Dinner being finished, Rutherford and his companions spent the evening
seated around a large fire, while several of the women, whose
countenances he describes as pleasing, amused themselves by playing with
the fingers of the strangers, sometimes opening their shirts at the
breasts, and at other times feeling the calves of their legs, "which
made us think," says Rutherford, "that they were examining us to see if
we were fat enough for eating.
"The large fire," he continues, "that had been made to warm the house,
being now put out, we retired to rest in the usual manner; but although
the fire had been extinguished, the house was still filled with smoke,
the door being shut, and there being neither chimney nor window to let
it out.
"In the morning, when we arose, the chief gave us back our knives and
tobacco-boxes, which they had taken from us while in the canoe, on our
first being made prisoners; and we then breakfasted on some potatoes and
cockles, which had been cooked while we were at the sea-coast, and
brought thence in baskets.
"Aimy's wife and two daughters now arrived, which occasioned another
grand crying ceremony; and when it was over, the three ladies came to
look at me and my companions. In a short time, they had taken a fancy to
some small gilt buttons which I had on my waist-coat; and Aimy making a
sign for me to cut them off, I immediately did so, and presented them
for their acceptance. They received them very gladly, and, shaking hands
with me, exclaimed, 'The white man is very good.'
"The whole of the natives having then seated themselves on the ground in
a ring, we were brought into the middle and, being stripped of our
clothes, and laid on our backs, we were each of us held down by five or
six men, while two others commenced the operation of tattooing us.
"Having taken a piece of charcoal, and rubbed it upon a stone with a
little water until they had produced a thickish liquid, they then dipped
into it an instrument made of bone, having a sharp edge like a chisel,
and shaped in the fashion of a garden-hoe, and immediately applied it to
the skin, striking it twice or thrice with a small piece of wood. This
made it cut into the flesh as a knife would have done, and caused a
great deal of blood to flow, which they kept wiping off with the side of
the hand, in order to see if the impression was sufficiently clear. When
it was not, they applied the bone a second time to the same place. They
employed, however, various instruments in the course of the operation;
one which they sometimes used being made of a shark's tooth, and another
having teeth like a saw. They had them also of different sizes, to suit
the different parts of the work.
"While I was undergoing this operation, although the pain was most
acute, I never either moved or uttered a sound; but my comrades moaned
dreadfully. Although the operators were very quick and dexterous, I was
four hours under their hands; and during the operation Aimy's eldest
daughter several times wiped the blood from my face with some dressed
flax. After it was over she led me to the river, that I might wash
myself, for it had made me completely blind, and then conducted me to a
great fire. They now returned us all our clothes, with the exception of
our shirts, which the women kept for themselves, wearing them, as we
observed, with the fronts behind.
"We were now not only tattooed, but what they called tabooed,[S] the
meaning of which is, made sacred, or forbidden to touch any provisions
of any kind with our hands. This state of things lasted for three days,
during which time we were fed by the daughters of the chiefs, with the
same victuals, and out of the same baskets, as the chiefs themselves,
and the persons who had tattooed us. In three days, the swelling which
had been produced by the operation had greatly subsided, and I began to
recover my sight; but it was six weeks before I was completely well. I
had no medical assistance of any kind during my illness; but Aimy's two
daughters were very attentive to me, and would frequently sit beside me,
and talk to me in their language, of which, as yet, however, I did not
understand much."
The custom of marking the skin, called _tattooing_, is one of the most
widely-diffused practices of savage life, having been found, even in
modern times, to exist, in one modification or another, not only in most
of the inhabited lands of the Pacific, from New Zealand as far north as
the Sandwich Isles, but also among many of the aboriginal tribes both of
Africa and America. In the ancient world it appears to have been at
least equally prevalent. It is evidently alluded to, as well as the
other practice that has just been noticed, of wounding the body by way
of mourning, in the twenty-eighth verse of the nineteenth chapter of
Leviticus, among the laws delivered to the Israelites through
Moses:--"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor
print any marks upon you," both of these being doubtless habits of the
surrounding nations, which the chosen people, according to their usual
propensity, had shown a disposition to imitate.
