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THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
VOL. II
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
THE
BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
AND THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD
BY
SIR JAMES GEORGE FRAZER, F.R.S., F.B.A.
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
HON. D.C.L., OXFORD; HON. LITT.D., CAMBRIDGE AND DURHAM;
HON. LL.D., GLASGOW; DOCTOR HONORIS CAUSA OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF
PARIS AND STRASBOURG
VOL. II
THE BELIEF AMONG THE POLYNESIANS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1922
COPYRIGHT
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
PREFACE
The first volume of this work, which comprised the Gifford Lectures
given by me at St. Andrews in the years 1911 and 1912, dealt with the
belief in immortality and the worship of the dead, as these are found
among the aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New
Guinea, and Melanesia. In the present volume I take up the subject at
the point at which I broke off, and describe the corresponding belief
and worship among the Polynesians, a people related to their neighbours
the Melanesians by language, if not by blood. The first chapter formed
the theme of two lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in 1916;
the other chapters have been written for lectures at Trinity College,
Cambridge, in 1921 and 1922. But in the book the lecture form has been
discarded, and the treatment of the subject is somewhat fuller than
comports with the limits imposed by oral delivery.
Should circumstances allow me to continue the work, I propose in the
next volume to treat of the belief in immortality and the worship of the
dead among the Micronesians and Indonesians.
J. G. FRAZER.
NO. 1 BRICK COURT, TEMPLE,
LONDON, _19th July 1922_.
CONTENTS
PAGES
PREFACE v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii-ix
CHAP.
I. THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE MAORIS 1-51
Sec. 1. The Polynesians 1-5
Sec. 2. The Maoris of New Zealand 5-10
Sec. 3. The Beliefs of the Maoris concerning the Souls of
the Living 10-19
Sec. 4. The Beliefs of the Maoris concerning the Souls of
the Dead 19-37
Sec. 5. Taboo among the Maoris 37-50
Sec. 6. Conclusion 51
II. THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE TONGANS 52-147
Sec. 1. The Tonga or Friendly Islands 52-57
Sec. 2. The Tonga Islanders, their Character, Mode of
Life, and Government 57-63
Sec. 3. The Tongan Religion: its General Principles 64-68
Sec. 4. The Primary or Non-human Gods 68-73
Sec. 5. The Temples of the Gods 73-77
Sec. 6. Priests and their Inspiration 77-79
Sec. 7. The Worship of the Gods, Prayers, and Sacrifices 79-84
Sec. 8. The Doctrine of the Soul and its Destiny
after Death 84-91
Sec. 9. The Souls of the Dead as Gods 91-98
Sec. 10. Temples and Tombs: Megalithic Monuments 99-132
Sec. 11. Rites of Burial and Mourning 132-146
Sec. 12. The Ethical Influence of Tongan Religion 146-147
III. THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE SAMOANS 148-218
Sec. 1. The Samoan Islands 148-156
Sec. 2. The Samoan Islanders, their character 156-163
Sec. 3. Houses, Agriculture, and Industries 163-169
Sec. 4. Rights of Property 169-171
Sec. 5. Government, Social Ranks, Respect for Chiefs 171-181
Sec. 6. Religion: Gods of Families, Villages,
and Districts 181-192
Sec. 7. Priests and Temples 192-200
Sec. 8. Origin of the Samoan Gods of Families, Villages,
and Districts: Relation to Totemism 200-202
Sec. 9. The High Gods of Samoa 202-205
Sec. 10. The Samoan Belief concerning the Human
Soul: Funeral Customs 205-213
Sec. 11. The Fate of the Human Soul after Death 213-218
IV. THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE HERVEY ISLANDERS 219-245
Sec. 1. The Hervey or Cook Islands 219-220
Sec. 2. The Islanders and their Mode of Life 220-223
Sec. 3. Social Life: the Sacred Kings 223-225
Sec. 4. Religion, the Gods, Traces of Totemism 225-229
Sec. 5. The Doctrine of the Human Soul 229-231
Sec. 6. Death and Funeral Rites 231-237
Sec. 7. The Fate of the Human Soul after Death 238-245
V. THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE SOCIETY ISLANDERS 246-327
Sec. 1. The Society Islands 246-248
Sec. 2. The Islanders and their Mode of Life 248-256
Sec. 3. The Religion of the Society Islanders 256-278
Sec. 4. The Temples and Images of the Gods 278-291
Sec. 5. The Sacrifices, Priests, and Sacred Recorders 291-296
Sec. 6. The Doctrine of the Human Soul 297-299
Sec. 7. Disease, Death, and Mourning 299-308
Sec. 8. The Disposal of the Dead 308-313
Sec. 9. The Fate of the Soul after Death 313-321
Sec. 10. The Worship of the Dead 322-327
VI. THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE MARQUESANS 328-374
Sec. 1. The Marquesas Islands 328-331
Sec. 2. Physical Appearance of the Natives 331-333
Sec. 3. Food, Weapons, Tools, Houses, Canoes, Fishing 333-337
Sec. 4. Polyandry, Adoption, Exchange of Names 337-339
Sec. 5. Amusements, Dancing-places, Banqueting-halls 339-344
Sec. 6. Social Ranks, Taboo 344-347
Sec. 7. Religion and Mythology 348-352
Sec. 8. The Soul, Death, and Funeral Customs 352-363
Sec. 9. Fate of the Soul after Death 363-374
VII. THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE HAWAIIANS 375-431
Sec. 1. The Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands 375-377
Sec. 2. The Natives and their Mode of Life 377-380
Sec. 3. Houses, Mechanical Arts 380-383
Sec. 4. Government, Social Ranks, Taboo 383-390
Sec. 5. Religion, the Gods 390-404
Sec. 6. Priests, Sorcerers, Diviners 404-406
Sec. 7. Temples, Images, Human Sacrifices 406-414
Sec. 8. Festivals 414-416
Sec. 9. Death and Funeral Rites 417-427
Sec. 10. Fate of the Soul after Death 427-431
INDEX 433-447
CHAPTER I
THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE MAORIS
Sec. 1. _The Polynesians_
The Polynesians are the tall brown race of men who inhabit the widely
scattered islands of the Pacific, from Hawaii on the north to New
Zealand on the south, and from Tonga on the west to Easter Island on the
east.[1] Down to the eighteenth century they remained practically
unknown to Europe; the first navigator to bring back comparatively full
and accurate information concerning them was our great English explorer,
Captain James Cook. Thus at the date of their discovery the natives were
quite unaffected by European influence: of our civilisation they knew
nothing: of Christianity, though it had existed in the world for nearly
eighteen hundred years, they had never heard: they were totally ignorant
of the metals, and had made so little progress in the arts of life that
in most of the islands pottery was unknown,[2] and even so simple an
invention as that of bows and arrows for use in war had not been thought
of.[3] Hence their condition was of great interest to students of the
early history of man, since it presented to their observation the
spectacle of a barbaric culture evolved from an immemorial past in
complete independence of those material, intellectual, and moral forces
which have moulded the character of modern European nations. The
lateness of their discovery may also be reckoned a fortunate
circumstance for us as well as for them, since it fell at a time when
scientific curiosity was fully awakened among us, and when scientific
methods were sufficiently understood to allow us to study with profit a
state of society which differed so widely from our own, and which in an
earlier and less enlightened age might have been contemplated only with
aversion and disgust.
