d'Urville, _op. cit._ ii. 543 _sq._; W. Yate,
_op. cit._ p. 137; Servant, "Notice sur la Nouvelle-Zelande,"
_Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xv. (1843) p. 25; E.
Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 62 _sqq._; G. F.
Angas, _Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand_,
i. 331; A. S. Thomson, _The Story of New Zealand_, i. 188; R.
Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 218 _sqq._; E. Tregear, "The Maori
of New Zealand," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xix. (1890) p. 105; Elsdon Best, "Cremation among the Maori
Tribes of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) p. 110.

In some districts the removal of the bones from their temporary to their final resting-place was the occasion of a grand annual festival in which several neighbouring tribes took part. The bones of all members of the tribes who had died within the year were taken down from the stages or trees where the bodies had been temporarily deposited. The grave-clothes having been removed, the mouldering remains were wrapped in new blankets and carried in procession, attended by the crowd, to a place where they were deposited on a carpet of leaves. Should any putrid flesh be found still adhering to the bones, it was scraped off and buried on the spot. A few old women, dressed in their best, oiled from head to foot, and plastered with raddle, received the skulls into their laps. While they held them thus, a funeral ode was sung and speeches, loud and long, were delivered. Then the bones were tied up, decked with feathers of the gannet, rolled up in blankets, and carried to their last place of rest in a sacred grove, where they were left, securely fastened up and gaudily decorated with red and white. Having thus discharged their duty to the dead, the living gave themselves up to festivity; they ate and drank, danced, sang, whistled, wrestled, quarrelled, bought and sold. This Holy Fair, which went by the name of Hahunga, lasted several days. At the end of it the mourners, or revellers, dispersed and returned to their homes, laden with food which had been made ready for them by their hosts.[54] Great importance was attached to the final disposal of the remains of the dead. According to one account, the soul of the dead man could not rest till his bones were laid in the sepulchre of his ancestors, which was often a natural cave or grotto. There they were deposited on a shelf or platform a few feet above the floor of the cavern.[55]

[54] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, pp. 137-139; Servant,
"Notice sur la Nouvelle-Zelande," _Annales de la Propagation de
la Foi_, xv. (1843) pp. 26 _sq._ The name _Hahunga_ is doubtless
connected with the verb _hahu_ which means "to exhume the bones
of dead persons before depositing them in their final
resting-place." See E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative
Dictionary_, p. 42, _s.v._ "hahu."

[55] J. Dumont d'Urville, _op. cit._ ii. 543, 545.

Not uncommonly the bones of the dead, instead of being preserved, were burned.[56] But cremation, though not unusual, seems never to have been a general custom with the Maoris. They resorted to it only in exceptional circumstances, for example, in order to stay the spread of disease, or in cases where a tribe occupied open country and found no suitable place where to lay the bones of their dead after exhumation. Cremation for the latter reason is said to have been practised by the Ngati-apa tribe in the Rangatikikei District, and also by the tribes who occupied the Waimate Plains. An old earthwork fort near the present township of Manaia was the scene of many cremations of the Maori dead in former days. Again, it was a common custom for a raiding party to cremate their dead in the enemy's country, when there was no time to carry them home for the usual obsequies. The intention of burning them was to prevent the enemy from eating the bodies and making fish-hooks out of the bones. For a similar reason even the wounded, whom they could not carry with them, were sometimes thrown into great fires and burnt alive. If the slain man was a chief, only his body would be consumed in the flames; his head would be cut off, steamed, cured, and carried home, to be wept over by his friends. In the Bay of Plenty district the bodies of persons who died of a certain disease called _Kai uaua_, apparently consumption, used to be burnt to prevent the spread of the malady, and all the ashes were carefully buried.[57]

[56] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 220. This was called
_tahunga_, "burning," a word no doubt derived from _tahu_,
"to set on fire, kindle." See E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian
Comparative Dictionary_, p. 444, _s.v._ "tahu."

[57] Elsdon Best, "Cremation amongst the Maori tribes of New
Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) pp. 110 _sq._

Often enough the heads of dead relatives were cut off, dried, and preserved by the family for many years in order to be occasionally brought forth and mourned over. Sometimes a widow would sleep with her husband's severed head at her side. After a victory, too, it was customary to decapitate the slain foes and dry their heads, which were then carried home and used as scarecrows or stuck on short stakes in the village, where they were jeered at and reviled. When the time came to plant the sweet potatoes, and the priests recited their spells for the sake of the crops, the dried heads were sometimes brought out and placed at the edge of the field, for this was believed to promote the growth of the sweet potatoes.[58] Apparently the spirits of the dead were thought able to quicken the fruits of the earth.

