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diff --git a/33342.txt b/33342.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fd6033 --- /dev/null +++ b/33342.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5089 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Old New Zealand:, by +'A Pakeha Maori' [Frederick Edwa [Maning] + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Old New Zealand: + being Incidents of Native Customs and Character in the Old Times + +Author: 'A Pakeha Maori' [Frederick Edwa [Maning] + +Release Date: August 3, 2010 [EBook #33342] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD NEW ZEALAND: *** + + + + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +OLD NEW ZEALAND: + + + +BEING INCIDENTS OF + +NATIVE CUSTOMS AND CHARACTER + +IN THE OLD TIMES. + + + +By + +A PAKEHA MAORI. + + + +LONDON: +SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL + +M.DCCC.LXIII. + +[_The right of Translation is reserved._] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +To the English reader, and to most of those who have arrived in New +Zealand within the last thirty years, it may be necessary to state that +the descriptions of Maori life and manners of past times, found in +these sketches, owe nothing to fiction. The different scenes and +incidents are given exactly as they occurred, and all the persons +described are real persons. + +Contact with the British settlers has of late years effected a marked +and rapid change in the manners and mode of life of the natives, and +the Maori of the present day are as unlike what they were when I first +saw them as they are still unlike a civilized people or British +subjects. + +The writer has, therefore, thought it might be worth while to place a +few sketches of old Maori life on record, before the remembrance of +them has quite passed away; though in doing so he has by no means +exhausted an interesting subject, and a more full and particular +delineation of old Maori life, manners, and history has yet to be +written. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Page + +CHAPTER I. + +Introductory.--First View of New Zealand.--First Sight of the +Natives, and First Sensations experienced by a mere Pakeha.--A Maori +Chief's Notions of Trading in the Old Times.--A Dissertation on +"Courage."--A few Words on Dress.--The Chief's Soliloquy.--The Maori +Cry of Welcome. 1 + +CHAPTER II. + +The Market Price of a Pakeha.--The Value of a Pakeha "as such."-- +Maori Hospitality in the Good Old Times.--A respectable Friend.-- +Maori Mermaids.--My Notions of the Value of Gold.--How I got +on Shore. 16 + +CHAPTER III. + +A Wrestling Match.--Beef against Melons.--The Victor gains a Loss. +--"Our Chief."--His Speech.--His _status_ in the Tribe.--Death of +"Melons."--Rumours of Peace and War.--Getting the Pa in Fighting +Order.--My Friend the "Relation Eater."--Expectation and Preparation. +--Arrival of doubtful Friends.--Sham Fight.--The "Taki."--The War +Dance.--Another Example of Maori Hospitality.--Crocodile's Tears.-- +Loose Notions about Heads.--Tears of Blood.--Brotherly Love.-- +Capital Felony.--Peace. 28 + +CHAPTER IV. + +A little Affair of "Flotsam and Jetsam."--Rebellion crushed in the +Bud.--A Pakeha's House sacked.--Maori Law.--A Maori Lawsuit.--Affair +thrown into Chancery. 61 + +CHAPTER V. + +Every Englishman's House is his Castle.--My Estate and Castle.--How +I purchased my Estate.--Native Titles to Land, of what Nature.--Value +of Land in New Zealand.--Land Commissioners.--The Triumphs of +Eloquence.--Magna Charta. 70 + +CHAPTER VI. + +How I kept House.--Maori Freebooters.--An Ugly Customer.--The +"Suaviter in Modo."--A Single Combat to amuse the Ladies.--The true +Maori Gentleman.--Character of the Maori People. 78 + +CHAPTER VII. + +Excitement caused by first Contact with Europeans.--The two great +Institutions of Maori Land.--The Muru.--The Tapu.--Instances of Legal +Robbery.--Descriptions and Examples of the Muru.--Profit and +Loss.--Explanation of some of the Workings of the Law of Muru. 94 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The Muru falling into Disuse.--Why.--Examples of the Tapu.--The +Personal Tapu.--Evading the Tapu.--The Undertaker's Tapu.--How I got +Tabooed.--Frightful Difficulties.--How I got out of them.--The War +Tapu.--Maori War Customs. 107 + +CHAPTER IX. + +The Tapu Tohunga.--The Maori Oracle.--Responses of the Oracle.-- +Priestcraft. 136 + +CHAPTER X. + +The Priest evokes a Spirit.--The Consequences.--A Maori Tragedy.-- +The "Tohunga" again. 143 + +CHAPTER XI. + +The Local Tapu.--The Taniwha.--The Battle of Motiti.--The Death of +Tiki Whenua.--Reflections.--Brutus, Marcus Antonius, and Tiki +Whenua.--Suicide. 151 + +CHAPTER XII. + +The Tapa.--Instances of.--The Storming of Mokoia.--Pomare.--Hongi +Ika.--Tareha.--Honour amongst Thieves. 160 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +"My Rangatira."--The respective Duties of the Pakeha and his +Rangatira.--Public Opinion.--A "Pakeha Kino."--Description of my +Rangatira.--His Exploits and Misadventures.--His Moral Principles. +--Decline in the Numbers of the Natives.--Proofs of former Large +Population.--Ancient Forts.--Causes of Decrease. 164 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Trading in the Old Times.--The Native Difficulty.--Virtue its own +Reward.--Rule, Britannia.--Death of my Chief.--His Dying.--Rescue. +--How the World goes round. 193 + +CHAPTER XV. + +Mana.--Young New Zealand.--The Law of England.--"Pop goes the +Weasel."--Right if we have Might--God save the Queen.--Good +Advice. 204 + +GLOSSARY 213 + + + + +OLD NEW ZEALAND. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Introductory.--First View of New Zealand.--First Sight of the + Natives, and First Sensations experienced by a mere Pakeha.--A + Maori Chief's Notions of Trading in the Old Times.--A Dissertation + on "Courage."--A few Words on Dress.--The Chief's Soliloquy.--The + Maori Cry of Welcome. + + +Ah! those good old times, when first I came to New Zealand, we shall +never see their like again. Since then the world seems to have gone +wrong, somehow. A dull sort of world this, now. The very sun does not +seem to me to shine as bright as it used. Pigs and potatoes have +degenerated; and everything seems "flat, stale, and unprofitable." But +those were the times!--the "good old times"--before Governors were +invented, and law, and justice, and all that. When every one did as he +liked,--except when his neighbours would not let him, (the more shame +for them,)--when there were no taxes, or duties, or public works, or +public to require them. Who cared then whether he owned a coat?