The Maori Dog.--A Romantic Island.--Sinking of a Maori
Fort.--Volcanic Destruction.--A Country of Boiling
Springs.--Idleness.--A Lazy Race of Savages.--Native
Religion.--A Fitful Geyser.--Sophia, the Famous Guide.--A
Funeral Dance.--The "Haka" Performance.--Maori
Improvidence.--Rubbing Noses.--Native Babies.--Church-Going
and Card-Playing.--The King's Country.--Eloquent
Aborigines.--A Sanitarium.--Sulphur Point.--Future of New
Zealand.
The funeral wailings of the natives during the day were not sufficient
to fill the measure of uncanny noise; so at night--those wonderfully
bright moonlight nights!--the dogs seemed to feel it incumbent upon them
to take up the refrain, and they howled frightfully by the hour
together. The Maori dog is quite different from any other specimen of
the canine race; he is a mongrel of decidedly conglomerate
character,--the most remarkable fact about these creatures being that no
two of them are at all alike, or seemingly of the same breed. Why the
Maoris keep these dogs we cannot conceive; they certainly have no food
to spare for them, and the poor creatures look nearly starved with their
thin bodies and protruding ribs. At Ohinemutu every cabin had at least
one dog, and frequently three or four of these animals were seen lying
before the entrance. They rushed out and barked fiercely at the passing
stranger, but there the hostile demonstration ended. Dogs are not more
numerous, in proportion to the population, in Cairo or Constantinople,
nor more neglected, than here. We suggested to one of the half-castes
that it would be possible to utilize these animals for food, but he
shook his head knowingly and said, "No, no; him got no meat on him
bones." Their pigs run wild, and feed themselves on fern-roots and sweet
weeds; but their dogs, not being herbivorous, fare hardly for food.
Unable to sleep on account of these canine disturbers of the night, we
rose long before daylight on the third day of our visit to Ohinemutu,
and awaking a couple of natives, took a row-boat over to the island of
Mokoia, which is situated about four miles from the mainland, toward the
centre of Lake Rotorua. This island is itself a sleeping volcano, lying
now placidly enough upon the bosom of the waters, but originally thrown
up from the bottom of the lake in some past century. Though the natives
evidently thought us crazy to abandon a comfortable bed at such an hour,
we only gave them the necessary direction and sat down quietly in the
stern of the boat. It was just sunrise as a landing was effected on the
island, when a sight was enjoyed which had not been anticipated. As the
monarch of day showed his face above the volcanic hills, the effect was
superb. Mokoia is a well-wooded island, and on the side farthest from
Ohinemutu there is some level fertile land occupied by natives; indeed,
there is here quite a Maori village. It was once a favorite missionary
station, but as such was long ago abandoned. It is a sort of second
edition of the villages lying about the Lake House on the mainland. When
the missionaries were here they planted fruit-trees, which are still
thriving and annually productive of pears, apples, peaches, and the
like. One of the boatmen spoke English after the Maori fashion, and
wanted to relate the love-story of the island, the Hinemoa legend; but
we knew it already. We did listen, however, to the story of the
blood-thirsty chief Hongi, who came hither when Mokoia was the
stronghold of a prosperous tribe, and putting them to the sword, killed
one half and more in a terrible hand-to-hand fight; after which he and
his followers feasted on their bodies for weeks. We got back to the Lake
House by mid-day.
The faulty and incomplete traditions of the natives concerning the last
eruption previous to that of about a twelvemonth ago which occurred in
the Hot Lake District, are entirely unsatisfactory; but the late
terrible one which destroyed the beautiful pink and white terraces at
Tarawera by one sudden throe of Nature, and by which nearly two thousand
square miles of territory were sensibly affected, we know all about. The
destructive demonstration lasted only six hours, but during that time
the amount of lava, volcanic bombs, stones, and fiery substances thrown
out by the burning mountain is beyond calculation. This volcanic
outburst seemed to us just what might be expected at Ohinemutu at any
moment. What signifies it that matters have remained in their present
condition for perhaps a thousand years? The liability to an outburst is
none the less on that account. Such is the history of all eruptions:
centuries elapse of comparative quiet and seeming immunity from serious
danger,--and then comes a great and awful explosion! Confined steam,
boiling water, and burning sulphur must somewhere and somehow find vent
at the surface. The seething and subdued roaring which never ceases are
a constant warning to this effect. And yet here both Europeans and
natives live on, and give the possible contingency never a thought.