The few civilized communities of antiquity seem to have been all of them
both singularly incurious as to the manners and conditions of the
barbarous races by whom they were on all sides so closely encompassed,
and, as might be expected, extremely ill-informed on the subject; so
much so, as has been remarked by an author who has written on this topic
with admirable learning and ability, that when Hanno, the Carthaginian,
returned from his investigation of a small part of the west coast of
Africa, he had no difficulty in making his countrymen believe that two
hides, with the hair still on, which he brought back with him, and which
he had taken from two large apes, were actually the skins of savage
women, and deserving of being suspended in the temple of Juno as most
uncommon curiosities.
But, little as these matters seem in general to have attracted the
attention of the ancient writers, their works still contain many notices
of the practice of tattooing. We may cite only one or two of a
considerable number that have been collected by Lafitau,[T] although
even his enumeration might be easily extended. Herodotus mentions it as
prevailing among the Thracians, certain of whom, he says, exhibit such
marks on their faces as an indication of their nobility. Other authors
speak of it as a practice of the Scythians, the Agathyrses, and the
Assyrians. Cæsar remarks it as prevailing among the Britons; and there
can be no doubt that the term _Picti_ was merely a name given to those
more northerly tribes of our countrymen who retained this custom after
it had fallen into decay among their southern brethren, who were in
reality of the same race with themselves, under the ascendancy of the
arts and manners of their Roman conquerors.
The Britons, according to Cæsar, painted their skins to make themselves
objects of greater terror to their enemies; but it is not unlikely that
the real object of these decorations was with them, as it appears to
have been among the other barbarous nations of antiquity, to denote
certain ranks of nobility or chieftainship; and thus to serve, in fact,
nearly the same purpose with our modern coats of arms.
Pliny states that the dye with which the Britons stained themselves was
that of a herb called _glastum_, which is understood to be the same with
plantain. They introduced the juice of this herb into punctures
previously made in the skin, so as to form permanent delineations of
various animals, and other objects, on different parts of the body. The
operation, which seems to have been performed by regular artists, is
said to have been commonly undergone in boyhood; and a stoical endurance
of the pain which it inflicted was considered one of the best proofs the
sufferer could give of his resolution and manliness.
Among the Indians of America, some races are much more tattooed than
others, and some scarcely at all. It it stated that, among the Iroquois
only, a few of the women are in the habit of tracing a single row of
this sort of embroidery along the jaw; and that merely with the intent
of curing or preventing toothache, an effect which they conceive is
produced by the punctures destroying certain nerves. It appears to be
the general practice in America, first to finish the cutting, or graving
of the lines, and afterwards to introduce the colouring, which is
commonly made of pulverised charcoal. This last part of the operation
occasions by far the greatest pain. Among the native tribes of Southern
Africa, the fashion is merely to raise the epidermis by a slight
pricking, which is described as affording rather a pleasurable
excitement.
At the Society Isles these marks, according to Cook, were so general,
that hardly anybody was to be seen without them. Persons of both sexes
were commonly tattooed about the age of twelve or fourteen; and the
decorations, which Cook imagined to vary according to the fancy, or
perhaps, which is more likely, the rank of the individual, were
liberally bestowed upon every part of the body, with the exception,
however, of the face, which was generally left unmarked. They consisted
not only of squares, circles, and other such figures, but frequently
also of rude delineations of men, birds, dogs, and other animals. Banks
saw the operation performed on a girl of about thirteen years of age,
who was held down all the while by several women, and both struggled
hard and made no little outcry as the artist proceeded with his
labours. Yet it would seem that the process in use here is considerably
more gentle than that practised in New Zealand; for the punctures, Cook
affirms, could hardly be said to draw blood. Being afflicted by means of
an instrument with small teeth, somewhat resembling a fine comb, the
effect would be rather a pricking than a cutting, or carving, of the
flesh. Unlike what we have seen to be the practice among the American
savages, the tincture was here introduced by the same blow by which the
skin was punctured. The substance employed was a species of lamp black,
formed of the smoke of an oily nut which the natives burned to give them
light.