--or +believed in shoes or stockings? The men were bigger and stouter in +those days; and the women,--ah! Money was useless and might go +a-begging. A sovereign was of no use, except to make a hole in and hang +it in a child's ear. The few I brought went that way, and I have seen +them swapped for shillings, which were thought more becoming. + +What cared I? A fish-hook was worth a dozen of them, and I had lots of +fish-hooks. Little did I think in those days that I should ever see +here towns and villages, banks and insurance offices, prime ministers +and bishops; and hear sermons preached, and see men hung, and all the +other plagues of civilization. I am a melancholy man. I feel somehow as +if I had got older. I am no use in these dull times. I mope about in +solitary places, exclaiming often, "Oh! where are those good old +times?" and echo, or some young Maori whelp from the Three Kings, +answers from behind a bush,--NO HEA. + +I shall not state the year in which I first saw the mountains of New +Zealand appear above the sea; there is a false suspicion getting about +that I am growing old. This must be looked down, so I will at present +avoid dates. I always held a theory that time was of no account in New +Zealand, and I do believe I was right up to the time of the arrival of +the first Governor. The natives hold this opinion still, especially +those who are in debt: so I will just say, it was in the good old +times, long ago, that from the deck of a small trading schooner, in +which I had taken my passage from somewhere, that I first cast eyes on +Maori land. It _was_ Maori land then; but, alas! what is it now? +Success to you, O King of Waikato. May your _mana_ never be less;--long +may you hold at bay the demon of civilization, though fall at last I +fear you must. Plutus with golden hoof is trampling on your land-marks. +He mocks the war-song, but should _I_ see your fall, at least one +Pakeha Maori shall raise the _tangi_; and with flint and shell as of +old shall the women lament you. + +Let me, however, leave these melancholy thoughts for a time, forget the +present, take courage, and talk about the past. I have not got on shore +yet; a thing I must accomplish as a necessary preliminary to looking +about me, and telling what I saw. I do not understand the pakeha way of +beginning a story in the middle; so to start fair, I must fairly get on +shore, which, I am surprised to find, was easier to _do_ than to +describe. + +The little schooner neared the land, and as we came closer and closer, +I began in a most unaccountable manner to remember all the tales I had +ever heard of people being baked in ovens, with cabbage and potato +"fixins." I had before this had some considerable experience of +"savages," but as they had no regular system of domestic cookery of the +nature I have hinted at, and being, as I was in those days, a mere +pakeha (a character I have since learned to despise), I felt, to say +the least, rather curious as to the then existing demand on shore for +butchers' meat. + +The ship sailed on, and I went below and loaded my pistols; not that I +expected at all to conquer the country with them, but somehow because I +couldn't help it. We soon came to anchor in a fine harbour before the +house of the very first settler who had ever entered it, and to this +time he was the only one. He had, however, a few Europeans in his +employ; and there was at some forty miles distance a sort of nest of +English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, French, and American runaways from South +Sea whalers, with whom were also congregated certain other individuals +of the pakeha race, whose manner of arrival in the country was not +clearly accounted for, and to inquire into which was, as I found +afterwards, considered extremely impolite, and a great breach of +_bienseance_. They lived in a half-savage state, or, to speak +correctly, in a savage and-a-half state, being greater savages by far +than the natives themselves. + +I must, however, turn back a little, for I perceive I am not on shore +yet. + +The anchoring of a vessel of any size, large or small, in a port of New +Zealand, in those days, was an event of no small importance; and, +accordingly, from the deck we could see the shore crowded by several +hundreds of natives, all in a great state of excitement, shouting and +running about, many with spears and clubs in their hands, and +altogether looking to the inexperienced newcomer very much as if they +were speculating on an immediate change of diet. I must say these, at +least, were my impressions on seeing the mass of shouting, +gesticulating, tattooed fellows, who were exhibiting before us, and who +all seemed to be mad with excitement of some sort or other. + +Shortly after we came to anchor, a boat came off, in which was Mr. +----, the settler I have mentioned, and also the principal chief of the +tribe of natives inhabiting this part of the country. Mr. ---- gave me +a hearty welcome to New Zealand, and also an invitation to his house, +telling me I was welcome to make it my home for any unlimited time, +till I had one of my own. The chief also, having made some inquiries +first of the captain of the schooner--such as, whether I was a +_rangatira_, if I had plenty of _taonga_ (goods) on board, and other +particulars; and having been answered by the captain in the most +satisfactory manner,--came up to me and gave me a most sincere welcome. +(I love sincerity.) He would have welcomed me, however, had I been as +poor as Job, for pakehas were, in those days, at an enormous premium. +Even Job, at the worst (a _pakeha_ Job), might be supposed to have an +old coat, or a spike nail, or a couple of iron hoops left on hand, and +these were "good trade" in the times I speak of; and under a process +well understood at the time by my friend the chief, were sure to change +hands soon after his becoming aware of their whereabouts. + +His idea of trade was this:--He took them, and never paid for them till +he took something else of greater value, which, whatever it might be, +he never paid for till he made a third still heavier haul. He always +paid just what he thought fit to give, and when he chose to withdraw +his patronage from any pakeha who might be getting too knowing for him, +and extend it to some newer arrival, he never paid for the last "lot of +trade;" but, to give him his due, he allowed his pakeha friends to make +the best bargain they could with the rest of the tribe, with the +exception of a few of his nearest relations, over whose interests he +would watch. So, after all, the pakeha would make a living; but I have +never heard of one of the old traders who got rich by trading with the +natives: there were too many drawbacks of the nature I have mentioned, +as well as others unnecessary to mention just yet, which prevented it. + +I positively vow and protest to you, gentle and patient reader, that if +ever I get safe on shore, I will do my best to give you satisfaction; +let me get once on shore, and I am all right: but, unless I get my feet +on _terra firma_, how can I ever begin my tale of the good old times? +As long as I am on board ship I am cramped and crippled, and a mere +slave to Greenwich time, and can't get on. Some people, I am aware, +would make a dash at it, and manage the thing without the aid of boat, +canoe, or life preserver; but such people are, for the most part, +dealers in fiction, which I am not: my story is a true story, not +"founded on fact," but fact itself, and so I cannot manage to get on +shore a moment sooner than circumstances will permit. + +It may be that I ought to have landed before this; but I must confess I +don't know any more about the right way to tell a story, than a native +minister knows how to "come" a war dance. I declare the mention of the +war dance calls up a host of reminiscences, pleasurable and painful, +exhilarating and depressing, in such a way as no one but a few, a very +few, pakeha Maori can understand. Thunder!