Within pistol-shot of where these notes were originally made, there was
before our eyes a half sunken point jutting out into Lake Rotorua which
has "gradually subsided"--ominous words--so that but a small portion
remains in view. In former times a _pah_, or fort, stood upon this
point, the fate of which is briefly told. One stormy night a hoarse
rumbling noise was heard, of more than usual significance, followed by a
shrill sound of hissing steam. The trembling earth opened on the border
of the lake, and the pah with all its people sank instantly into the
raging fires below. No native can be induced to put foot upon what is
left of this peninsula at the present day. The place is _tapu_. The
visitor explores it alone, while his guide remains at a wholesome
distance. Plenty of boiling springs, sulphurous vapor-holes, and
seething mud-pools were found distributed over the place where the Maori
pah and its people were engulfed.
Although by the late eruption, so far as is known, only one hundred and
six persons--natives and Europeans--were destroyed, it included a whole
Maori village which was instantly blotted out of existence, as was the
pah on the peninsula jutting into the lake. The particulars of the late
awful visitation, unequalled in the history of New Zealand, were sad and
harrowing to listen to. There were instances where persons, still alive,
were dug from the ashes and debris miles away from the crater, after
being either buried, or partially so, for one and two days, though none
of them survived more than a few hours after exhumation. We were told of
an aged Maori whose cabin was miles distant from the burning mountain,
who was exhumed after twenty-four hours' burial. He was over one hundred
years of age, and survived three days after being recovered.
As to those far-famed and beautiful natural curiosities the Terraces, so
completely is the configuration of the country changed for many miles in
all directions, that it is quite impossible to discover their former
site. An area covering nearly thirty square miles is now but one sad
picture of desolation, strewn with ashes and lava, to look upon which
was both depressing and awe-inspiring. One bowlder was pointed out to us
which must weigh at least a hundred tons, that was thrown a quarter of a
mile from the mouth of the crater.
The country over which the boiling springs and geysers occur is about a
hundred and twenty miles long by seventeen or twenty wide, their
activity varying somewhat at different localities. The fiery region
extends beneath the sea after reaching the coast at the Bay of Plenty,
being doubtless connected with several remote islands of the Pacific
Ocean,--the immediate vicinity of Ohinemutu being apparently the centre
of thermal development. It is only necessary in many places to make a
hole a few feet deep by thrusting one's walking-stick into the ground,
to bring forth a vigorous demonstration of the hissing steam. On first
rising from sleep in the morning and looking out upon the remarkable
scene, the low-lying dense clouds of vapor all about the hamlet give one
the idea that the activity of the underground forces is greater in the
night than during the day; but this is probably not the case. Except
occasionally, when owing to some great unknown disturbing cause an
unusual explosion takes place, the result varies but little at the
surface from one year's end to another.
Is idleness infectious? One dallies with time in the midst of these
strange phenomena, wandering among the native huts and their lazy,
bronzed inhabitants, studying their gypsy life in all its phases.
Everything is not quite agreeable, but all is quaint, novel, and
interesting. We were shown some of the native carving which was executed
a hundred years ago, mostly in the form of war-clubs and idols. There
were images representing strange human beings of both sexes; but they
were always grotesque, and often disgusting. There was not even an
approach to excellence or a spirit of art observable in any of them. A
certain consistency is discovered in the manners and customs of this
people who live so nearly after the style and laws which governed their
ancestors, and which have been carefully preserved for hundreds of
years. Superstition is born in a Maori. He is a professed
Christian,--that is, in most cases,--and accepts the Bible; but he is
apt to give it his own interpretation: yet for that matter how many
white religionists there are who do the same! These children of Nature
follow their ancestral traditions modified by Christian influences. The
original religion of the natives, if we can give it that name, consisted
in a dim belief of a future state, quite undefined even in their own
minds. It was largely a sort of ancestor worship, according to the
missionaries, with a vague idea of some Being higher and better than
anything human or finite. The sorcery which was universally practised
among them filled up a certain measure of religious conviction and
observance; nor is this by any means disused among them to-day. Many of
the tribes can read and write, and educational facilities are freely
offered to the rising generation by the English Government.