The practice of tattooing is now, we believe, discontinued at Otaheite;
but the progress of civilization has not yet altogether banished it at
the Sandwich Islands. When Lord Byron was at Hawaii, in 1825, he found
it used as a mark of mourning, though some still had themselves tattooed
merely by way of ornament. On the death of one of the late kings of the
island, it is stated that all the chiefs had his name and the date of
his death engraved in this manner on their arms. The ladies here, it
seems, follow the very singular practice of tattooing the tips of their
tongues, in memory of their departed friends. In the Tonga, or Friendly
Islands, it would appear from Mariner's very minute description of the
operation as there practised, as at Otaheite and elsewhere, the
instrument used is always a sort of comb, having from six up to fifty or
sixty teeth. There are, Mariner tells us, certain patterns or forms of
the tattoo, and the individual may choose which he likes. On the brown
skins of the natives the marks, which are imprinted by means of a
tincture made of soot, have a black appearance; but on that of a
European, their colour is a fine blue. The women here are not tattooed,
though a few of them have some marks on the inside of their fingers. At
the Fiji Islands, on the contrary, in the neighbourhood of the Tonga
group, the men are not tattooed, but the women are.
The term "tattoo" is not known in New Zealand, the name given to the
marks, which are elsewhere so called, being in this country "Moko," or,
as it has been more generally written, from a habit which the natives
seem to have of prefixing the sound "a" to many of their words,
"Amoco."[U]
The description which Rutherford gives of the process agrees entirely
with what has been stated by other observers; although it certainly has
been generally understood that, in no case, was the whole operation
undergone at once, as it would, however, appear to have been in his.
Both Cruise and Marsden expressly state, that, according to their
information, it always required several months, and sometimes several
years, to tattoo a chief perfectly; owing to the necessity for one part
of the face or body being allowed to heal before commencing the
decoration of another. Perhaps, however, this prolongation of the
process may only be necessary when the moko is of a more intricate
pattern, or extends over a larger portion of the person, than that which
Rutherford received; or, in his peculiar circumstances, it may have been
determined that he should have his powers of endurance put to still
harder proof than a native would have been required to submit to in
undergoing the same ceremony.
The portrait of Rutherford accurately represents the tattooing on his
body. Cruise asserts that the tattooing in New Zealand is renewed
occasionally, as the lines become fainter by time, to the latest period
of life; and that one of the chiefs who returned home in the "Dromedary"
was re-tattooed soon after his arrival.
From Rutherford's account, and he is corroborated as to that point by
the other authorities, it will be perceived that the operation of
tattooing is one of a still more severe and sanguinary description in
New Zealand than it would seem to be in any of the other islands of the
South Sea; for it is performed here, not merely by means of a sort of
fine comb, which merely pricks the skin and draws from it a little serum
slightly tinged with blood, but also by an instrument of the nature of a
chisel, which at every application makes an incision into the flesh,
and causes the blood to start forth in gushes. This chisel is sometimes
nearly a quarter of an inch broad, although, for the more minute parts
of the figure, a smaller instrument is used.
The stick with which the chisel is struck is occasionally formed into a
broad blade at one end, which is applied to wipe away the blood. The
tincture is said to be sometimes obtained from the juice of a particular
tree.
Rutherford has forgotten to mention that, before the cutting has begun
the figure is traced out upon the place; this appears to be always done
in New Zealand as well as elsewhere, a piece of burnt stick or red earth
being, according to Savage,[V] used for the purpose.
Some are tattooed at eight or ten years of age; but a young man is
accounted very effeminate who reaches his twentieth year without having
undergone the operation. Marsden told one of the chiefs, King George, as
he was called, that he must not tattoo his nephew Racow,[W] who was a
very fine-looking youth, with a dignified, open, and placid countenance,
remarking that it would quite disfigure his face; "but he laughed at my
advice," says Marsden, "and said he must be tattooed, as it would give
him a noble, masculine, and warlike appearance; that he would not be fit
for his successor with a smooth face; the New Zealanders would look on
him merely as a woman if he was not tattooed."
Savage says that a small spiral figure on each side of the chin, a
semi-circular figure over each eyebrow, and two, or sometimes three,
lines on each lip, are all the tattooing the New Zealand women are
required to submit to.
Rutherford's account is that they have a figure tattooed on the chin
resembling a crown turned upside down; that the inside of their lips is
also tattooed, the figures here appearing of a blue colour; and that
they have also a mark on each side of the mouth resembling a
candlestick, as well as two stripes about an inch long on the forehead,
and one on each side of the nose. Their decorations of this description,
as well as of the other sex, are no doubt different in different parts
of the country.