--but no; let me get ashore; +how can I dance on the water, or before I ever knew how? On shore I +will get this time, I am determined, in spite of fate--so now for it. + +The boat of my friend Mr. ---- being about to return to the shore, +leaving the chief and Mr. ---- on board, and I seeing the thing had to +be done, plucked up courage, and having secretly felt the priming of my +pistols under my coat, got into the boat. + +I must here correct myself. I have said "plucked up courage," but that +is not exactly my meaning. The fact is, kind reader, if you have +followed me thus far, you are about to be rewarded for your +perseverance, I am determined to make you as wise as I am myself on at +least one important subject, and that is not saying a little, let me +inform you, as I can hardly suppose you have made the discovery for +yourself on so short an acquaintance. Falstaff, who was a very clever +fellow, and whose word cannot be doubted, says, "The better part of +valour is discretion." Now, that being the case, what in the name of +Achilles,--(he was a rank coward, though, for he went about knocking +people on the head, being himself next thing to invulnerable, as he +could not be hurt till he turned his back to the enemy. There is a deep +moral in this same story about Achilles, which, perhaps, by-and-by, I +may explain to you)--what, I say again, in the name of everything +valorous, can the worser part of valour be, if "discretion" be the +better? The fact is, my dear sir, I don't believe in courage at all, +nor ever did: but there is something far better, which has carried me +through many serious scrapes with _eclat_ and safety; I mean the +appearance of courage. If you have this, you may drive the world before +you. As for real courage, I do not believe there can be any such thing. +A man who sees himself in danger of being killed by his enemy and is +not in a precious fright, is simply not courageous but mad. The man who +is not frightened because he cannot see the danger, is a person of weak +mind--a fool--who ought to be locked up lest he walk into a well with +eyes open; but the appearance of courage--or rather, as I deny the +existence of the thing itself, that appearance which is thought to be +courage--that is the thing will carry you through! get you made K.C.B., +Victoria Cross, and all that! Men by help of this quality do the most +heroic actions, being all the time ready to die of mere fright, but +keeping up a good countenance all the time. + +Here is the secret--pay attention, it is worth much money--if ever you +get into any desperate battle or skirmish, and feel in such a state of +mortal fear that you almost wish to be shot to get rid of it, just say +to yourself--"If I am so preciously frightened, what must the other +fellow be?" The thought will refresh you; your own self-esteem will +answer that, of course, the enemy is more frightened than you are, +consequently the nearer you feel to running away the more reason you +have to stand. Look at the last gazette of the last victory, where +thousands of men at one shilling _per diem_, minus certain very serious +deductions, "covered themselves with glory." The thing is clear: the +other fellows ran first; and that is all about it! My secret is a very +good secret; but one must of course do the thing properly: no matter of +what kind the danger is, you must look it boldly in the face and keep +your wits about you, and the more frightened you get the more +determined you must be--to keep up appearances--and half the danger is +gone at once. So now, having corrected myself, as well as given some +valuable advice, I shall start again for the shore, by saying that I +plucked up a very good appearance of courage and got on board the boat. + +For the honour and glory of the British nation, of which I considered +myself in some degree a representative on this momentous occasion, I +had dressed myself in one of my best suits. My frock-coat was, I fancy, +"the thing;" my waistcoat was the result of much and deep thought, in +cut, colour, and material; I may venture to affirm that the like had +not been often seen in the southern hemisphere. My tailor has, as I +hear, long since realized a fortune and retired, in consequence of the +enlightenment he at different times received from me on the great +principles of, not clothing, but embellishing the human subject. My hat +looked down criticism, and my whole turn-out was such as I calculated +would "astonish the natives," and create awe and respect for myself +individually and the British nation in general; of whom I thought fit +to consider myself no bad sample. + +Here I will take occasion to remark that some attention to ornament and +elegance in the matter of dress is not only allowable but commendable. +Man is the only beast to whom a discretionary power has been left in +this respect: why then should he not take a hint from nature, and +endeavour to beautify his person? Peacocks and birds of paradise could +no doubt live and get fat though all their feathers were the colour of +a Quaker's leggings, but see how they are ornamented! Nature has, one +would say, exhausted herself in beautifying them. Look at the tiger and +leopard! Could not they murder without their stripes and spots?--but +see how their coats are painted! Look at the flowers--at the whole +universe--and you will see everywhere the ornamental combined with the +useful. Look, then, to the cut and colour of your coat, and do not +laugh at the Maori of past times, who, not being "seised" of a coat, +because he has never been able to seize one, carves and tattoos legs, +arms, and face. + +The boat is, however, darting towards the shore, rapidly propelled by +four stout natives. My friend ---- and the chief are on board. The +chief has got his eye on my double gun, which is hanging up in the +cabin. He takes it down and examines it closely. He is a good judge of +a gun. It is the best _tupara_ he has ever seen, and his speculations +run something very like this:--"A good gun, a first-rate gun; I must +have this; I must _tapu_ it before I leave the ship:--[here he pulls a +piece of the fringe from his cloak and ties it round the stock of the +gun, thereby rendering it impossible for me to sell, give away, or +dispose of it in any way to any one but himself]--I wonder what the +pakeha will want for it? I will promise him as much flax or as many +pigs as ever he likes for it. True, I have no flax just now, and am +short of pigs, they were almost all killed at the last _hahunga_; but +if he is in a hurry he can buy the flax or pigs from the people, which +ought to satisfy him. Perhaps he would take a piece of land!