Whakarewarewa--we can write but not pronounce the name--forms another
active volcano point, and is situated about four miles from the Lake
House. For three days, whenever the eyes wandered in that direction, we
had seen the hamlet, which occupies a side-hill, steaming away
vigorously, and sometimes got a glimpse of the boiling water spouted
high in air. The road thither lies over a perfectly level way in the
midst of a plain which was doubtless overflowed by the lake in former
times, and which is still so much under water as to be nearly navigable
for a small boat. Here we found another tribe of Maoris surrounded by
geysers, boiling pits, hot, spluttering, and unwholesome-looking
mud-pools, with steam-holes innumerable. What a region of perpetual
ferment it is! How busy must be the fiery agencies constantly operating
in Nature's subterranean laboratory! Soon after entering the hamlet we
passed a clear, blue boiling-pool of great depth, which is improved by
the whole community for cooking purposes. In the sides of this
out-of-doors stone and earthen cavity indentures had been made, where
iron pots and wicker screens could be placed for boiling vegetables and
other food.
The action of the largest geyser here was fitful and irregular,
subsiding for a few seconds now and then, and again bursting forth with
renewed power, throwing a column of boiling water thirty feet into the
air with startling effect. We were told that this geyser when in
operation often sent up such a column to the height of sixty feet. Much
wandering over the earth's surface and knowledge of terrestrial affairs
has taught us not to accept unchallenged the statements of even such
worthy guides as our veracious Sophia. The fact as confirmed to us by
ocular demonstration was quite startling enough, and exaggeration was
certainly needless. This erratic geyser emerges from a large opening
eight or ten feet in diameter worn through the split rock, and is of
unknown depth,--a successful attempt to sound it being impossible, as
the spray would envelop the operator and scald him to death.
The water from this geyser overflows a series of bowlders running down
into a broad sulphurous basin, in which are many more boiling springs
and yawning chasms, with here and there overheated flat stones upon
which the natives bake their food. The bowlders and slabs over which the
chemicalized waters flow, receive a yellowish deposit of sparkling
silica, mixed with crystals of sulphur and gleaming sparks of black
manganese, which all together form beautiful colors when the sun's rays
break through the clouds of mist and play upon them. We were shown among
the rocks a natural stone basin capable of holding thirty or forty
gallons of water, into and through which the boiling waters could be
conducted at will; and here, according to Sophia, her forefathers used
to boil the heads of their prisoners into a palatable soup!
The action of the subterranean forces is more demonstrative here than at
Ohinemutu, and the immediate sulphurous effect upon the atmosphere is
much more dense. The matter thrown up from the depths consists of
crystals of alum, soda, sulphur, arsenic, iron, and other chemicals,
which form cones about the several chasms. After passing in and out
among these geysers, boiling rivulets, hot springs, and steam clouds,
one is glad to reach an elevation where the atmosphere is comparatively
clear and pure, and where a long breath may be drawn with a degree of
comfort. Standing upon an elevation overlooking the whole strange scene,
the air filled with heated spray, steam, and sulphurous gases, forming
all together a dense vapor which clouded the sunlight, it was impossible
not to recall the picture of Dante's Inferno.
Our cicerone here, as the reader has already been partially informed,
was the famous Sophia, a Maori woman who has acted in this capacity for
many years, and who, as she herself deposed, was the mother of fifteen
children, twelve of whom were still living. Her tattooed face is well
wrinkled by the hand of time, though her activity in climbing the
different points of interest is marvellous. She speaks English well, is
gentle in voice and remarkable for her good manners, taking great care
that those whom she conducts through these novel scenes shall see and
understand every object of interest. On the green borders of all this
volcanic confusion, as we were leaving Whakarewarewa, a fragrant little
bouquet of the wild blossoms of the manuka were gathered and offered to
us by a Maori girl, who felt so much overpaid by the shilling tendered
her in return as to hesitate to receive it.