[1] Horatio Hale, _The United States Exploring Expedition,
Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), pp. 4 _sqq_.,
9 _sqq._; J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (London, 1900), pp. 500
_sqq._
[2] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (London, 1900), pp. 154, 501;
_British Museum, Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections_
(1910), p. 147.
[3] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_ (London, 1809), v. 416; W.
Mariner, _Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands_, Second
Edition (London, 1818), i. 67; W. Ellis, _Polynesian
Researches_, Second Edition (London, 1832-1836), i. 220; E.
Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,
Second Edition (London, 1856), p. 212; J. Deniker, _The Races of
Man_, p. 501. In Polynesia "the bow was not a serious weapon; it
was found in some islands, _e.g._ in Tahiti and Tonga, but was
principally used for killing rats or in shooting matches"
(_British Museum, Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections_,
p. 153). As to the limited use of bows and arrows in Polynesia,
see further E. Tregear, "The Polynesian Bow," _Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, vol. i. no. 1 (April 1892), pp. 56-59; W.
H. R. Rivers, _The History of Melanesian Society_ (Cambridge,
1914), ii. 446 _sqq._
The question of the origin of the Polynesian race is still unsettled,
but the balance both of evidence and of probability seems to incline in
favour of the view that the people are descended from one of the yellow
Mongoloid races of South-Eastern Asia, who gradually spread eastward
over the Indian Archipelago and intermingling to some extent with the
black aboriginal inhabitants of the islands formed the lighter-tinted
brown race which we call the Polynesian.[4] A strong argument in favour
of this theory is drawn from the Polynesian language, which belongs
essentially to the same family of speech as the Melanesian and Malay
languages spoken by the peoples who occupy the islands that intervene
between Polynesia and the south-eastern extremity of the Asiatic
continent.[5] The black Melanesian race occupies the south-eastern
portion of New Guinea and the chain of islands which stretches in a
great curve round the north-eastern coasts of New Guinea and Australia.
The brown Malays, with the kindred Indonesians and a small admixture of
negritoes, inhabit the islands westward from New Guinea to the Malay
Peninsula.[6] Of the two kindred languages, the Polynesian and the
Melanesian, the older in point of structure appears unquestionably to be
the Melanesian; for it is richer both in sounds and in grammatical forms
than the Polynesian, which may accordingly be regarded as its later and
simplified descendant.[7]
[4] Compare (Sir) E. B. Tylor, _Anthropology_ (London, 1881), p.
102; R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesian Languages_ (Oxford,
1885), pp. 33 _sqq._; S. Percy Smith, _Hawaiki, the Original
Home of the Maori_ (Christchurch, etc., New Zealand, 1910), pp.
85 _sqq._; A. C. Haddon, _The Wanderings of Peoples_ (Cambridge,
1919), pp. 34 _sqq._; A. H. Keane, _Man Past and Present_,
revised by A. Hingston-Quiggin and A. C. Haddon (Cambridge,
1920), p. 552.
[5] On the affinity of the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Malay
languages, see R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesian Languages_
(Oxford, 1885), pp. 10 _sqq._; S. H. Ray, "The Polynesian
Language in Melanesia," _Anthropos_, xiv.-xv. (1919-1920), pp.
46 _sqq._
[6] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_, pp. 482 _sqq._
[7] _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to
Torres Straits_, vol. iii. _Linguistics_, by Sydney H. Ray
(Cambridge, 1907), p. 528 (as to the relation of the Polynesian
to the Melanesian language). As to the poverty of the Polynesian
language in sounds and grammatical forms by comparison with the
Melanesian, see R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesian Languages_, p.
11.
But whereas the three peoples, the Polynesians, the Melanesians, and the
Malays speak languages belonging to the same family, their physical
types are so different that it seems impossible to look on the brown
straight-haired Polynesians and Malays as pure descendants of the
swarthy frizzly-haired Melanesians. Accordingly in the present state of
our knowledge, or rather ignorance, the most reasonable hypothesis would
appear to be that the Melanesians, who occupy a central position in the
great ocean, between the Polynesians on the east and the Malays on the
west, represent the original inhabitants of the islands, while the
Polynesians and Malays represent successive swarms of emigrants, who
hived off from the Asiatic continent, and making their way eastward over
the islands partially displaced and partially blent with the aborigines,
modifying their own physical type in the process and exchanging their
original language for that of the islanders, which, through their
inability to assimilate it, they acquired only in corrupt or degenerate
forms.[8] Yet a serious difficulty meets us on this hypothesis. For
both the Polynesians and the Malays, as we know them, stand at a
decidedly higher level of culture, socially and intellectually, than the
Melanesians, and it is hard to understand why with this advantage they
should have fallen into a position of linguistic subordination to them,
for as a rule it is the higher race which imposes its language on its
inferiors, not the lower race which succeeds in foisting its speech on
its superiors.