"With respect to the amocos," says Cook in his First Voyage, "every
different tribe seemed to have a different custom; for all the men in
some canoes seemed to be almost covered with it, and those in others had
scarcely a stain, except on the lips, which were black in all of them,
without a single exception."
Rutherford states that in the part of the country where he was, the men
were commonly tattooed on their face, hips, and bodies, and some as low
as the knee. None were allowed to be tattooed on the forehead, chin, and
upper lip, except the very greatest among the chiefs. The more they are
tattooed, he adds, the more they are honoured. The priests, Savage says,
have only a small square patch of tattooing over the right eye.
These stains, although their brilliancy may perhaps decay with time,
being thus fixed in the flesh, are of course indelible, just as much as
the marks of a similar nature which our own sailors frequently make on
their arms and breasts, by introducing gunpowder under the skin. One
effect, we are told, which they produce on the countenances of the New
Zealanders, is to conceal the ravages of old age. Being thus permanent
when once imprinted, each becomes also the peculiar distinction of the
individual to whom it belongs, and is probably sometimes employed by him
as his mark or sign manual. An officer belonging to the "Dromedary," who
happened to have a coat of arms engraved on his seal, was frequently
asked by the New Zealanders if the device was his "amoco." When the
missionaries purchased a piece of land from one of the Bay of Islands
chiefs, named Gunnah,[X] a copy of the tattooing on the face of the
latter, being drawn by a brother chief, was affixed to the grant as his
signature; while another native signed as a witness, by adding the
"amoco" of one of his own cheeks.
[Illustration: _Moko_ on woman's lips and chin.
_Moko_ on man's face.
Names of lines in order of incision--
1. _Kau-wae_ (13)
2. _Pere-pehi_ (7)
3. _Hupe_ (15)
4. _Ko-kiri_ (9)
5. _Koro-aha_ (10)
6. _Puta-ringa_ (12)
7. _Po-ngia-ngia_ (4) and _Tara-whakatara_ (5)
8. _Pae-pae_ (11), _Kumi-kumi_ (6), and _Wero_ (8)
9. _Rerepi_ (3)
10. _Ti-whana_ (1) and _Rawha_ (2)
11. _Ti-ti_ (14)
12. _Ipu-rangi_ (16)]
This is certainly a more perfect substitute for a written name than
that said to have been anciently in use in some parts of Europe. In
Russia, for example, it is affirmed that in old times the way in which
an individual generally gave his signature to a writing was by covering
the palm of his hand with ink, and then laying it on the paper. Balbi,
who states this, adds that the Russian language still retains an
evidence of the practice in its phrase for signing a document, which is
_roukou prilojite_, signifying, literally, to put the hand to it. It may
be remarked, however, that this is a form of expression even in our own
country; although there is certainly no trace of the singular custom in
question having ever prevailed among our ancestors. Whatever may be the
fact as to the Russian idiom, our own undoubtedly refers merely to the
application of the hand with the pen in it. Each chief appears to be
intimately acquainted with the peculiarities of his own "amoco."
There is also in the possession of the Church Missionary Society a bust
of Shungie, cut in a very hard wood by himself, with a rude iron
instrument of his own fabrication, on which the tattooing on his face is
exactly copied.
The tattooing of the young New Zealander, before he takes his rank as
one of the warriors of his tribe, is doubtless also intended to put his
manhood to the proof; and may thus be regarded as having the same object
with those ceremonies of initiation, as they have been called, which
are practised among some other savage nations on the admission of an
individual to any new degree of honour or chieftainship.
Among many nations of the American Indians, indeed, this cutting and
marking of the person is one of the principal inflictions to which the
aspirant is required to submit on such occasions. Thus, in the account
which Rochefort, in his "History of the Antilles," gives us of the
initiation of a warrior among the people of those islands, it is stated
that the father of the young man, after a very rude flagellation of his
son, used to proceed to scarify (as he expresses it) his whole body with
a tooth of the animal called the "acouti"; and then, in order to heal
the gashes thus made, he rubbed into them an infusion of pimento, which
occasioned an agonizing pain to the poor patient; but it was
indispensable that he should endure the whole, adds our author, without
the least contortion of countenance or any other evidence of suffering.