[58] Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
xii. no. 4 (December 1903), pp. 195-197. Compare W. Yate, _An
Account of New Zealand_, pp. 130 _sqq._; E. Dieffenbach,
_Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 66.

At all events the Maoris undoubtedly believed that the souls of the departed survive the death of their bodies for a longer or shorter time and in their disembodied state can influence the living for weal or woe. The belief in the survival of the soul is strikingly manifested in their old custom of killing widows and slaves to serve dead chiefs in the other world. It found expression in the more harmless custom of laying food beside a dead person or burying it with him in the grave; but, as usually happens in such cases, the ghost only consumed the spiritual essence of the victuals, considerately leaving the gross material substance to be despatched by the priest.[59] A dying Maori, unable to eat a loaf which a missionary had offered to him, begged that it might be kept for his ghost, who, after his death, would come and fortify himself with it for the journey to his long home.[60] At Tanaraki the child of a chief was buried in its father's house, grasping in each of its little fists a taro for consumption in the other world. Over the grave were laid boards, and the family slept on them. When they thought that the child's body was sufficiently decayed, they dug it up, scraped the bones, and hung them in the verandah, where from time to time the priest recited spells to assist the soul in its ascent to heaven. Every spell was supposed to raise the soul one stage nearer to the abode of bliss. But the ascent was long and tedious, for there were no less than ten heavens one above the other; the tenth was believed to be the principal abode of the gods. When the parents of the child who had been despatched to the happy land with taro in each hand were asked, "Why taro, if the little one is gone to heaven?" they answered that they were not quite sure whether it went up or down, and therefore as an additional precaution they planted a seed of taro in the grave, so that their offspring might find something to eat either above or below.[61]

[59] J. Dumont d'Urville, _op. cit._ ii. 542; G. F. Angas,
_op. cit._ ii. 71; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 220.

[60] J. Dumont d'Urville, _l.c._

[61] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 220.

Similar ceremonies were performed to facilitate the ascension of the souls of chiefs and priests. Before the body was taken to the place of burial, it was laid out with its feet towards the north, and all the blood-relations of the deceased, men, women, and children, assembled round it. Then the priest, standing at the head of the corpse, between the rows of the people, chanted two incantations, of which the second was supposed to assist the soul to ascend to heaven. The priest next put a bulb of taro in the left hand of the corpse and chanted another incantation. After that, flaxen cords were tied with a slip-knot to a tassel of the mat in which the body was enshrouded, and a cord was placed in the hand of each child, boy and girl, present at the ceremony. When the priest had chanted one more incantation, each child pulled the cord with a jerk, to disconnect the soul from the body, lest it should remain and afflict the relatives.[62] This last rite, with the reason assigned for it, is significant at once of the dread which the Maoris felt for departed spirits, and of the very materialistic conception which they entertained of the human soul, since they appear to have imagined that it could be detached from the body by jerking at a cord.

[62] John White, "A Chapter from Maori Mythology," _Report of
the Third Meeting of the Australasian Association for the
Advancement of Science, held at Christchurch, New Zealand, in
January 1891_, pp. 362 _sq._

The wish to raise the soul to heaven was perhaps the motive for another curious rite performed at the obsequies of a chief. When the body had been buried, the chief returned to the village; but the men who had carried the body went to the nearest swamp, and having caught a swamp-sparrow (_matata_) sent word to the priest, who forthwith rejoined them. Each of the bearers was then provided with a stick to which certain of the feathers of the bird were tied. Then, holding the sticks in their hands, they sat on their heels in a row opposite the priest, who stood facing the east with a stick similarly adorned in his left hand. Next he moved to the south end of the row of men and chanted, and as he chanted he gradually raised his stick, while at the same time all the bearers, holding their sticks at arm's length, gradually raised them and their bodies simultaneously, keeping perfect time, till the priest had concluded his chant, when they all stood erect with outstretched arms. After that the priest collected the sticks and threw them down in front of the _mua_, which seems to have been a kind of altar.[63] We may surmise that the ceremony was intended to waft the soul of the dead chief upward, the feathers of the bird being naturally fitted to facilitate its heavenward flight.

[63] John White, "A Chapter from Maori Mythology," _op. cit._
p. 363. As to the meaning of _mua_, see E. Tregear,
_Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 267, _s.v._ "mua."