--that +would be famous. I would give him a piece quite close to the _kainga_, +where I would always have him close to me. I hope he may take the land; +then I should have two pakehas, him and ----. All the inland chiefs +would envy me. This ---- is getting too knowing; he has taken to hiding +his best goods of late, and selling them before I knew he had them. +It's just the same as thieving, and I won't stand it. He sold three +muskets the other day to the Ngatiwaki, and I did not know he had them, +or I should have taken them. I could have paid for them some time or +another. It was wrong, wrong, very wrong, to let that tribe have those +muskets. He is not their pakeha; let them look for a pakeha for +themselves. Those Ngatiwaki are getting too many muskets--those three +make sixty-four they have got, besides two _tupara_. Certainly we have +a great many more, and the Ngatiwaki are our relations; but then there +was Kohu, we killed, and Patu, we stole his wife. There is no saying +what these Ngatiwaki may do if they should get plenty of muskets; they +are game enough for anything. It was wrong to give them those muskets; +wrong, wrong, wrong!" After experience enabled me to tell just what the +chief's soliloquy was, as above. + +But all this time the boat is darting to the shore; and as the distance +is only a couple of hundred yards, I can hardly understand how it is +that I have not yet landed. The crew are pulling like mad, being +impatient to show the tribe the prize they have made,--a regular +_pakeha rangatira_ as well as a _rangatira pakeha_ (two very different +things), who has lots of tomahawks, and fish-hooks, and blankets, and a +_tupara_, and is even suspected to be the owner of a great many "pots" +of gunpowder! "He is going to stop with the tribe, he is going to +trade, he is going to be a pakeha _for us_." These last conclusions +were, however, jumped at; the "pakeha" not having then any notions of +trade or commerce, and being only inclined to look about and amuse +himself. + +The boat nears the shore, and now arises from a hundred voices the call +of welcome,--"_Haere mai! haere mai! hoe mai! hoe mai! haere mai, +e-te-pa-ke-ha, haere mai!_" Mats, hands, and certain ragged petticoats +put into requisition for that occasion, all at the same time waving in +the air in sign of welcome. Then a pause. Then, as the boat came +nearer, another burst of _haere mai!_ But unaccustomed as I was then to +the Maori salute, I disliked the sound. There was a wailing melancholy +cadence that did not strike me as being the appropriate tone of +welcome; and as I was quite ignorant up to this time of my own +importance, wealth, and general value as a pakeha, I began, as the boat +closed in with the shore, to ask myself whether possibly this same +"_haere mai_" might not be the Maori for "dilly, dilly, come and be +killed." There was, however, no help for it now; we were close to the +shore, and so, putting on the most unconcerned countenance possible, I +prepared to make my _entree_ into Maori land in a proper and dignified +manner. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + The Market Price of a Pakeha.--The Value of a Pakeha "as + such."--Maori Hospitality in the Good Old Times.--A respectable + Friend.--Maori Mermaids.--My Notions of the Value of Gold.--How I + got on Shore. + + +Here I must remark that in those days the value of a pakeha to a tribe +was enormous. For want of pakehas to trade with, and from whom to +procure gunpowder and muskets, many tribes or sections of tribes were +about this time exterminated, or nearly so, by their more fortunate +neighbours who got pakehas before them, and who consequently became +armed with muskets first. A pakeha trader was therefore of a value say +about twenty times his own weight in muskets. This, according to my +notes made at the time, I find to have represented a value in New +Zealand something about what we mean in England when we talk of the sum +total of the national debt. A book-keeper, or a second-rate pakeha, not +a trader, might be valued at, say, his weight in tomahawks; an enormous +sum also. The poorest labouring pakeha, though he might have no +property, would earn something--his value to the chief and tribe with +whom he lived might be estimated at, say, his weight in fish-hooks, or +about a hundred thousand pounds or so: value estimated by eagerness to +obtain the article. + +The value of a musket was not to be estimated to a native by just what +he gave for it: he gave all he had, or could procure, and had he ten +times as much to give, he would have given it, if necessary; or if not, +he would buy ten muskets instead of one. Muskets! muskets! muskets! +nothing but muskets, was the first demand of the Maori: muskets and +gunpowder, at any cost. + +I do not, however, mean to affirm that pakehas were at this time valued +"as such,"--like Mr. Pickwick's silk stockings, which were very good +and valuable stockings, "as stockings;" not at all. A loose straggling +pakeha--a runaway from a ship for instance, who had nothing, and was +never likely to have anything--a vagrant straggler passing from place +to place,--was not of much account, even in those times. Two men of +this description (runaway sailors) were hospitably entertained one +night by a chief, a very particular friend of mine, who, to pay himself +for his trouble and outlay, ate one of them next morning. + +Remember, my good reader, I don't deal in fiction; my friend ate the +pakeha sure enough, and killed him before he ate him: which was civil, +for it was not always done. But then, certainly, the pakeha was a +_tutua_, a nobody, a fellow not worth a spike-nail; no one knew him; he +had no relations, no goods, no expectations, no anything: what could be +made of him? Of what use on earth was he except to eat? And, indeed, +not much good even for that--they say he was not good meat. But good +well-to-do pakehas, traders, ship-captains, labourers, or employers of +labour, these were to be honoured, cherished, caressed, protected--and +plucked: plucked judiciously (the Maori is a clever fellow in his way), +so that the feathers might grow again. But as for poor, mean, mere +_Pakeha tutua, e aha te pai_? + +Before going any farther I beg to state that I hope the English reader +or the new-comer, who does not understand Maori morality--especially of +the glorious old time--will not form a bad opinion of my friend's +character, merely because he ate a good-for-nothing sort of pakeha, who +really was good