[8] This seems to be the hypothesis favoured by Dr. R. H.
Codrington, _The Melanesian Languages_, pp. 33 _sqq._ Compare J.
Deniker, _The Races of Man_, p. 505. On the other hand Sir E. B.
Tylor says (_Anthropology_, pp. 163 _sq._), "The parent language
of this family may have belonged to Asia, for in the Malay
region the grammar is more complex, and words are found like
_tasik_ = sea and _langit_ = sky, while in the distant islands
of New Zealand and Hawaii these have come down to _tai_ and
_lai_, as though the language became shrunk and formless as the
race migrated further from home, and sank into the barbaric life
of ocean islanders." Dr. W. H. R. Rivers suggests that the
Polynesian language "arose out of a pidgin Indonesian" (_The
History of Melanesian Society_, ii. 584).
But these are intricate questions which await future investigation. I
cannot enter into them now, but must confine myself to my immediate
subject, the beliefs of the Polynesians concerning the human soul and
the life after death.
In spite of their diffusion over a multitude of islands separated from
each other by hundreds and even thousands of miles of ocean, the
Polynesians are on the whole a remarkably homogeneous race in physical
type, language, and forms of society and religion. The differences of
language between them are inconsiderable, amounting to little more than
some well-marked dialectical variations: all dwell in settled homes and
subsist partly by fishing partly by the fruits of the earth, tilling the
soil and gathering coconuts and bread-fruit from the trees:[9] all are
bold and expert mariners, making long voyages in large well-built
canoes: all possess a copious and comparatively well developed
mythology; and all at the time of their discovery enjoyed, or perhaps we
should rather say suffered from, a singular institution, half social,
half religious, which may be summed up in the single Polynesian word
taboo. Hence it would no doubt be possible to give a general account of
the belief in human immortality which would hold good in outline for all
the different branches of the Polynesian race; but such an account would
necessarily be somewhat meagre, inexact in detail, and liable to many
exceptions. Accordingly I shall not attempt it, but shall describe the
creed of each group of islanders separately. As the beliefs of the
various islanders on this momentous topic are characterised by a general
similarity, the method I have adopted will no doubt involve a certain
sameness and repetition, but for the serious student of comparative
religion I hope that these disadvantages may be more than outweighed by
the greater accuracy and fulness of detail which this mode of treating
the subject renders possible.
[9] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_, p. 501. On the apparent
homogeneity of the Polynesian race see W. H. R. Rivers, _The
History of Melanesian Society_ (Cambridge, 1914), ii. 280, who,
however, argues (ii. 280 _sqq._) that the race has been formed
by the fusion of two distinct peoples.
The principal groups of islands included in Polynesia are New Zealand,
the Friendly or Tonga Islands, the Samoan or Navigators Islands, the
Hervey or Cook Islands, the Society Islands, including Tahiti, the
Marquesas Islands, and Hawaii or the Sandwich Islands.[10] All of them,
except New Zealand, are within the tropics; and all of them, except
Hawaii, lie to the south of the equator. I shall deal with them in the
order I have mentioned, beginning with New Zealand.
[10] Horatio Hale, _United States Exploring Expedition,
Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), pp. 4 _sqq._
Sec. 2. _The Maoris of New Zealand_
The Maoris of New Zealand are not aborigines of the islands which they
inhabit: they possess long and apparently in the main trustworthy
traditions of their migration to New Zealand many generations ago. The
circumstances which led to the migration, the names of the canoes in
which it was accomplished, the names and genealogies of the chiefs who
conducted it, are all recorded, having been handed on by word of mouth
from generation to generation, till they were finally written down from
the lips of the natives by English enquirers.[11] The place from which
the Maoris came is unanimously designated as Hawaiki, an island or
group of islands lying far to the north or north-east of New Zealand.
Among English scholars there is some difference of opinion whether
Hawaiki is to be identified with Hawaii, that is, the Sandwich Islands,
or with Savaii, one of the Samoan or Navigators Islands, since Hawaii
and Savaii are both dialectical variations of the New Zealander's
pronunciation of Hawaiki.[12] Though Hawaii is more than twice as far as
Savaii from New Zealand, being separated from it by almost the whole
breadth of the tropics and a great stretch of ocean besides, some good
authorities have inclined to regard it as the original home of the
Maoris, but the balance of opinion appears now to preponderate in favour
of the view that Savaii was the centre from which the Polynesians
dispersed all over the Pacific.[13] However, the question is one that
hardly admits of a positive answer.
[11] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_ (London, 1843),
ii. 85 _sqq._; Horatio Hale, _United States Exploring
Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), pp.
146 _sqq._; Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_ (London,
1855), pp. 123 _sqq._, 136 _sqq._, 162 _sqq._, 202 _sqq._; E.
Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,
Second Edition (London, 1856), pp. 1 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika
A Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_, Second Edition
(London, 1870), pp. 26, 27, 289 _sqq._; John White, _The Ancient
History of the Maori, his Mythology and Traditions_ (London,
1887-1889), ii. 176 _sqq._; Elsdon Best, "The Peopling of New
Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) pp. 73-76. The number of
generations which have elapsed since the migration to New
Zealand is variously estimated. Writing about the middle of the
nineteenth century Shortland reckoned the number at about
eighteen; Mr. Elsdon Best, writing in 1914, variously calculated
it at about twenty-eight or twenty-nine (on p. 73) and from
eighteen to twenty-eight (on p. 74).
[12] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, p. 33.