At other times, however, with the inconsistency so common in such matters, it appears to have been supposed that the soul set out on its far journey across the sea, and steps were accordingly taken to equip it for the voyage. Thus we hear of a _wahi tapu_ or sacred repository of the property of a deceased chief, which contained, among other things, a little canoe with sail and paddles, "to serve as a ferry-boat for the spirit to enter in safety into the eternal abodes." Nevertheless in the same enclosure, which was fenced with a double set of palings, "calabashes of food and water, and a dish prepared from the pigeon, were placed for the ghost to regale itself when visiting the spot; and the heathen natives aver that at night the spirit comes and feeds from the sacred calabashes."[64]

[64] G. F. Angas, _Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New
Zealand_, ii. 70 _sq._

Many people in the Taranaki district thought that souls went neither up nor down, but always stayed near their mouldering bodies. Hence the sacred grove in which their remains were buried was full of disembodied spirits; and when a man died a violent death his soul wandered about disconsolate, till a priest by his spells and enchantments had brought the poor ghost within the spiritual fold.[65]

[65] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 220 _sq._

When a chief was killed in battle and eaten by his foes, as often happened, his departed spirit entered the stones of the oven in which his body had been cooked, and the stones retained their heat so long as the ghost was in them. Meanwhile his sorrowing friends at home recited their most potent spells to draw his soul out of the oven and back to the sacred grove (_wahi tapu_) the burial-place of his people; for otherwise the soul could find no repose, but must roam about for ever, wreaking its spite on the living, for all disembodied spirits were deemed malicious. Hence after a battle, if people could not obtain the body of a slain friend, they sought to procure at least some drops of his blood or shreds of his raiment, that by crooning over them the appropriate spell they might draw home the vagrant spirit to his place of rest. The burial-grounds were regarded with awe and fear, for sometimes a restless ghost would break bounds and spread sickness among the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. Within their sacred precincts stood altars or stages for offerings to the gods, and any living man who entered them did so at his peril. For the same reason no one would set foot in a house where a dead man or woman had been buried. Hence in nearly every village half the houses stood empty and deserted, falling into decay, tenanted only by ghosts. The living had constantly before their eyes the mansions of the dead.[66]

[66] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 221.

The common belief of the Maoris seems to have been that the souls of the dead pass away to a region of the underworld, which was sometimes called Po and sometimes Reinga. Properly speaking, Po was night or the primaeval darkness out of which all forms of life and light were evolved or created;[67] and Reinga was not so much the spirit land itself as the leaping-off place where the souls bade good-bye to earth and took their departure for the far country. This leaping-off place was at the North Cape, the Land's End of New Zealand. The cape terminates in a steep cliff with a sea-cave at its foot, into which the tide rushes with a thunderous roar. There the evil spirit Wiro is thought to dwell, lurking for his prey; for he battens on such of the passing souls of the dead as he can get into his clutches. On their passage to the North Cape the ghosts stop by the way at two hills; at the first, which is called Wai-hokimai, they wail, cut themselves, and strip off their clothes; at the second, which is called Wai-otioti, they turn their backs on the land of the living and set their faces to the land of the dead. Arrived at the cape they pass outward over a long narrow ledge of rock and then leap down on a flat stone. There they see a mass of sea-weed floating on the water, its roots hidden in the depth, its upper branches clinging to a _pohutukawa_ tree. When they perceive an opening in the sea-weed they dive and soon find themselves in the lower world. But before they reach the abode of spirits they must cross a river by a plank; the river is called Waiorotane or the River of the Water of Life; and sometimes the warden of the plank will not suffer the ghosts to pass the river, but drives them back with friendly violence and bids them return to their friends on earth. Such souls come back to the bright world of light and life, and tell their friends what they have seen and heard on the journey to that bourne from which so many travellers return no more. Hence when any one has recovered from a dangerous sickness or escaped some great peril, they say of him that he has come back from the River of the Water of Life. Even if a soul has crossed that sombre stream, he may still return to the land of the living, if only he refuses to partake of the food set before him by the ghosts; but should he taste of it, he cannot come back. They say that people living near the North Cape can hear the spirits of the dead passing through the air on their way to the spirit land; and in the old days, when a battle had been fought and before the news of it could reach them by word of mouth, the natives near the cape were made aware of what had happened by the rushing sound of a great multitude flitting by overhead in the darkness.[68] Perhaps the sighing of the night-wind or the clangour of birds of passage winging their way out to sea may have contributed to create or foster these fancies.

[67] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_,
p. 342, _s.v._ "Po."