for nothing else. People from the old countries I have +often observed to have a kind of over-delicacy about them, the result +of a too effeminate course of life and over-civilization; which is the +cause that, often starting from premises which are true enough, they +will, being carried away by their over-sensitive constitution or sickly +nervous system, jump at once, without any just process of reasoning, to +the most erroneous conclusions. I know as well as can be that some of +this description of my readers will at once, without reflection, set my +friend down as a very rude ill-mannered sort of person. Nothing of the +kind, I assure you. You never made a greater mistake in your life. My +friend was a highly respectable person in his way; he was a great +friend and protector of rich, well-to-do pakehas; he was, moreover, a +great warrior, and had killed the first man in several different +battles. He always wore, hanging round his neck, a handsome carved +flute (this at least showed a soft and musical turn of mind), which was +made of the thigh-bone of one of his enemies; and when Heke, the +Ngapuhi, made war against us, my friend came to the rescue, fought +manfully for his pakeha friends, and was desperately wounded in so +doing. Now can any one imagine a more respectable character?--a +warrior, a musician, a friend in need, who would stand by you while he +had a leg to stand on, and would not eat a _friend_ on any account +whatever--except he should be very hungry. + +The boat darts on; she touches the edge of a steep rock; the "_haere +mai_" has subsided; six or seven "personages"--the magnates of the +tribe--come gravely to the front to meet me as I land. There are about +six or seven yards of shallow water to be crossed between the boat and +where they stand. A stout fellow rushes to the boat's nose, and "shows +a back," as we used to say at leap-frog. He is a young fellow of +respectable standing in the tribe, a far-off cousin of the chief's, a +warrior, and as such has no back: that is to say, to carry loads of +fuel or potatoes. He is too good a man to be spoiled in that way; the +women must carry for him; the able-bodied men of the tribe must be +saved for its protection; but he is ready to carry the pakeha on +shore--the _rangatira pakeha_--who wears a real _koti roa_ (a long +coat) and beaver hat! Carry! He would lie down and make a bridge of his +body, with pleasure, for him. Has he not half a shipful of _taonga_? + +Well, having stepped in as dignified a manner as I knew how, from +thwart to thwart, till I came to the bow of the boat, and having +tightened on my hat and buttoned up my coat, I fairly mounted on the +broad shoulders of my aboriginal friend. I felt at the time that the +thing was a sort of failure--a come down; the position was not +graceful, or in any way likely to suggest ideas of respect or awe, with +my legs projecting a yard or so from under each arm of my bearer, +holding on to his shoulders in the most painful, cramped, and awkward +manner: to be sacked on shore thus, and delivered like a bag of goods +thus, into the hands of the assembled multitude, did not strike me as a +good first appearance on this stage. But little, indeed, can we tell in +this world what one second may produce. Gentle reader, fair reader, +patient reader! The fates have decreed it; the fiat has gone forth; on +that man's back I shall never land in New Zealand. Manifold are the +doubts and fears which have yet to shake and agitate the hearts and +minds of all my friends as to whether I shall ever land at all, or ever +again feel _terra firma_ touch my longing foot. My bearer made one +step; the rock is slippery; backwards he goes; back, back! The steep is +near--is passed! down, down, we go! backwards, and headlong to the +depths below! + +The ebb tide is running like a sluice; in an instant we are forty yards +off, and a fathom below the surface; ten more fathoms are beneath us. +The heels of my boots, my polished boots, point to the upper air--ay, +point; but when, oh, when again, shall I salute thee, gentle air; when +again, unchoked by the saline flood, cry _Veni, aura?_ When, indeed! +for now I am wrong end uppermost, drifting away with the tide, and +ballasted with heavy pistols, boots, tight clothes, and all the straps +and strings of civilization. Oh, heavens! and oh, earth! and oh, ye +little thieves of fishes who manage to live in the waters under the +earth (a miserable sort of life you must have of it)! oh, Maori sea +nymphs! who, with yellow hair--yellow? egad--that's odd enough, to say +the least of it: how ever the Maori should come to give their sea +nymphs or spirits yellow hair is curious. The Maori know nothing about +yellow hair; their hair is black. About one in a hundred of them have a +sort of dirty brown hair; but even if there should be now and then a +native with yellow hair, how is it that they have come to give this +colour to the sea-sprites in particular?--who also "dance on the sands, +and yet no footstep seen." Now I confess I am rather puzzled and struck +by the coincidence. I don't believe Shakspeare ever was in New Zealand; +Jason might, being a seafaring man, and if he should have called in for +wood and water, and happened to have the golden fleece by any accident +on board, and by any chance put it on for a wig, why the thing would be +accounted for at once. + +The world is mad now-a-days about gold, so no one cares a fig about +what is called "golden hair:" nuggets and dust have the preference; but +this is a grand mistake. Gold is of no use, or very little, except in +so far as this--that through the foolishness of human beings, one can +purchase the necessaries and conveniences of life with it. Now, this +being the case, if I have a chest full of gold (which I have not), I am +no richer for it, in fact, until I have given it away in exchange for +necessaries, comforts, and luxuries, which are, properly speaking, +riches or wealth; but it follows from this, that he who has given me +this same riches or wealth for my gold, has become poor, and his only +chance to set himself up again, is to get rid of the gold as fast as he +can, in exchange for the same sort and quantity of things, if he can +get them: which is always doubtful. But here lies the gist of the +matter--how did I, in the first instance, become possessed of my gold? +If I bought it, and gave real wealth for it, beef, mutton, silk, tea, +sugar, tobacco, ostrich feathers, leather breeches, and +crinoline,--why, then, all I have done in parting with my gold, is +merely to get them back again, and I am, consequently, no richer by the +transaction; but if I steal my gold, then I am a clear gainer of the +whole lot of valuables above mentioned. So, upon the whole, I don't see +much use in getting gold honestly, and one must not steal it: digging +it certainly is almost as good as stealing, if it is not too deep, +which fully accounts for so many employing themselves