[13] H. Hale, _Ethnography and Philology of the U.S. Exploring
Expedition_, pp. 119 _sq._; E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New
Zealand_ (London, 1843), ii. 85 _sqq._; E. Shortland,
_Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 33
_sqq._; A. S. Thomson, _The Story of New Zealand_ (London,
1859), i. 57 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 26; E.
Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_ (Wellington,
N.Z., 1891), pp. 56 _sqq._, _s.v._ "Hawaiki"; A. C. Haddon, _The
Wanderings of Peoples_ (Cambridge, 1919), p. 36. Of these
writers, Dieffenbach, Shortland, and Taylor decide in favour of
Hawaii; Thomson, Hale, and Haddon prefer Savaii; Tregear seems
to leave the question open, pointing out that "the inhabitants
of those islands themselves believe in another Hawaiki, neither
in Samoa nor Hawaii."
The Maoris are not a pure-blooded Polynesian race. Among them even at
the present day two distinct racial types may be distinguished, one of
them the comparatively fair Polynesian type with straight nose and good
features, the other the swarthy, thick-lipped, flat-nosed,
frizzly-haired Melanesian type. They have a tradition that on their
arrival in New Zealand they found the country in the possession of a
dark-skinned folk of repulsive appearance, tall, spare, and
spindle-shanked, with flat faces, overhanging brows, and noses of which
little but the upturned nostrils could in some cases be discerned. These
savages wore little clothing and built no good houses, nothing but rude
shelters against the inclemency of the weather. They were ignorant and
treacherous, and the Maoris regarded them with dislike and contempt; but
their women looked with favour on the handsome Maori men, and a mixture
of the two races was the result. This tradition both explains and is
confirmed by the two different racial types which still exist side by
side or blent together among the Maoris. It seems, therefore, highly
probable that before the advent of the Maoris the North Island of New
Zealand was occupied by a people of inferior culture belonging to the
Melanesian stock, who may themselves have had a strain of Polynesian
blood in their veins and some Polynesian words in their language. This
at least is suggested by some features in the Maori traditions about
them. For these savages told the Maoris that they were the descendants
of the crews of three fishing canoes which had been driven to sea from
their own land in past times, and that their original home was a much
warmer country than New Zealand. All these various indications may
perhaps be reconciled by supposing that the dark predecessors of the
Maoris in New Zealand were a Melanesian people, who had accidentally
drifted from Fiji, the inhabitants of which have long been in contact
with their Polynesian neighbours on the east, the Tongans.[14] They
received from the Maoris the name of Maruiwi,[15] and were perhaps of
the same stock as the Moriori of the Chatham Islands; for two skulls of
the Moriori type have been found in an old deposit at Wanganui, near the
south end of the North Island of New Zealand.[16]
[14] Elsdon Best, "The Peopling of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv.
(1914) pp. 73-76. The Melanesian strain in the Maoris was
recognised by previous writers. See J. S. Polack, _Manners and
Customs of the New Zealanders_ (London, 1840), i. 6, "The nation
consists of two aboriginal and distinct races, differing, at an
earlier period, as much from each other as both are similarly
removed in similitude from Europeans. A series of intermarriages
for centuries has not even yet obliterated the marked difference
that originally stamped the descendant of the now amalgamated
races. The first may be known by a dark-brown complexion, well
formed and prominent features, erect muscular proportions, and
lank hair, with a boldness in the gait of a warrior, wholly
differing from that of the second and inferior race, who have a
complexion brown-black, hair inclining to the wool, like the
Eastern African, stature short, and skin exceeding soft." The
writer rightly connects the latter people with the stock which
we now call Melanesian. Compare also R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_,
pp. 13 _sqq._, who says (p. 13), "The Melanesian preceded the
Polynesian.... The remains of this race are to be seen in every
part of New Zealand, especially among the Nga-ti-ka-hunu, to
which the derisive name of Pokerekahu--Black Kumara--is applied.
The Maori traditions preserve both the names of the canoes which
brought them to New Zealand, as well as of the chiefs who
commanded them; several of these records make mention of their
having found this black race in occupation of the country on
their arrival." The blending of two distinct races, a
light-brown and a dark race, among the Maoris is clearly
recognised by E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii.
8-11. The dark race, he says (pp. 9 _sq._), "has undoubtedly a
different origin. This is proved by their less regularly shaped
cranium, which is rather more compressed from the sides, by
their full and large features, prominent cheek-bones, full lips,
small ears, curly and coarse, although not woolly, hair, a much
deeper colour of the skin, and a short and rather
ill-proportioned figure. This race, which is mixed in insensible
gradations with the former, is far less numerous; it does not
predominate in any one part of the island, nor does it occupy
any particular station in a tribe, and there is no difference
made between the two races amongst themselves; but I must
observe that I never met any man of consequence belonging to
this race, and that, although free men, they occupy the lower
grades; from this we may perhaps infer the relation in which
they stood to the earliest native immigrants into the country,
although their traditions and legends are silent on the
subject."
[15] Elsdon Best, "The Peopling of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv.
(1914) pp. 73 _sq._
[16] (Sir) Arthur Keith, "Moriori in New Zealand," _Man_, xiii.