[68] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 150 _sqq._; _id._, _Maori Religion and
Mythology_, p. 45; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 52, 231;
W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, p. 140; E. Dieffenbach,
_Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 66 _sq._; E. Tregear, "The Maoris
of New Zealand," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
xix. (1890) pp. 118 _sq._; _id._, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative
Dictionary_, pp. 407 _sq._, 591, _s.vv._ "Reinga" and "Waiora";
John White, "A Chapter from Maori Mythology," _Report of the
Third Meeting of the Australasian Association for the
Advancement of Science, held at Christchurch, New Zealand,
in January 1891_, pp. 361 _sq._

On the day after a burial the priest used to perform a ceremony to facilitate the passage of the soul to its final rest. For this purpose some men would go out in the morning and kill a small bird of the swamps called _kokata_ and pluck up some reeds of a certain sort (_wiwi_). These they brought to the priest at the grave. He asked them, "Whence came ye?" They answered, "From the seeking, from the searching." He asked them again, "Ah! what have you got? ah! what have you gained?" Then the men threw the bird and the reeds on the ground. Next the priest chose a stalk of grass or fern and put it near the grave in a direction pointing towards Hawaiki, the land far away from which the forefathers of the Maoris came long ago. Another stalk of grass or fern was laid near the place of death, and along these stalks the soul of the dead man travelled to rejoin his friends and kinsfolk who had gone before.[69]

[69] E. Shortland, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, p. 44. Such
a stalk to aid the spirit on its passage was called a _tiri_.
Compare E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_,
p. 517, _s.v._ "Tiri." The ceremony described in the text
resembles in some points the one which seems intended to raise
the soul of the deceased to heaven. See above, p. 25.

As might be anticipated, the accounts which the Maoris gave of the spirit world and of life in it were neither clear nor consistent. According to one account, while the heavens increase in beauty as they ascend one above the other, the lower regions increase in darkness and horror as they descend, each being darker and worse than the one above it, till in the lowest of all complete darkness reigns. There the souls, deprived alike of light and food, wasted away and ultimately ceased to exist; or according to another account they assumed the shape of worms and in that guise returned to earth, where they died a second death and so finally perished. But it was only the souls of common folk which came to this melancholy end. Chiefs and priests were believed to be descended from the gods, and at death their souls ascended to heaven, there to live for ever.[70]

[70] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 232; John White, "A Chapter
from Maori Mythology," _Report of the Third Meeting of the
Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, held
at Christchurch, New Zealand, in January 1891_, pp. 361 _sq._

Other reports, however, paint the nether world in more cheerful colours. We are told that the souls of the dead live there very much as people do on earth, but all good things are more plentiful there than here. The staple food of the ghosts is sweet potatoes, and the quality of the potatoes appears to be remarkably fine; for once a woman, who had the good fortune to go to the spirit land and come back, received from her dead father in the nether regions two roots of sweet potatoes of a most prodigious size. These the ghost told her to take back to earth and plant for the benefit of his grandchild. So she hurried away with them and arriving at the foot of the North Cape had begun to clamber up the face of the cliff, when two infant spirits overtook her and attempted to drag her back to dead land by tugging at her cloak. To divert their attention she threw the two roots of sweet potato behind her, and while the sprites were munching them she made good her escape up the cliff and succeeded in reaching home. Her friends were very glad to see her again, but they always lamented that she had not brought back at least one of those gigantic roots of sweet potato, since it would unquestionably have done much to improve the quality of sweet potatoes grown here on earth.[71]

[71] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 48 _sq._, 67,
118; E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 153 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 233
_sq._

But the spirits of the dead are by no means strictly confined to the lower world; they can quit it from time to time and return to earth, there to influence the actions and fortunes of the living and to communicate with them through the priest, who can hear their voices. They speak in whistling tones, which even common folk can sometimes distinguish as they walk about in the dark. Often their communications are made to the priest or chief in dreams, and he announces the glad or mournful tidings to other people in the morning. Any commands conveyed in this manner from the other world are, or used to be, implicitly obeyed and might decide the course to be pursued in the most important affairs of life.[72] In some tribes, especially among the natives of Wangunui, it used to be customary to keep in the houses small carved images of wood, each of them dedicated to an ancestor of the family, who was believed occasionally to enter into the image in order to hold converse with his living descendants.[73] But even without the intervention of such images the priest could summon up the spirits of the dead and converse with them in the presence of the relatives or of strangers; at these interviews, which were held within doors and in the dark, the voices of the ghosts, or perhaps of the priestly ventriloquist, were sometimes distinctly audible even to sceptical Europeans. Nor was the art of necromancy confined to men; for we read of an old woman who, like the witch of Endor, professed to exercise this ghostly office, and treated an English visitor to an exhibition of her powers.[74]

[72] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 67, 118; E.
Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,
ii. 83, 84.

[73] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, p. 83.

[74] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 84 _sqq._; _Old New Zealand_, by a Pakeha
Maori (London, 1884), pp. 122 _sqq._ As to the belief in the
reappearance of the dead among the living compare R. A. Cruise,
_Journal of a Ten Months' Residence in New Zealand_ (London,
1823), p. 186: "The belief in the reappearance of the dead is
universal among the New Zealanders: they fancy they hear their
deceased relatives speaking to them when the wind is high;
whenever they pass the place where a man has been murdered, it
is customary for each person to throw a stone upon it; and the
same practice is observed by all those who visit a cavern at the
North Cape, through which the spirits of departed men are
supposed to pass on their way to a future world."