in this way; but +then the same amount of labour would raise no end of wheat and +potatoes, beef and mutton: and all farmers, mathematicians, and +algebraists will agree with me in this--that after any country is fully +cultivated, all the gold in the world won't force it to grow one extra +turnip, and what more can anyone desire? So now Adam Smith, McCulloch, +and all the rest of them may go and be hanged. The whole upshot of this +treatise on political economy and golden hair (which I humbly lay at +the feet of the Colonial Treasurer), is this:--I would not give one of +your golden locks, my dear, for all the gold, silver, pearls, diamonds, +_mere ponamus_--stop, let me think: a good _mere ponamu_ would be a +temptation. + +I had once a _mere_, a present from a Maori friend, the most beautiful +thing of the kind ever seen. It was nearly as transparent as glass; in +it there were beautiful marks like fern leaves, trees, fishes--and I +would not give much for a person who could not see almost _anything_ in +it. Never shall I cease to regret having parted with it. The Emperor of +Brazil, I think, has it now; but he does not know the proper use of it. +It went to the Minister many years ago. I did not sell it. I would have +scorned to do that: but I did expect to be made Knight of the Golden +Pig-knife, or Elephant and Watch-box, or something of that nature: but +here I am still, a mere pakeha Maori--and, as I recollect, in desperate +danger of being drowned. + +Up we came at last, blowing and puffing like grampuses. With a glance I +"recognized the situation:" we had drifted a long way from the +landing-place. My hat was dashing away before the land breeze towards +the sea, and had already made a good "offing." Three of the boat's crew +had jumped overboard, had passed us a long distance, and were seemingly +bound after the hat; the fourth man was pulling madly with one oar, and +consequently making great progress in no very particular direction. The +whole tribe of natives had followed our drift along the shore, shouting +and gesticulating, and some were launching a large canoe, evidently +bent on saving the _hat_, on which all eyes were turned. As for the +pakeha, it appears they must have thought it an insult to his +understanding to suppose he could be drowned anywhere in sight of land. +"'Did he not come from the sea?' Was he not a fish? Was not the sea +solid land to him? Did not his fire burn on the ocean? Had he not slept +on the crests of the waves?" All this I heard afterwards; but at the +time, had I not been as much at home in the water as anything not +amphibious could be, I should have been very little better than a gone +pakeha. Here was a pretty wind up! I was going to "astonish the +natives," was I?--with my black hat and my _koti roa_? + +But the villain is within a yard of me--the rascally cause of all my +grief. The furies take possession of me! I dart upon him like a hungry +shark! I have him! I have him under! Down, villain! down to the kraken +and the whale, to the Taniwha cave!--down! down! down! As we sank I +heard one grand roar of wild laughter from the shore: the word _utu_ I +heard roared by many voices, but did not then know its import. The +pakeha was drowning the Maori for _utu_ for himself, in _case_ he +should be drowned. No matter: if the Maori can't hold his own, it's +fair play; and then, if the pakeha really does drown the Maori, has he +not lots of _taonga_ to be robbed of?--No, not exactly to be robbed of, +either; let us not use unnecessarily bad language--we will say to be +distrained upon. + +Crack! What do I hear? Down in the deep I felt a shock, and actually +heard a sudden noise. Is it the "crack of doom?" No, it is my +frock-coat gone at one split "from clue to earing"--split down the +back. Oh, if my pistols would go off, a fiery and watery death shouldst +thou die, Caliban. Egad! they have gone off--they are both gone to the +bottom! My boots are getting heavy! Humane Society, ahoy! where is your +boat-hook?--where is your bellows? Humane Society, ahoy! We are now +drifting fast by a sandy point, after which there will be no chance of +landing,--the tide will take us right out to sea. My friend is very +hard to drown--I must finish him some other time. We both swim for the +point, and land. + +And this is how I got ashore on Maori land. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + A Wrestling Match.--Beef against Melons.--The Victor gains a + Loss.--"Our Chief."--His Speech.--His _status_ in the + Tribe.--Death of "Melons."--Rumours of Peace and War.--Getting + the Pa in Fighting Order.--My Friend the "Relation Eater."-- + Expectation and Preparation.--Arrival of doubtful Friends.--Sham + Fight.--The "Taki."--The War Dance.--Another Example of Maori + Hospitality.--Crocodile's Tears.--Loose Notions about Heads.-- + Tears of Blood.--Brotherly Love.--Capital Felony.--Peace. + + +Something between a cheer, a scream, and a roar, greets our arrival on +the sand. An English voice salutes me with "Well, you served that +fellow out." One half of my coat hangs from my right elbow, the other +from my left; a small shred of the collar is still around my neck. My +hat, alas! my hat is gone. I am surrounded by a dense mob of natives, +laughing, shouting, and gesticulating, in the most grotesque manner. +Three Englishmen are also in the crowd; they seem greatly amused at +something, and offer repeated welcomes. + +At this moment, up comes my salt-water acquaintance, elbowing his way +through the crowd; there is a strange serio-comic expression of anger +in his face; he stoops, makes horrid grimaces, quivering at the same +time his left hand and arm about in a most extraordinary manner, and +striking the thick part of his left arm with the palm of the right +hand. "_Hu!_" says he, "_hu! hu!_" "What _can_ he mean?" said I. "He is +challenging you to wrestle," cried one of the Englishmen; "he wants +_utu_." "What is _utu_" said I. "Payment." "I won't pay him." "Oh, +that's not it, he wants to take it out of you wrestling." "Oh, I see; +here's at him; pull off my coat and boots: I'll wrestle him. 