Wherever, indeed, the spirit of war has entered largely into the
institutions of a people, as it has almost always done among savage and
imperfectly civilized nations, we find traces of similar observances.
Something of the same object which has just been attributed to the
tattooing of the New Zealanders, and the more complicated ceremonies of
initiation practised among the American Indians, may be recognised even
in certain of the rites of European chivalry, whether we take them as
described in the learned volumes of Du Cange, or in the more amusing
recitals of Cervantes.
The New Zealanders, like many other savages, are also in the habit of
anointing themselves with a mixture of grease and red ochre. This sort
of rouge is very much used by the women, and "being generally," says
Cook, "fresh and wet upon their cheeks and foreheads, was easily
transferred to the noses of those who thought fit to salute them; and
that they were not wholly averse to such familiarity, the noses of
several of our men strongly testified." "The faces of the men," he adds,
"were not so generally painted; yet we saw one, whose whole body, and
even his garments, were rubbed over with dry ochre, of which he kept a
piece constantly in his hand, and was every minute renewing the
decoration in one part or another, where he supposed it was become
deficient."
It has been conjectured that this painting of the body, among its other
uses, might also be intended, in some cases, as a protection against the
weather, or, in other words, to serve the same purpose as clothing. Even
where there is no plastering, the tattooing may be found to indurate the
skin, and to render it less sensible to cold. This notion, perhaps,
derives some confirmation from the appearance which these marks often
assume.
Cook describes some of the New Zealanders, whom he saw on his first
visit to the country, as having their thighs stained entirely black,
with the exception of a few narrow lines, "so that at first sight," says
he, "they appeared to wear striped breeches."
The Baron de Humboldt, too, informs us that the Indians of Guiana
sometimes imitate, in the oddest manner, the clothes of Europeans in
painting their skin. This observant traveller was much amused by seeing
the body of a native painted to represent a blue jacket and black
buttons. The missionaries also told him that the people of the Rio Caura
paint themselves of a red ground, and then variegate the colour with
transverse stripes of silver mica, so that they look most gallantly
dressed. The painted cheeks that were once common in Europe, and are
still occasionally seen, are relics of the same barbarism.
The "taboo," or "tapu," prevails also in many of the South Sea Islands,
where it may be considered as the substitute for law; although its
authority, in reality, rests on what we should rather call religious
considerations, inasmuch as it appears to be obeyed entirely from the
apprehension that its violation would bring down the anger of heaven.
It would require more space than we can afford to enumerate the various
cases in which the "taboo" operates as a matter of course, even were we
to say nothing of the numerous exigencies in which a resort to it seems
to be at the option of the parties concerned. Among the former, we may
merely mention that a person supposed to be dying seems to be uniformly
placed under the "taboo"; and that the like consecration, if it may be
so called, is always imposed for a certain space upon the individual who
has undergone any part of the process of tattooing. But we are by no
means fully informed either as to the exact rules that govern this
matter, or even as to the peculiar description of persons to whom it
belongs, on any occasion, to impose the "taboo." It is common in New
Zealand for such of the chiefs as possess this power to separate, by
means of the "taboo," any thing which they wish either to appropriate to
themselves, or to protect, with any other object, from indiscriminate
use.
When Tetoro was shown, in the "Dromedary," a double-barrelled
fowling-piece, belonging to one of the officers, he "tabooed" it by
tying a thread, pulled out of his cloak, round the guard of the trigger,
and said that it must be his when he got to New Zealand, and that the
owner should have thirty of his finest mats for it. But this, according
to Cruise, any native may do with regard to an article for which he has
bargained, in order to secure it till he has paid the price agreed upon.
On another occasion, Cruise found a number of people collected round an
object which seemed to attract general attention, and which they told
him was "tabooed." It turned out to be a plant of the common English
pea, which was fenced round with little sticks, and had apparently been
tended with very anxious care.
When the "Prince Regent" schooner, which accompanied the "Dromedary,"
lay at anchor in the river Shukehanga,[Y] a chief named Moodooi,[Z]
greatly to the comfort of the captain, came one day on deck and
"tabooed" the vessel, or made it a crime for any one to ascend the side
without permission, which injunction was strictly attended to by the
natives during his stay in the harbour.
So, when any land is purchased, it is secured to the purchaser by being
"tabooed."