The spirits of the dead were sometimes useful to the living, for commonly enough they would appear to their kinsfolk in dreams and warn them of approaching foes or other dangers. Again, they might be and were invoked by spells and enchantments to avenge a murder or even to slay an innocent person against whom the enchanter had a grudge.[75] But for the most part the ghosts were greatly dreaded as malicious demons who worked harm to man.[76] Even the nearest and dearest relations were believed to have their natures radically changed by death and to hate those whom they had loved in life.[77] And so powerful were these malignant beings supposed to be that they were confused with the gods, or rather the spirits of the dead became themselves gods to all intents and purposes, and played a much more important part in the religious life of the Maoris than the high primaeval deities, the personifications of nature, who figured in Maori mythology and cosmogony.[78] The gods whom the Maoris feared, we are told, were the spirits of the dead, who were believed to be constantly watching over the living with jealous eyes, lest they should neglect any part of the law relating to persons or things subject to the sacred restriction called taboo (_tapu_). These spirits, however, confined their care almost exclusively to persons among the living with whom they were connected by ties of relationship, so that every tribe and every family had its own worshipful ancestral spirit or god, whom members of the tribe or family invoked with appropriate prayers or spells (_karakias_). Ancestral spirits who lived in the flesh before the Maoris emigrated to New Zealand were invoked by all the tribes in New Zealand without distinction, so far as their names and memories survived in tradition. Thus the worship of these remote ancestors constituted what may be called the national religion of the Maoris as distinguished from the tribal and family religions, which consisted in the worship of nearer and better remembered progenitors. The great importance attached by the Maoris to the worship of ancestors may account, we are told, for the care with which they preserved their genealogies; since the names of ancestors often formed the groundwork of their religious formulas (_karakias_), and any error or even hesitation in repeating these prayers or incantations was deemed fatal to their efficacy.[79] "Ancestor worship, or rather the deification of ancestors, was essentially a Maori cult. It was a form of necrolatry, or hero worship. A man would placate the spirit of his father, grandfather, or ancestor, and make offerings to the same, that such spirit might protect his life principle, warn him of approaching danger, and give force or effectiveness to his rites and charms of black or white magic."[80]

[75] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), p. 182.

[76] Elsdon Best, _op. cit._ p. 184.

[77] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 104.

[78] E. Shortland, _The Southern Districts of New Zealand_
(London, 1851), p. 294; _id._, _Traditions and Superstitions of
the New Zealanders_, pp. 80, 81; _id._, _Maori Religion and
Mythology_, pp. 10 _sq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 108,
"Maori gods are so mixed up with the spirits of ancestors, whose
worship entered largely into their religion, that it is
difficult to distinguish one from the other."

[79] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, p. 81; _id._, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, p.
11. As to the _karakias_, which were prayers or invocations,
spells or incantations, addressed to gods or ancestral spirits,
see E. Shortland, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, pp. 28 _sqq._;
E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 128,
_s.v._ "karakia." Apparently the _karakia_ partook of the nature
of a spell rather than of a prayer, since it was believed to be
so potent that the mere utterance of it compelled the gods to do
the will of the person who recited the formula. See R. Taylor,
_Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 180 _sq._: "The Maori, in his heathen
state, never undertook any work, whether hunting, fishing,
planting, or war, without first uttering a _karakia_; he would
not even take a journey without repeating a spell to secure his
safety; still he could not be said to pray, for, properly
speaking, they had no such thing as prayer. As in war, they
armed themselves with the most formidable weapons they could
procure, and laid their plans with the greatest skill they
possessed, so to secure the fruition of their desires, they used
their most powerful means to compel the gods to be obedient to
their wishes, whether they sought for victory over their foes,
fruitful crops, successful fishings, or huntings, they called in
the aid of potent incantations; when they planted their _kumara_
[sweet potatoes], they sought to compel the god who presided
over them to yield a good increase; when they prepared their
nets and their hooks, they must force the ocean god to let his
fish enter them; as the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and
the violent take it by storm, so the heathen Maori sought, by
spells and incantations, to compel the gods to yield to their
wishes; they added sacrifices and offerings at the same time, to
appease as it were their anger, for being thus constrained to do
what they wished them. Their ancestors were addressed as
powerful familiar friends; they gave them offerings, and if it
can be said that any prayers were offered up, it was to them
they were made. The word _karakia_, which we use for prayer,
formerly meant a spell, charm, or incantation."

[80] Elsdon Best, "Maori Religion," _Report of the Twelfth
Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of
Science, held at Brisbane, 1909_, p. 459.