On returning to Ohinemutu we found extensive preparations going on in
the Maori hamlet for a grand dance as a sort of winding-up ceremony to
the four days of wailing and feasting over the death of the chief, of
whom the reader has already heard. It was curious to see into what a
state of excitement the natives could work themselves by means of dance
and song. It recalled the infatuation and frenzy of the whirling
Dervishes of Cairo. Alcohol could not more thoroughly excite them or
stimulate their brains. In these exercises the women far exceeded the
men in their extravagance of behavior,--jumping wildly up and down,
thrusting out their arms and legs with perfect abandon and apparent
unconsciousness, distorting their bodies and features, and twisting
themselves generally into most impossible shapes. A dull, monotonous
drum-beat was the only musical accompaniment, which was produced from a
hollow log, both ends of which were covered with sheep-skin. The perfect
concert of action among the dancers was marvellous, the more so because
no consecutive purpose could be divined. The most weird and picturesque
scene we can recall as witnessed in the Lake District was the
performance of one of these dances by moonlight; but it must be
acknowledged that the exhibition was more striking than decorous.
Belonging to this tribe, and indeed to all that are visited by the
whites, there is always a bevy of dancing-girls with a world of passion
in their bold, luminous eyes, and a reckless disregard of all delicacy
in their behavior, ever ready to perform before strangers for money.
Some of these girls have very long, perfectly straight hair and a Jewish
cast of features quite in contrast to the typical Maori faces. The
indifference of parents to the conduct of their daughters is remarkable
even for savages. One great objection to the _haka_, or native dance, is
the beer-drinking which invariably accompanies it. The beer is brought
from the hotel in an open bucket holding several gallons, and mugs being
furnished, the performers partake freely, until by the time the dance
draws to a close they are not in a condition to care much for the
proprieties.
When one of these Maoris meets another after a long separation, the
first thing is the mutual rubbing of noses, after which each of the
parties begins to mourn and weep; but when they say good-by at parting,
for however long a term, boisterous laughter is indulged in,--for it is
a principle with them to speed the parting guest with feast, song, and
hilarity. As the dead lies prepared for burial, the nearest relative
first, and the closest friend after, rubs noses with the corpse. The
natives here are in receipt of a considerable amount of money from the
rents of lands, from pensions granted by the Government, and from acting
in the capacity of guides, or as boatmen on the lake, and for performing
other odd jobs for the whites. But they have no idea of economy or of
saving anything for a time of need. The money which they receive goes as
fast as it comes into their possession, and mostly for liquor and
tobacco. When the money is gone, they will half starve themselves until
a fresh supply comes in. After one of their continued wakes, at which
food is so recklessly wasted, and all their spare cash expended in
drinking and in other excesses, there follows a period of fasting,
during which they live upon roots, berries, and stray bits of food
picked up here and there. Such is their improvidence, that there are
often times when they would absolutely starve were it not for the aid
given gratuitously by the whites.
The Maoris at the present time are remarkably peaceable among
themselves,--being never known, as we were told by local officials, to
quarrel one with another, not even in their cups; for while liquor makes
them foolish, it seldom makes them pugnacious. It was noticed that the
fathers often carried the infant children on their backs, and in the
same style adopted by the mothers. From this and other indications we
got the impression that they are very kind to their children. One thing
is certainly remarkable: these native babies never cry. We were a full
week among them, witnessing their domestic life at nearly all hours, and
we never heard the first cry from their lips. The same peculiarity as
regards infants was also noticed by the author both in China and Japan.
As has been mentioned already, the funeral of one of their chiefs had
drawn numerous representatives from other tribes to Ohinemutu, so that
the number of aborigines was largely increased at the hamlet during our
stay. The last day of our sojourning here was Sunday, a certain outward
respect for which is observed by the natives as well as the few white
residents at Ohinemutu. The little rude earthen-floored chapel, where a
Roman Catholic priest officiates, was not large enough to accommodate
both the resident tribe and their visitors at the same time, so they
divided into two parties,--one half attending the services in the
chapel, while the other half remained outside squatting upon their hams
and playing cards for pennies. This seemed to us to be a little out of
keeping with the church-going idea, but the average native is not at all
amenable in his feelings to the conventionalities of the whites.