'His foot +is in his own country, and his name is'--what?" "Sir, his name in +English means 'An eater of melons:' he is a good wrestler; you must +mind." "_Water_-melons, I suppose! Beef against melons for ever, +hurrah! Here's at him." + +Here the natives began to run between us to separate us, but seeing +that I was in the humour to "have it out," and that neither self nor +friend were actually out of temper--and, no doubt, expecting to see the +pakeha floored--they stood to one side and made a ring. A wrestler soon +recognizes another, and my friend soon gave me some hints that showed +me I had some work before me. I was a youngster in those days, all bone +and sinew, full of animal spirits, and as tough as leather. A couple of +desperate main strength efforts soon convinced us both that science or +endurance must decide the contest. My antagonist was a strapping fellow +of about five-and-twenty, tremendously strong, and much heavier than +me. I, however, in those days actually could not be fatigued: I did not +know the sensation, and I could run from morning till night. I +therefore trusted to wearing him out, and avoiding his _ta_ and _wiri_. +All this time the mob were shouting encouragement to one or other of +us. Such a row never was seen. I soon perceived I had a "party." "Well +done, pakeha!" "Now for it, Melons!" "At him again!" "Take care the +pakeha is a _taniwha_! the pakeha is a _tino tangata_!" "Hooray!" (from +the British element). "The pakeha is down!" "No, he isn't!" (from +English side). Here I saw my friend's knees beginning to tremble. I +made a great effort, administered my favourite remedy, and there lay +the "Eater of Melons" prone upon the sand. + +I stood a victor; and, like many other conquerors, a very great loser. +There I stood, _minus_ hat, coat, and pistols; wet and mauled, and +transformed very considerably for the worse since I left the ship. When +my antagonist fell, the natives gave a great shout of triumph, and +congratulated me in their own way with the greatest good will. I could +see I had got their good opinion, though I scarcely could understand +how. After sitting on the sand some time, my friend arose, and with a +very graceful movement, and a smile of good-nature on his dusky +countenance, he held out his hand and said in English, "How do you do?" +I was much pleased at this; the natives had given me fair play, and my +antagonist, though defeated both by sea and land, offered me his hand, +and welcomed me to the shore with his whole stock of English--"How do +you do?" + +But the row is not half over yet. Here comes the chief in the ship's +boat. The other is miles off with its one man crew still pulling no one +knows, or at all cares, where. Some one has been off in a canoe and +told the chief that "Melons" and the "New Pakeha" were fighting like +mad on the beach. Here he comes, flourishing his _mere ponamu_. He is a +tall, stout fellow, in the prime of life, black with tatooing, and +splendidly dressed, according to the splendour of those days. He has on +a very good blue jacket, no shirt or waistcoat, a pair of duck +trousers, and a red sash round his waist; no hat or shoes, these being +as yet things beyond a chief's ambition. The jacket was the only one in +the tribe; and amongst the surrounding company I saw only one other +pair of trousers, which had a large hole at each knee; but this was not +considered to detract at all from its value. + +The chief jumps ashore; he begins his oration, or rather to "blow up," +all and sundry, the tribe in general, and poor "Melons" in particular. +He is really vexed, and wishes to appear to me more vexed than he +really is. He runs gesticulating and flourishing his _mere_ about ten +steps in one direction, in the course of which ten steps he delivers a +sentence; he then turns and runs back the same distance, giving vent to +his wrath in another sentence, and so back and forward, forward and +back, till he has exhausted the subject, and tired his legs. The +Englishmen were beside me, and gave a running translation of what he +said. + +"Pretty work this," he began, "_good_ work; killing my pakeha: look at +him! (here a flourish in my direction with the _mere_.) I won't stand +this; not at all! not at all! not at all! (the last sentence took three +jumps, a step, and a turn-round, to keep correct time.) Who killed the +pakeha? It was Melons. You are a nice man, are you not? (this with a +sneer.) Killing my pakeha! (in a voice like thunder, and rushing +savagely, _mere_ in hand, at poor Melons, but turning exactly at the +end of the ten steps and coming back again.) It will be heard of all +over the country; we shall be called the 'pakeha killers;' I shall be +sick with shame; the pakeha will run away, and take all his _taonga_ +along with him: what if you had killed him dead, or broken his bones? +his relations would be coming across the sea for _utu_. (Great +sensation, and I try to look as though I would say 'of course they +would.') What did I build this pa close to the sea for?--was it not to +trade with the pakehas?--and here you are killing the second that has +come to stop with me! (Here poor Melons burst out crying like an +infant.) Where is the hat?--where the _koti roa_?--where the +shoes?--(Boots were shoes in those days.) The pakeha is robbed! he is +murdered! (Here a howl from Melons, and I go over and sit down by him, +clap him on the bare back, and shake his hand.) Look at that,--the +pakeha does not bear malice; I would kill you if he asked me: you are a +bad people, killers of pakehas; be off with you, the whole of you, +away!" + +This command was instantly obeyed by all the women, boys, and slaves. +Melons also, being in disgrace, disappeared; but I observed that "the +whole of you" did not seem to be understood as including the stout, +able-bodied, tattooed part of the population, the strength of the +tribe--the warriors, in fact, many of whom counted themselves to be +very much about as good as the chief. They were his nearest relations, +without whose support he could do nothing, and were entirely beyond his +control. + +I found afterwards that it was only during actual war that this chief +was perfectly absolute, which arose from the confidence the tribe had +in him, both as a general and a fighting man, and the obvious necessity +that in war implicit obedience be given to one head. I have, however, +observed in other tribes, that in war they would elect a chief for the +occasion, a war chief, and have been surprised to see the obedience +they gave him, even when his conduct was very open to criticism. I say +with surprise, for the natives are so self-possessed, opinionated, and +republican, that the chiefs have at ordinary times but little control +over them; except in very rare cases, where the chief happens to +possess a singular vigour of character, or some other unusual +advantage, to enable him to keep them under. + +I will mention here that my first antagonist, "The Eater of Melons," +became a great friend of mine. He was my right-hand man and manager +when I set up house on my own account, and did me many friendly +services in the course of my acquaintance with him. He came to an +unfortunate end some years later. The tribe were getting ready for a +war expedition; poor Melons was filling cartridges from a fifty pound +barrel of gunpowder, pouring the gunpowder into the cartridges with his +hand, and smoking his pipe at the time, as I have seen the natives +doing fifty times since: a spark fell into the cask, and it is scarcely +necessary to say that my poor friend was roasted alive in a second. I +have known three other accidents of the same kind, from smoking whilst +filling cartridges. In one of these accidents three lives were lost, +and many injured; and I really do believe