The ancestral spirits who particularly watched over the fortunes of a tribe were the souls of its dead warriors and great men. In war these powerful, though invisible, beings were thought to attend the army and direct its movements on the march by communicating advice or warning through some one or other of their nearest living kinsmen. In battle they hovered over the combatants and inspired courage into the hearts of their own tribe. Hence when, on the eve of battle, any young man showed signs of the white feather, recourse was immediately had to the family priest, who repeated a charm, invoking the aid of his friendly spirit; for the sensation of fear was ascribed to the baneful influence of a hostile spirit. If the friendly spirit prevailed, and the craven spirit was expelled, the young man would rush into the thickest of the fight and prove himself the bravest of the brave.[81]

[81] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 81 _sq._

The interest taken by the spirits of the dead in mundane affairs seldom extended beyond the limits of the tribe to which they belonged. Hence a captive in war, who was carried away and enslaved by another tribe, ceased from that moment to be under the protection and care of any ancestral spirit or god. For the ancestral spirits of his own tribe did not trouble themselves to follow him among a hostile tribe and hostile spirits, and the ancestral spirits of the tribe whom he served as a slave would not deign to give him a thought. Hence being forsaken of god and left to their own devices, slaves were relieved from many of the burdensome restrictions which the Maori gods laid upon their worshippers; they were therefore free to perform many menial offices, particularly in regard to carrying and cooking food, which no free Maori could discharge without sinning against the sacred law of taboo and incurring the wrath of the ancestral spirits, who for such a transgression might punish the sinner with sickness or death.[82]

[82] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 82 _sq._; _id._, _The Southern Districts of New
Zealand_, pp. 296 _sq._

In addition to their deified ancestors, who had lived as men of flesh and blood on earth, the Maoris believed in certain great primaeval deities, who had existed before the human race came into being, and whose doings were the theme of many mythical stories. These mighty beings appear to have been personifications of the various forces or elements of nature, such as the sky and the earth. But though fancy wove round them a glistering web of myth and fable, they were apparently believed to stand aloof in cold abstraction from human affairs and to take no interest in the present race of men. The practical religion of the Maori was concentrated on the souls of his deceased kinsfolk and forefathers: "neither in any existing superstition nor tradition, purely such, is there to be found internal evidence that an idea of God existed more exalted than that of the spirit of a dead ancestor."[83]

[83] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, p. 80. Compare _id._, _Traditions and Superstitions
of the New Zealanders_, p. 81; _id._, _The Southern Districts of
New Zealand_, p. 294; _id._, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, pp.
10 _sq._ In Maori mythology Rangi is the personification of the
sky, and Papa of earth. They were the primal parents, and the
other great gods were their offspring. See Elsdon Best, "The
Maori Genius for Personification," _Transactions of the New
Zealand Institute_, liii. (1921) p. 2. Among the great
primordial deities who were worshipped by all tribes of New
Zealand may be mentioned Tane, Tu, Tangaroa, and Rongo. Of the
four, Tane was the origin and tutelary deity of forests and
birds: no tree might be felled and no bird caught till certain
rites had been performed to placate him. Tu was the god of war.
Tangaroa was the god of the ocean, the origin and tutelary deity
of fish. Rongo was the god of peace, and presided over
agriculture. See Elsdon Best, "Maori Religion," _Report of the
Twelfth Meeting of the Australasian Association for the
Advancement of Science, held at Brisbane, 1909_, p. 458. The
same four gods, with names only dialectically different, were,
as we shall see later on, the principal deities of the Sandwich
Islanders, the most distant geographically from the Maoris of
all the Polynesians. The coincidence furnishes an example of the
homogeneity of religion which prevailed among the various
branches of the Polynesian race.

The word which the Maoris applied to a god, whether a personification of nature or the spirit of a dead ancestor, was _atua_. The name is not confined to the Maori language, but is the common word for god throughout Polynesia.[84] When the Maoris attempt to define the nature of an _atua_, they have recourse to the same comparisons with a shadow and with breath which appear to underlie their conception of the human soul.[85] But though "god" is the nearest English equivalent of the word _atua_, we must beware of assuming that the Maori idea of godhead coincided with ours. On this subject one of our best authorities tells us that the term "god" is really not applicable to the _Atua Maori_, the so-called gods of the Maoris. For these beings, he says, "were, with few exceptions, malignant demons, to be feared and placated or conciliated, but not worshipped. Their principal task seems to have been the inflicting upon mankind of diverse evils, pains, and penalties. Of the few good offices performed by them, the warning of the people in regard to coming troubles, seems to have been the most important. The vast majority of the so-called gods of the Maori were simply deified ancestors."[86]

[84] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.
30 _sq._, _s.v._ "Atua."