Gambling with cards under the shadow of the church presented no
anomalous aspect to these waiting worshippers. When the first audience
had completed the usual religious exercises,--listening to prayers read
in Latin, which of course were "all Greek" to them,--then the
card-players changed places with them, and each party did as the other
had just done. The afternoon was devoted to foot-ball by the men, and to
bathing, gossiping, and smoking tobacco by the women. The food and
stimulants had evidently become exhausted, as the visitors prepared to
depart to their homes, but they were dismissed as usual with riotous
tokens of joy.
The Government now owns a considerable portion of land in the Hot Lake
District, which has been purchased at a fair price from the natives. The
region called the King's Country contains at least ten thousand square
miles, lying within clearly-defined boundaries. Its possession is
sacredly secured to the Maoris by treaty with the Home Government of
England. The aborigines however would in no contingency permit any
encroachment upon their present domain; they would declare open war
first, and fight for their rights. It is remembered by the whites that
these natives _can_ fight when incited to do so by their chiefs, and by
a sense of being wronged. This was made clear enough in the early days
of the European occupancy, when it cost the English thousands of lives
and vast amounts of treasure before peace was finally brought about by
the abundant concessions of Sir George Gray, the then Governor. The
natives had very rude weapons in those days; now, however, they have
fire-arms, and know how to use them. No foreigner can go into the King's
Country without a native permit; no white man can travel there without a
Maori guide; a murderer or other criminal cannot be pursued thither by a
Government officer, except by first obtaining the proper permission. In
these reserved lands the Maoris show a bold and warlike front. They
enjoy full political rights in the government of the country, and return
their own members to the National Assembly from the several districts in
their province. The few educated members of the tribe are distinguished
for a certain kind of eloquence, and can speak well and forcibly in
behalf of the interests of their race. Like our own American Indians,
they abound in poetical figures of speech and natural illustrations.
Instances were related to us of some of these Maori representatives
(generally with more or less European blood in their veins), who had
electrified the legislative body to which they belonged, by their
eloquent and powerful harangues, and who had more than once carried
their purpose to a successful issue, against the manifest popular wish
of the Assembly, by their clear force of argument and manly speech.
Government is building a sanitarium at Sulphur Point, as it is called,
situated about half a mile from the Lake House. The baths attached to it
are supplied with water from springs which are highly charged with
chemical matter, each being quite different from the others in its
peculiar properties, and supposed to possess special curative powers.
There is also here a hospital already in operation under the control of
the Government, in which there were a score of patients when we visited
it. Several of these were grateful and enthusiastic for the benefit they
believed themselves to have experienced by bathing in the ill-smelling
waters. Said one to us: "I now leave my crutches under my bed; but when
I came here two weeks ago I could not walk across my room without them.
Now, however, I walk a mile in the open air, forenoon and afternoon,
without any help, and have a grand appetite, with the digestion of an
ostrich."
A large town has been arranged for by the authorities in anticipation of
the future popularity of these hot springs. Broad, regular, and
well-laid out streets have been graded and fenced, having nicely
gravelled road-beds, lined with ornamental trees; but there are yet no
dwelling-houses here except the very comfortable Hospital structure.
There is, however, a grocery store, a Post-Office, and a Town
Hall,--these last two being of brick. It seemed to us that the
atmosphere of Sulphur Point must always prove an insuperable objection
to its being adopted as a permanent home. The constant odor rising from
the subterraneous fires not only excites disgust, but is disagreeably
suggestive of the nearness to active volcanic agencies. The Lake House
is situated upon a gentle elevation, thirty or forty feet higher than
the lake, and overlooking the lands all about it; but Sulphur Point is
nearly on a level with the water, and is so low that any rise of the
lake would inevitably flood it, and it must always be very damp.
Yet invalids have come all the way from the North of Europe to test the
advantages of these springs, and, as we were assured by the attendant
physician, with almost unvarying success. A railway is constructing from
Oxford hither which will connect Ohinemutu with Auckland direct,
obviating the necessity for staging, which no invalid should attempt
unless the road is in a very different condition from that in which we
found it. The railway will doubtless be finished within a twelvemonth.
One must start before sunrise from Ohinemutu in order to reach Auckland
on the same day, though the distance is only a hundred and sixty miles,
all but thirty of which is by railway. We have shown that the road
between the Lake District and Oxford is one requiring time to deal with.