(1913) pp. 171 _sq._
At the time of their discovery the Maoris had attained to a fair level
of barbaric culture. They lived in comfortable houses ornamented with
carved work and with scrolls painted in red and white on the posts and
beams. Their villages were fortified with earthworks, palisades, and
trenches, and surrounded by large gardens planted with sweet potatoes,
taro, and melons.[17] "They excel in tillage," says Captain Cook, as
might naturally be expected, where the person that sows is to eat the
produce, and where there is so little besides that can be eaten: when we
first came to Tegadoo, a district between Poverty Bay and East Cape,
their crops were just covered, and not yet begun to sprout; the mould
was as smooth as in a garden, and every root had its small hillock,
ranged in a regular quincunx, by lines, which with the pegs were still
remaining in the field.[18] They understood the arts of irrigating their
gardens[19] and of manuring them so as to render the soil light and
porous and therefore better suited for the growth of the sweet potato,
their favourite food. For this purpose they used sand, and in the
Waikatoo district, where the root was formerly much cultivated, deep
excavations, like the gravel pits of England, may still be seen, from
which the natives extracted sand to fertilise their gardens.[20]
Moreover, they cultivated various species of native flax and used the
fibre for the manufacture of garments, first scraping it and drying it
in the sun, then steeping it in water, and afterwards beating it with
wooden mallets. Thus prepared the flax was dyed black or reddish brown
and woven into cloth with broad borders of neat and varied patterns. The
stronger and coarser fibres were made into string, lines, and cordage of
all sorts.[21] The Maoris also built large and magnificently adorned
canoes,[22] in which they made long voyages; for example, they invaded
and conquered the Chatham Islands, which lie to the eastward across the
open sea about five hundred miles distant from the nearest coast of New
Zealand.[23] In hunting they had little opportunity to shine, for the
simple reason that in their country there were no beasts to hunt except
rats;[24] even birds they could not shoot, because they had no bows and
arrows to shoot them with,[25] but they made some amends by catching
them in ingeniously constructed snares.[26] They caught fish both with
nets, some of which were of enormous size, and with hooks made of bone
or shell.[27] They displayed great skill and infinite patience in
fashioning, sharpening, and polishing their stone implements and
weapons.[28] In council they were orators, and in the battlefield
warriors whose courage has merited the respect, and whose military skill
has won the admiration of the British troops opposed to them.[29] In
short, the Maoris were and are one of the most highly gifted among the
many uncivilised peoples which the English race, in its expansion over
the world, has met and subdued. It is therefore of peculiar interest to
learn what conceptions they had formed of man's spiritual nature and his
relations to the higher powers.
[17] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the Maoris_,
p. 202. The elaborate system of fortification employed by the
Maoris, of which the remains may be seen by thousands, seems to
have no exact parallel in Polynesia. See Elsdon Best, "The
Peopling of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) p. 75. These native
forts or _pas_, as they were called, had often a double or even
quadruple line of fence, the innermost formed by great poles
twenty or thirty feet high, which were tightly woven together by
the fibrous roots of a creeper. They were built by preference on
hills, the sides of which were scarped and terraced to assist
the defence. Some of them were very extensive and are said to
have contained from one to two thousand inhabitants. Many of
them were immensely strong and practically impregnable in the
absence of artillery. It is believed that the habit of
fortifying their villages was characteristic of the older race
whom the Maoris, on landing in New Zealand, found in occupation
of the country. See W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_
(London, 1835), pp. 122 _sqq._; G. F. Angas, _Savage Life and
Scenes in Australia and New Zealand_ (London, 1847), i. 332
_sq._; Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maoris of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_,
vol. xii. no. 4 (December 1903), pp. 204 _sqq._; W. H. Skinner,
"The Ancient Fortified _Pa_," _Journal of the Polynesian
Society_, vol. xx. no. 78 (June 1911), pp. 71-77.
[18] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_ (London, 1809), ii. 50.
[19] The ruins of native irrigation works are to be found in New
Zealand as well as in other parts of Polynesia (J. Deniker, _The
Races of Man_, p. 501).
[20] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 202 _sq._
[21] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, ii. 30 _sq._, 40 _sq._; W.
Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_ (London, 1835), pp. 157
_sqq._; E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 204 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 5.
[22] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, ii. 47 _sq._; W. Yate, _op.
cit._ pp. 161 _sqq._
[23] A. Shand, "The Occupation of the Chatham Islands by the
Maoris in 1835," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol. i.
no. 2 (July 1892), pp. 83 _sqq._
[24] R. Taylor, _op. cit._ p. 496; A. R. Wallace, _Australasia_
(London, 1913), pp. 442 _sq._
[25] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, p. 212; Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as
conducted by the Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, vol. xi. no. 4 (December 1902), p. 240.
[26] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 212 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 442
_sq._
[27] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, i. 49 _sq._; W. Yate, _An
Account of New Zealand_, p. 160.
[28] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, ii. 49; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A
Maui_, p. 4.
[29] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 4. The Maoris delivered set
speeches composed according to certain recognised laws of
rhetoric, and their oratory was distinguished by a native
eloquence and grace. See E. Shortland, _Traditions and
Superstitions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 186 _sqq._
Sec. 3. _The Beliefs of the Maoris concerning the Souls of the Living_
Like most other peoples, whether savage or civilised, the Maoris
explained the mystery of life in man by the presence of an invisible
spirit or soul, which animates his body during life and quits it at
death to survive the separation for a longer or shorter time either in
this world or another. But like many others who have sought to fathom
this profound subject, the Maoris would seem to have experienced some
difficulty in ascertaining the precise nature of the human soul. When
the natural man, on the strength of his native faculties, essays to
explore these dark abysses and to put his vague thoughts into words, he
commonly compares his soul either to his breath or to his shadow and
his reflection, and not content with a simple comparison he is led, by a
natural confusion of thought, to identify more or less closely the
imperceptible entity which he calls his soul with one or both of these
perceptible objects. To this general rule the Maori is apparently no
exception. He has two words which he specially uses to designate the
human spirit or soul: one is _wairua_, the other is _hau_.[30] Of these
words, _wairua_, the more usual name, is said to mean also a shadow, an
unsubstantial image, a reflection, as of a person's face from a polished
surface;[31] and we may surmise that these were the original and proper
meanings of the term. Similarly _hau_, which is described as "the vital
essence or life principle" in man,[32] appears primarily to mean
"wind,"[33] from which we may infer that in its application to man it
denotes properly the breath. The idea of the soul as a breath appears in
the explanation which was given to Dumont d'Urville of the Maori form of
salutation by rubbing noses together. The French traveller was told that
the real intention of this salute was to mingle the breath and thereby
the souls of the persons who gave each other this token of friendship.