[85] J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la
recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833),
ii. 516 _sq._

[86] Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
xi. no. 2 (June 1902). pp. 63 _sq._

In order to illustrate the difference between the Maori conception of deity and our own, I will quote the words of another eminent authority on the native religion of the New Zealanders. He says, "Before the mythology of the Maori is further considered, it will be necessary briefly to state what were the ideas of God entertained by the natives. The word _atua_, or spirit, which is used for God, formerly had various significations; a plague or disease was also _he atua_, or God; a thief was an _atua_, thus also a thievish dog was _he kuri atua_, a god-like dog, so also _he tangata atua ki te muru_, a man equal to a god in stealing; a child who pilfered was _he tamaiti atua_, a divine child; there were great spirits and small ones, a man's spirit was an _atua pore pore_, a little spirit, but Maru Rongomai and other gods were _Atua nui_, great gods; there were _atua ika_, reptile or fish gods; a great chief was called _He ika_, a fish, sea monster, or reptile, and was regarded as a malignant god in life, and a still worse one after death; there were likewise _Atua marau_, as the _toroa_, albatross, the _ruru_, owl; and _karu karu_, the film which shades its eye from the light, was also an _atua_; male and female spirits presided over dreams, and were regarded as _atuas, Ko nga atua moe moea o te poko_, the gods of dreams; _Tunui a rangi_, a male, _Pare kewa_, a female deity, both were prayed to as gods; the _atua kore_ and _atua kiko kiko_ were inferior gods. The _Atua ngarara_ or reptile gods were very abundant, and were supposed to be the cause of all diseases and death, being always ready to avail themselves of every opportunity of crawling down the throat during sleep, and thus preying upon the lives of unfortunate creatures. _Atuas_ or spirits of the deceased were thought to be able to revisit the earth and reveal to their friends the cause of their sickness. Everything that was evil or noxious was supposed especially to belong to the gods; thus a species of euphorbium, whose milk or juice is highly poisonous, is called _wai u atua_, the milk of the gods."[87] "In fact, in the accounts which the natives give of their gods and their exploits, we have but a magnified history of their chiefs, their wars, murders, and lusts, with the addition of some supernatural powers; they were cannibals; influenced by like feelings and passions as men, and were uniformly bad; to them were ascribed all the evils incident to the human race; each disease was supposed to be occasioned by a different god, who resided in the part affected; thus, Tonga, the god who caused headache, took up his abode in the forehead; Moko Titi, a lizard god, was the source of all pains in the breast; Tu-tangata-kino was the god of the stomach; Titihai occasioned pains in the ankles and feet; Rongomai and Tuparitapua were the gods of consumption, and the wasting away of the legs and arms; Koro-kio-ewe presided over childbirth, and did his worst to unfortunate females in that state. In fact, the entire human body appears to have been shared out amongst those evil beings, who ruled over each part, to afflict and pain the poor creatures who worshipped them."[88]

[87] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 134 _sq._

[88] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 137.

Anything, indeed, whether good or evil, which excited the fear or wonder of the Maoris would seem in the old days to have been dubbed by them an _atua_ and invested with the attributes of divinity. For example, when a traveller in the early years of the nineteenth century showed his watch to some Maoris, the ticking struck them with such astonishment that they deemed it nothing less than the voice of a god; and the watch itself, being looked upon as a deity (_atua_) in person, was treated by the whole of them with profound reverence.[89] Other travellers have had similar experiences among the Maoris,[90] and compasses and barometers have also been accorded divine honours by these ignorant savages.[91]

[89] J. L. Nicholas, _Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand_
(London, 1817), i. 254.

[90] J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la
recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833),
ii. 516.

[91] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 118.

Sec. 5. _Taboo among the Maoris_

But the most momentous practical consequence which flowed from their belief in the spirits of the dead was the enormous influence which that creed wielded in establishing and maintaining the system of taboo, the most remarkable and characteristic institution in the life of the Maoris and of the Polynesians in general. I shall first give some account of the taboo or _tapu_, as the Maoris called it, and afterwards show how this extraordinary system of society and religion was directly based on a belief in the existence of ghosts and their mighty power over human destiny.