Marsden states that upon one occasion he found a great number of canoes
employed in fishing, and all the fish which they took were immediately
"tabooed," and could not be purchased. These fish were probably intended
to be cured and preserved as part of the common stock of the tribe.
The principal inconveniences sustained by the person who is "tabooed"
seem to be that he must have no communication with any who are not in
the same condition as himself, and that in eating he must not help
himself to his food with his hands. The chiefs are in such a case fed
by their attendant; but the absurd prohibition is a serious punishment
to the common people, who have nobody to assist them.
Nicholas relates an amusing incident illustrative of this. "On going
into the town," says he, "in the course of the day, I beheld several of
the natives sitting round some baskets of dressed potatoes; and being
invited to join them in their meal, I mingled with the group, when I
observed one man stoop down with his mouth for each morsel, and
scrupulously careful in avoiding all contact between his hands and the
food he was eating. From this I knew at once that he was 'tabooed;' and
upon asking the reason of his being so, as he appeared in good health,
and not afflicted with any complaint that could set him without the pale
of ordinary intercourse, I found that it was because he was then
building a house, and that he could not be released from the 'taboo'
till he had it finished. Being only a "cookee,"[AA] he had no person to
wait upon him, but was obliged to submit to the distressing operation of
feeding himself in the manner proscribed by the superstitious ordinance;
and he was told by the tohunga, or priest, that if he presumed to put
one finger to his mouth before he had completed the work he was about,
the atua (divinity) would certainly punish his impious contempt, by
getting into his stomach before his time, and eating him out of the
world. Of this premature destiny he seemed so apprehensive that he kept
his hands as though they were never made for touching any article of
diet; nor did he suffer them by even a single motion to show the least
sympathy for his mouth, while that organ was obliged to use double
exertions, and act for those members which superstition had paralysed.
"Sitting down by the side of this deluded being, whom credulity and
ignorance had rendered hopeless," says Nicholas, "I undertook to feed
him; and his appetite being quite voracious, I could hardly supply it as
fast as he devoured. Without ever consulting his digestive powers, of
which we cannot suppose he had any idea, he spared himself the trouble
of mastication; and, to lose no time, swallowed down every lump as I put
it into his mouth: and I speak within compass when I assert that he
consumed more food than would have served any two ploughmen in England.
"Perfectly tired of administering to his insatiable gluttony, which was
still as ravenous as when he commenced, I now wished for a little
intermission; and taking advantage of his situation, I resolved to give
him as much to do as would employ him for at least a few minutes,
while, in the meantime, it would afford me some amusement for my
trouble. I therefore thrust into his mouth the largest hot potato I
could find, and this had exactly the intended effect; for the fellow,
unwilling to drop it, and not daring to penetrate it before it should
get cool, held it slightly compressed between his teeth, to the great
enjoyment of his countrymen, who laughed heartily, as well as myself, at
the wry faces he made, and the efforts he used with his tongue to
moderate the heat of the potato, and bring it to the temperature of his
gums, which were evidently smarting from the contact. But he bore this
trick with the greatest possible good humour, and to make him amends for
it, I took care to supply him plentifully, till he cried out, 'Nuee nuee
kiki,'[AB] and could eat no more; an exclamation, however, which he did
not make till there was no more in the baskets."[AC]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote S: tapu'd.]
[Footnote T: "Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains."]
[Footnote U: "Moko" is the accepted form of spelling the word.]
[Footnote V: "Account of New Zealand."]
[Footnote W: Probably Rakau.]
[Footnote X: This is the name given in the deed of sale, dated February
24th, 1815, but the correct spelling is probably "Kuna" or "Kena."]
[Footnote Y: Hokianga Harbour.]
[Footnote Z: Probably Muriwai, a celebrated Hokianga chief.]
[Footnote AA: Mr. S. Percy Smith, of New Plymouth, states that this word
was very common in New Zealand fifty or sixty years ago. It was applied
to servants, and was derived from the English word "cook." In Maori it
is "kuki."]
[Footnote AB: This means "plenty of food," or "sufficient"; but it is
European Maori. One Maori, speaking to another, would say "He nui te
kai."]
[Footnote AC: The best account of the operation of the law of tapu is
given by Judge Maning in "Old New Zealand."]