But as his informant was not a Maori but a certain Mr. Kendall, the
truth of the explanation remains doubtful, though the Frenchman believed
that he obtained confirmation of it from his own observation and the
testimony of a native.[34] On the other hand the comparison of the soul
to a shadow comes out in the answer given by a Maori to an Englishman
who had asked him why his people did not prevent their souls from
passing away to the nether world. The Maori replied by pointing to the
Englishman's shadow on the wall and asking him whether he could catch
it.[35]
[30] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), pp. 177
_sqq._, 189 _sqq._
[31] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.
591 _sq._, _s.v._ "wairua."
[32] Elsdon Best, _op. cit._ p. 189.
[33] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p.
52, _s.v._ "hau"; Elsdon Best, _op. cit._ p. 190.
[34] J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la
recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833),
ii. 558 _sq._
[35] William Brown, _New Zealand and its Aborigines_ (London,
1845), p. 81.
Thus far the Maori conception of the soul does not perhaps differ very
materially from the popular notion of it current among ourselves. But
we come now to a marked difference between the Maori idea of the soul
and our own. For whereas the European commonly believes his soul to be
fixed during life immovably in his body, and only to depart from it once
for all at death, the soul of the Maori is under no such narrow
restrictions, but is free to quit its bodily mansion at pleasure and to
return to it without prejudice to the life and health of its owner. For
example, the Maori explains a dream by supposing that the soul of the
sleeper has left his body behind and rambled away to places more or less
distant, where it converses with the spirits of other people, whether
alive or dead. Hence no well-bred Maori would waken a sleeper suddenly
by shaking him or calling out to him in a loud voice. If he must rouse
him, he will do it gradually, speaking to him at first in low tones and
then raising his voice by degrees, in order to give the truant soul fair
warning and allow it to return at leisure.[36] Believing in the power of
the soul to wander far away and converse with other spiritual beings in
sleep, the Maoris naturally paid great attention to dreams, which they
fancied were often sent them by the gods to warn them of coming events.
All dreams were supposed to have their special significance, and the
Maoris had framed a fanciful system for interpreting them. Sometimes, as
with ourselves, the interpretation went by contraries. For example, if a
man dreamed that he saw a sick relative at the point of death, it was a
sign that the patient would soon recover; but if, on the contrary, the
sufferer appeared in perfect health, it was an omen of his approaching
end. When a priest was in doubt as to the intentions of the higher
powers, he usually waited for his god to reveal his will in a dream, and
accepted the vagaries of his slumbering fancy as an infallible
intimation of the divine pleasure. Spells were commonly recited in order
to annul the effect of ill-omened dreams.[37]
[36] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), pp. 177
_sq._
[37] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 333-335. As to omens
derived from dreams see Elsdon Best, "Omens and Superstitious
Beliefs of the Maori," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
vii. no. 27 (September 1898), pp. 124 _sqq._
But the departure of the soul from the body in life was not always
voluntary; it might take place under the compulsion of a hostile
sorcerer or magician. In a Maori legend called _The curse of Manaia_ we
read that "the priests next dug a long pit, termed the pit of wrath,
into which by their enchantments they might bring the spirits of their
enemies, and hang them and destroy them there; and when they had dug the
pit, muttering the necessary incantations, they took large shells in
their hands to scrape the spirits of their enemies into the pit with,
whilst they muttered enchantments; and when they had done this, they
scraped the earth into the pit again to cover them up, and beat down the
earth with their hands, and crossed the pit with enchanted cloths, and
wove baskets of flax-leaves to hold the spirits of the foes which they
had thus destroyed, and each of these acts they accompanied with the
proper spells."[38]
[38] Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_ (London, 1855), pp.
168 _sq._
This mode of undoing an enemy by extracting and killing his soul was not
with the Maoris a mere legendary fiction; it was practised in real life
by their wizards. For we are told that when a priest desired to slay a
person by witchcraft, he would often dig a hole in the ground, and
standing over it with a cord in his hand would let one end of the cord
hang down into the hole. He then recited an incantation which compelled
the soul of the doomed man to swarm down the cord into the pit,
whereupon another potent spell chanted by the magician speedily put an
end to the poor soul for good and all.[39]
[39] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), p. 187.
It seems obvious that spells of this sort may be used with great
advantage in war, for if you can only contrive to kill the souls of your
foes, their mere bodies will probably give you little or no trouble. Nor
did this practical application of the magic art escape the sagacity of
the Maoris. When they marched to attack an enemy's stronghold, it was an
ancient custom to halt and kindle a fire, over which the priest recited
certain spells to cause the souls of his adversaries to be drawn into
the fire and there to perish miserably in the flames. In theory the idea
was admirable, but unfortunately it did not always work out in
practice. For magic is a game at which two can play, and it sometimes
happened that the spells of the besieged proved more powerful than those
of the besiegers and enabled the garrison to defy all the attempts of
the enemy to filch their souls from their bodies.[40] But even when the
assailants were obliged to retire discomfited, they did not always lose
heart, the resources of the magic art were not yet exhausted. On their
return home the priest, nothing daunted by a temporary discomfiture,
might betake himself again to his spells, and by crooning his
incantations over a garment or a weapon belonging to one of his party,
might dash in pieces the arms of the enemy and cause their souls to
perish. Thus by his ghostly skill would he snatch victory from defeat,
and humble the pride of the insolent foe in the very moment of his
imaginary triumph.[41] One way in which he effected his purpose was to
take a bag or basket containing some sacred food, hold it to the fire,
and then opening the bag point the mouth of it in the direction of the
enemy. The simple recitation of a spell then sufficed to draw the souls
of the adversaries into the bag, after which nothing was easier for him
than to destroy them utterly by means of the appropriate
incantation.[42]
[40] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), p. 181.
[41] Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
xi. no. 3 (September 1902), p. 141.