When we left the Lake House, the silvery gray of the morning was
struggling through the clouds of hot vapor and sulphurous steam which
hung over and about the place. The stage lanterns and those in the hands
of the attendants cast a weird and fitful glamour all about us. A dog
was baying down among the Maori cabins, albeit the hamlet as a whole
still slept. The horses brought out from their stable into the crisp
morning air were a little restless, and a hostler held the bits of the
two leaders. Presently the driver called out, "All right! let them go!"
and in a moment more we were rolling smartly away by the borders of Lake
Rotorua.
The extended programme was completed, and now our steps would be turned
toward distant America.
No intelligent person can be blind to the favorable position of New
Zealand or to the promise of its future commercial importance. Situated
as it were in the centre of this Austral Ocean, the future highway of
the world, it is accessible from all quarters. On the west, not far
away, lie the busy harbors of Australia, with which her exchanges of
merchandise are constant. Within easy reach of India and China on one
side, she has California, Mexico, and South America on the other. To the
north lie the hundreds of islands which constitute the groups of
Polynesia, notable for their voluptuous climate and primitive fertility.
With the opening of the Panama Canal or other available means for
crossing the isthmus, New Zealand will lie directly in the highway
between Europe and the gold-fields of the great island-continent,--between
England and her largest colony. The insular position of the country does
not necessarily indicate inaccessibility. The many beautiful islands of
the South Sea must sooner or later come under the commercial sway of New
Zealand, as they may be explored and civilized. Her admirable harbors,
noble estuaries, and navigable rivers are elsewhere unsurpassed. If
destined to achieve greatness, these islands, like those of great
Britain, will do so through the development and maintenance of maritime
power; and with so many advantages as they possess, we predict for them
this final accomplishment.
As an attractive country to the explorer and traveller, though so many
thousands of miles away from the beaten tracks, New Zealand is rendered
accessible by the growing facilities of our times, and certainly
combines within itself a grand variety of natural phenomena which
nowhere else are so readily reached or more striking to behold. Her soil
produces all the vegetation and fruits of the teeming tropics; and yet
within a few hours' travel of flower-clad plains, one can ascend
mountains as lofty, and behold glaciers as frigid and grand, as in
Switzerland or Norway. While perennial verdure characterizes her valleys
and plains, her lofty ranges are snow-capped all through the year. In
the north she has geysers, boiling springs, heated caldrons, and active
craters, as endless in variety as they are countless in number; in the
south she has myriads of cool lakes which for beauty of scenery excel
the Lake of Geneva, and for depth vie with the famous fjords of
Scandinavia,--thus giving us an epitome of the grandest exhibitions of
many lands. Her native race is unique, excelling nearly all others in
originality, and full of interest to the ethnological student. In the
wild Maori country the paths are among a wilderness of boiling
waterspouts, and in the open districts of the lower country one is
sheltered by fern-trees, tall, graceful, and picturesque. From the
crests of burning mountains we may look into regions where sulphurous
fires never cease, and by turning the eyes in another direction behold
crystal waters tumbling over precipices hundreds of feet in height, to
feed the streams which irrigate the fertile plains below.
These marvellous forests, precipitous gorges, lovely rivers, and
fruitful valleys have neither legend nor history to lend them fortuitous
attractions; but is it not quite as fascinating to tread such unworn
lands, to make one's own path in the unbroken forest, and to be brought
face to face with Nature in her primal condition? He who has become
blase with travel in Europe, or even in the less worn fields of Asia,
may here encounter wonder upon wonder which will be sure to "whet his
almost blunted appetite," and to renew in him all the early charms of
foreign discovery and travel.
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| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the |
| original document have been preserved. |
| |
| Typographical errors corrected in the text: |
| |
| Page 7 Franciso changed to Francisco |
| Page 16 Mani changed to Maui |
| Page 100 Darjeling changed to Darjeeling |
| Page 129 Gympic changed to Gympie |
| Page 131 Gympic changed to Gympie |
| Page 171 Chinamen changed to Chinaman |
| Page 190 cleanly changed to clean |
| Page 271 where-ever changed to wherever |
| Page 316 presumedly changed to presumably |
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End of Project Gutenberg's Under the Southern Cross, by Maturin M. Ballou