First, then, as to taboo or _tapu_ itself. This curious institution, as I have said, prevailed throughout all the widely scattered islands of Polynesia, but nowhere to a greater extent than in New Zealand. It pervaded the whole life of the natives, affected their plans, influenced their actions, and in the absence of an efficient police provided a certain security both for their persons and their property. Sometimes it was used for political, and sometimes for religious purposes; sometimes it was the means of saving life, and at other times it was the ostensible reason for taking life away.[92] It may be defined as a system of consecration which made any person, place, or thing sacred either permanently or for a limited time.[93] The effect of this consecration was to separate the sacred person or thing from all contact with common (_noa_)[94] persons and things: it established a sort of quarantine for the protection not only of the sacred persons themselves, but of common folk, who were supposed to be injured or killed by mere contact with a tabooed person or object. For the sanctity which the taboo conferred on people and things was conceived of as a sort of dangerous atmosphere, charged with a spiritual electricity, which discharged itself with serious and even fatal effect on all rash intruders. A tabooed person might not be touched by any one, so long as the taboo or state of consecration lasted; he might not even put his own hand to his own head; and he was most stringently forbidden to touch food with his hands. Hence he was either fed like a child by another, who put the food into his mouth; or he had to lap up his victuals like a dog from the ground, with his hands held behind his back; or lastly he might convey the nourishment by means of a fern stalk to his mouth. When he wished to drink, somebody else poured water into his mouth from a calabash without allowing the vessel to touch his lips; for mere contact with the lips of the tabooed man would have rendered the vessel itself sacred or tabooed and therefore unfit for common use. Similarly, when he desired to wash his hands, water had to be poured on them from a distance by his attendant. This state of consecration or defilement, as we might be tempted rather to call it, was incurred by any person who had touched either a young child or a corpse or had assisted at a funeral. The taboo contracted by association with the dead was the strictest and most virulent of all. It extended not only to the persons who had handled the corpse or paid the last offices of respect to the departed; it applied to the place where the body was buried or the bones deposited. So sacred, indeed, was deemed the spot where a chief had died that in the old days everything upon it was destroyed by fire. Hence in order to avoid the destruction of a house, which a death in it would have entailed, it was customary to remove a sick or dying man to a temporary shed just large enough to shelter him from the sun or screen him from the rain; for if the man died in it, the destruction of the wretched hovel was no great loss to the survivors.[95] A widow was tabooed and had to observe the aforesaid restrictions from the death of her husband until his bones had been scraped and deposited in their last resting-place; and the same rule applied to a widower.[96] These taboos were temporary and could be removed by a priest, who performed certain rites and repeated certain spells (_karakias_), and thereby relieved the tabooed person from the state of sanctity or consecration under which he had laboured. The performance of the ceremony put an end to the spiritual quarantine; the man ceased to be sacred, he became common (_noa_) once more, and could mingle freely with his fellows. One of the ceremonies of desecration, as we may call it, was to pass a consecrated piece of wood over the right shoulder of the tabooed person, then round his loins, and back again over the left shoulder, after which the stick was broken in two and buried, burned, or cast into the sea.[97] Again, a temporary taboo was laid on all persons who were engaged in planting sweet potatoes, or in sorting the seed, or in digging and preparing the ground; they might not leave the fields where they were at work nor undertake any other labour. The fields themselves were sacred during these operations; none but the persons who were tabooed for the purpose might set foot on the ground or pluck up the weeds which grow rankly round the roots of the vegetable.[98] Similarly, in their great fishing-expeditions to catch mackerel, all concerned in making or mending the nets were under a taboo: the ground where the nets were made was sacred, and so was the river on the banks of which the work went on. No man but the tabooed persons might walk over the land or pass up or down the river in a canoe: no fire might be lighted within a prescribed distance: no food might be dressed while the taboo lasted. Not till the net had been finished and wetted with the sacred water, and the owner had caught and eaten a fish, did these burdensome restrictions come to an end by the removal of the taboo.[99] Once more, the men who took part in a warlike expedition were under a severe taboo and had to observe very strictly the customs which that mysterious state of consecration rendered obligatory.[100] Even after their return home they were not allowed to enter their houses or to hold any direct communication with their families who had remained there, till they had been rendered common (_noa_) by a ceremony of desecration. Before that ceremony took place, the warriors were obliged to throw away the remains of the bodies of their foes on which, as usual, they had been feasting; for being sacred food the flesh could only be touched by sacred or tabooed persons. One woman only, the _wahine ariki_, as she was called, that is the elder female of the elder branch of the stock from which the tribe traced their descent, was permitted to touch the sanctified meat; indeed, in order to carry out the ritual of desecration in due form she was expected and required to swallow an ear of the first enemy killed in battle.[101] A warlike expedition might lay even people at home under a taboo; for all who remained behind, including old men, women, and slaves, were often required to observe a rigid fast and to abstain from smoking till the return of the warriors.[102]

[92] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, pp. 84 _sq._

[93] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, p. 84; R. Taylor, _Te
Ika A Maui_, p. 163.

[94] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.
268 _sq._, _s.v._ "Noa."

[95] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, pp. 85 _sq._; R.
Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 163, 164.

[96] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 40.