[42] Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
xii. no. 2 (June 1903), p. 72.
But valuable as are these applications of magic to practical life, the
art, like every good thing, is liable to abuse; and even where it is
employed with the best intentions, the forces which it controls are so
powerful that in spite of all precautions an accident will sometimes
happen. For example, in sickness the patient often had recourse to a
priest, who would lead him down to the nearest water, whether a pool or
a stream, and there perform the magical rites necessary for the relief
of his particular malady. While the wizard was engaged in this
beneficent task, all the people in the village kept strictly indoors,
lest their souls should wander forth to the water-side and there
colliding, if I may be allowed the expression, with the mystic forces
of the priest's spells be damaged or even annihilated by the
collision.[43] In such a case the fatal consequences were the result of
a pure accident, but sometimes they were intentional. For this fell
purpose a malignant wizard would dig a hole, invoke the spirit of the
man against whom he had a grudge, and when the spirit appeared over the
hole in the form of a light, he would curse it, and the man whose soul
was cursed would be sure to die, sooner or later; nothing could save
him. The Uriwera, who dwelt dispersed among the forests and lonely hills
of a wild mountainous region in the North Island, were reputed to be the
greatest warlocks in all New Zealand. When they descended from their
mountains to the coast, the lowlanders scarcely dared refuse them
anything for fear of incurring their displeasure. It is said that in
their magical rites they made a special use of the spittle of their
destined victims; hence all visitors to their country were careful to
conceal their spittle lest they should give these wicked folk a handle
against them.[44] Another mode in which a Maori wizard could obtain
power over a man's soul was by working magic on the footprints of his
intended victim. The thing was done in this way. Suppose you are walking
and leave your footprints behind you on the ground. I come behind you,
take up the earth from your footprints, and deposit it on the sacred
_whata puaroa_, that is, a post or pillar set up in the holy place of a
village and charged in a mysterious manner with the vitality both of the
people and of the land. Having laid the earth from your footprints on
the sacred post, I next perform a ceremony of consecration over it, and
then bury it with a seed of sweet potato in the ground. After that you
are doomed. You may consider yourself for all practical purposes not
only dead but buried, like the earth from your footprints.[45]
[43] Elsdon Best, "Maori Medical Lore," _Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, vol. xiii. no. 4 (December 1904), p. 225.
[44] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_ (London, 1843),
ii. 58 _sq._; E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the
New Zealanders_, pp. 116 _sq._; _id._, _Maori Religion and
Mythology_ (London, 1882), p. 31.
[45] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), pp. 194
_sq._, 196.
From some of the foregoing facts it seems to follow that the souls of
the Maoris are not, so to say, constitutionally immortal, but that they
are of a brittle and perishable nature, and that in particular they are
liable to be cut short in their career and totally exterminated by the
insidious arts of magicians. So frequently, indeed, did this happen in
former days that the Maoris of old apparently recognised no other cause
of death, but imagined that every man and woman would naturally live for
ever, if the thread of his or her life were not prematurely snipped by
the abhorred shears of some witch or wizard. Hence after every death it
was customary to hold an inquest in order to discover the wretch who had
brought about the catastrophe by his enchantments; a sage presided at
the solemn enquiry, and under his direction the culprit was detected,
hunted down, and killed.[46]
[46] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 51.
The Maoris tell a story to explain how death first came into the world,
or at least how men were prevented from enjoying the boon of
immortality. The story runs as follows.
The great mythical hero of Polynesia is Maui, a demigod or man of
marvellous powers, who lived in the early ages of the world, and whose
mighty deeds are the theme of tales of wonder told far and wide among
the islands of the Pacific.[47] In his childhood his mother prophesied
that he should thereafter climb the threshold of his great ancestress
Hine-nui-te-po, and that death should have no more dominion over men. A
happy prediction, but alas! never destined to be fulfilled, for even the
would-be saviour Maui himself did not escape the doom of mortality. The
way in which he became subject to death was this. His father took him to
the water to be baptized, for infant baptism was a regular part of Maori
ritual.[48] But when the baptism was over and the usual prayers had
been offered for making the lad sacred and clean from all impurity, his
father bethought him that through haste or forgetfulness he had omitted
some of the prayers and purifications of the baptismal service. It was a
fatal oversight, and the anxious father was struck with consternation at
the thought, for too well he knew that the gods would punish the
omission by causing his son Maui to die.[49] Yet did his son make a
brave attempt to rescue all men from the doom of death and to make them
live for ever. One day, after he had performed many feats and returned
to his father's house, his father, heavy at heart and overcome with a
foreboding of evil, said to him, "Oh, my son, I have heard from your
mother and others that you are very valiant, and that you have succeeded
in all feats that you have undertaken in your own country, whether they
were small or great; but now that you have arrived in your father's
country, you will perhaps be overcome." Then Maui asked his father,
"What do you mean? what things are there that I can be vanquished by?"
And his father answered him, "By your great ancestress, by
Hine-nui-te-po, who, if you look, you may see flashing, and, as it were,
opening and shutting there, where the horizon meets the sky." And Maui
answered, "Lay aside such idle thoughts, and let us both fearlessly seek
whether men are to die or live for ever." And his father said, "My
child, there has been an ill omen for us; when I was baptizing you, I
omitted a portion of the fitting prayers, and that I know will be the
cause of your perishing." Then Maui asked his father, "What is my
ancestress Hine-nui-te-po like?" and he answered, "What you see yonder
shining so brightly red are her eyes, and her teeth are as sharp and
hard as pieces of volcanic glass; her body is like that of a man, and
as for the pupils of her eyes, they are jasper; and her hair is like the
tangles of long sea-weed, and her mouth is like that of a barracouta."
[47] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.
233 _sqq._, _s.v._ "Maui"; Horatio Hale, _United States
Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia,
1846), p. 23.
[48] J. L. Nicholas, _Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand_
(London, 1817), i. 61 _sq._, "The New Zealanders make it an
invariable practice, when a child is born among them, to take it
to the _Tohunga_, or priest, who sprinkles it on the face with
water, from a certain leaf which he holds in his hand for that
purpose; and they believe that this ceremony is not only
beneficial to the infant, but that the neglect of it would be
attended with the most baneful consequences. In the latter case,
they consider the child as either doomed to immediate death, or
that, if allowed to live, it will grow up with a most perverse
and wicked disposition." Before or after sprinkling the child
with water the priest bestowed on the infant its name. See W.
Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_ (London, 1835), pp. 82-84; A.
S. Thomson, _The Story of New Zealand_ (London, 1859), i. 118
_sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, Second Edition (London,
1870), pp. 184 _sqq_. Compare J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage
autour du Monde et a la recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du
Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833), ii. 443 _sq_. (who says that the
baptism was performed by women); E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New
Zealand_ (London, 1843), ii. 28-30 (who, in contradiction to all
the other authorities, says that the naming of the child was
unconnected with its baptism).
[49] Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_ (London, 1855), p.
32.
Now Hine-nui-te-po was the Great Woman of Night, the Goddess of Death,
who dwelt in the nether world and dragged down men to herself. But Maui
was not afraid, for he had caught the great Sun himself in a snare and
beaten him and caused him to go so tardily as we now see him creeping
across the sky with leaden steps and slow; for of old the Sun was wont
to speed across the firmament like a young man rejoicing to run a race.
So forth fared the hero on his great enterprise to snatch the life of
mortals from the very jaws of death. And there came to him to bear him
company the small robin, and the large robin, and the thrush, and the
yellow hammer, and the pied fantail (_tiwakawaka, Rhipidura
flabellifora_), and every kind of little bird; and these all assembled
together, and they started with Maui in the evening, and arrived at the
dwelling of Hine-nui-te-po, and found her fast asleep.
Then Maui addressed them all, and said, "My little friends, now if you
see me creep into this old chieftainess, do not laugh at what you see.
Nay, nay, do not, I pray you, but when I have got altogether inside her,
and just as I am coming out of her mouth, then you may shout with
laughter if you please." But his little friends were frightened at what
they saw, and they answered, "Oh, sir, you will certainly be killed."
And he answered them again, saying, "If you burst out laughing at me as
soon as I get inside her, you will wake her up, and she will certainly
kill me at once; but if you do not laugh until I am quite inside her,
and am on the point of coming out of her mouth, I shall live, and
Hine-nui-te-po will die." And his little friends answered, "Go on then,
brave sir, but pray take good care of yourself."
Then the young hero started off, and twisted the strings of his weapon
tight round his wrist, and went into the house, and stripped off his
clothes, and the skin on his hips was as mottled and beautiful as the
skin of a mackerel by reason of the tattoo marks cut on it with the
chisel of Uetongo, and he entered the old chieftainess. The little birds
now screwed up their little mouths to keep back their laughter when
they saw him disappearing into the body of the giantess; their cheeks
swelled up and grew purple, and they almost choked with suppressed
emotion. At last the pied fantail could bear it no longer, and he
suddenly exploded with a loud guffaw. That woke the old woman, she
opened her eyes, and shut her jaws with a snap, cutting the hero clean
through the middle, so that his legs dropped out of her mouth. Thus died
Maui, but before he died he begat children, and sons were born to him,
and some of his descendants are alive to this day. That, according to
Maori tradition, is how death came into the world; for if only Maui had
passed safely through the jaws of the Goddess of Death, men would have
died no more and death itself would have been destroyed. Thus the Maoris
set down human mortality at the door of the pied fantail, since but for
his unseasonable merriment we might all have lived for ever.[50]
[50] Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_, pp. 56-58; John
White, _The Ancient History of the Maori_ (Wellington and
London, 1887-1889), ii. 98, 105-107. For another version of the
myth, told with some minor variations, see S. Percy Smith, _The
Lore of the Whare-w[=a]nanga_, Part I. (New Plymouth, N.Z.,
1913), pp. 145 _sq._, 176-178. For the identification of the
bird _tiwakawaka_ see E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative
Dictionary_, p. 519, _s.v._ "Tiwaiwaka."
Sec. 4. _The Beliefs of the Maoris concerning the Souls of the Dead_
When a chief died, a loud howl or wail announced the melancholy event,
and the neighbours flocked to the scene of death to testify their
sorrow. The wives and near relations, especially the women, of the
deceased displayed their anguish by cutting their faces, arms, legs, and
breasts with flints or shells till the blood flowed down in streams; it
was not wiped off, for the more the person of a mourner was covered with
clotted gore, the greater was esteemed his or her respect for the dead.
Sometimes relatives would hack off joints of their fingers as a token of
grief. Mourners likewise cut their hair, the men generally contenting
themselves with clipping or shaving it on one side only, from the
forehead to the neck. The eyes of the dead were closed by the nearest
relative; and the body dressed in the finest mats, decked with
feathers, and provided with weapons, lay in state for a time. After the
first day a brother of the deceased used to beat the body with fresh
flax gathered for the purpose; this he did to drive away any evil thing
that might be hovering about the corpse. In the olden time one or more
of the chief's wives would strangle themselves, that their souls might
accompany their dead lord and wait upon him in the other world, and with
the same intentions slaves were killed, lest the great man should lack
attendants in the spirit land.[51]
[51] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, pp. 135 _sqq._; J.
Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la recherche de
la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833), ii. 541
_sq._; 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, 118; W. Brown, _New Zealand
and its Inhabitants_, pp. 15 _sqq._; G. F. Angas, _Savage Life
and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand_, i. 331; A. S. Thomson,
_The Story of New Zealand_, i. 185 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A
Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_, Second Edition
(London, 1870), pp. 217 _sq._; E. Tregear, "The Maoris of New
Zealand," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix.
(1890) pp. 104 _sq._
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."