that the certainty of death +will not prevent some of the natives from smoking for more than a given +time. I have often seen infants refuse the mother's breast, and cry for +the pipe till it was given to them; and dying natives often ask for a +pipe, and die smoking. I can clearly perceive that the young men of the +present day are neither so tall, or stout, or strong, as men of the +same age were when I first came to the country; and I believe that this +smoking, from their infancy, is one of the chief causes of this +decrease in strength and stature. + +I am landed at last, certainly; but I am tattered and wet, and in a +most deplorable plight: so, to make my story short--for I see, if I am +too particular, I shall never come to the end of it--I returned to the +ship, put myself to rights, and came on shore next day with all my +_taonga_, to the great delight of the chief and tribe. My hospitable +entertainer, Mr. ----, found room for my possessions in his store, and +a room for myself in his house; and so now that I am fairly housed we +shall see what will come of it. + +I have now all New Zealand before me to caper about in; so I shall do +as I like, and please myself. I shall keep to neither rule, rhyme, nor +reason, but just write what comes uppermost to my recollection of the +good old days. Many matters which seemed odd enough to me at first, +have long appeared such mere matters of course, that I am likely to +pass them over without notice. I shall, however, give some of the more +striking features of those delectable days, now, alas! passed and gone. + +Some short time after this, news came that a grand war expedition, +which had been absent nearly two years at the South, had returned. This +party were about a thousand strong, being composed of two parties, of +about five hundred men each, from two different tribes, who had joined +their force for the purpose of the expedition. The tribe with which Mr. +---- and myself were staying, had not sent any men on this war party; +but, I suppose to keep their hands in, had attacked one of the two +tribes who had, and who were, consequently, much weakened by the +absence of so many of their best men. It, however, turned out that +after a battle--the ferocity of which has seldom been equalled in any +country but this--our friends were defeated with a dreadful loss, +having inflicted almost as great on the enemy. Peace, however, had +afterwards been formally made; but, nevertheless, the news of the +return of this expedition was not heard without causing a sensation +almost amounting to consternation. The war chief of the party who had +been attacked by our friends during his absence, was now, with all his +men, within an easy day's march. His road lay right through our +village, and it was much to be doubted that he would keep the peace, +being one of the most noted war chiefs of New Zealand, and he and his +men returning from a successful expedition. + +All now was uproar and confusion; messengers were running like mad, in +all directions, to call in stragglers; and the women were carrying fuel +and provisions into the pa, or fortress, of the tribe. This pa was a +very well built and strong stockade, composed of three lines of strong +fence and ditch, very ingeniously and artificially planned; and, +indeed, as good a defence as well could be imagined against an enemy +armed only with musketry. All the men were now working like furies, +putting this fort to rights, getting it into fighting order, mending +the fences, clearing out the ditches, knocking down houses inside the +place, clearing away brushwood and fern all around the outside within +musket shot. + +I was in the thick of it, and worked all day lashing the fence; the +fence being of course not nailed, but lashed with _toro-toro_, a kind +of tough creeping plant, like a small rope, which was very strong and +well adapted for the purpose. This lashing was about ten or twelve feet +from the ground, and a stage had to be erected for the men to stand on. +To accomplish this lashing or fastening of the fence well and with +expedition required two men, one inside the fence and another outside; +all the men therefore worked in pairs, passing the end of the +_toro-toro_ from one to the other through the fence of large upright +stakes and round a cross piece which went all along the fence, by which +means the whole was connected into one strong wall. I worked away like +fury, just as if I had been born and bred a member of the community; +and moreover, not being in those days very particularly famous for what +is called prudence, I intended also, circumstances permitting, to fight +like fury too, just for the fun of the thing. + +About a hundred men were employed in this part of the work, new lashing +the pa. My _vis-a-vis_ in the operation was a respectable old warrior +of great experience and approved valour, whose name being turned into +English meant "The eater of his own relations." This was quite a +different sort of diet from "melons;" and he did not bear his name for +nothing, as I could tell you if I had time; but I am half mad with +haste, lashing the pa. I will only say that my comrade was a most +bloodthirsty, ferocious, athletic savage, and his character was +depicted in every line of his tattooed face. About twenty men had been +sent out to watch the approach of the dreaded visitors. The repairing +of the stockade went on all one day and all one night, by torchlight +and by the light of huge fires lit in the inside. No one thought of +sleep. Dogs barking, men shouting, children crying, women screaming, +pigs squealing, muskets firing (to see if they were fit for active +service and would go off), and above all the doleful _tetere_ sounding. +This was a huge wooden trumpet six feet long, which gave forth a +groaning, moaning sound, like the voice of a dying wild bull. Babel, +with a dash of Pandemonium, will give a faint idea of the uproar. + +All preparations having been at last made, and no further tidings of +the enemy, as I may call them, I took a complete survey of the fort; my +friend the "Relation Eater" being my companion and explaining to me the +design of the whole. I learned something that day; and I, though pretty +well "up" in the noble science of fortification, ancient and modern, +was obliged to confess to myself that a savage who could neither read +nor write--who had never heard of Cohorn or Vauban--and who was +moreover avowedly a gobbler up of his own relations, could teach me +certain practical "dodges" in the defensive art quite well worth +knowing. + +A long shed of palm leaves had been also built at a safe and convenient +distance from the fort. This was for the accommodation of the expected +visitors, supposing they came in peaceful guise. A whole herd of pigs +were also collected and tied to stakes driven into the ground in the +rear of the fort. These were intended to feast the coming guests, +according to their behaviour. + +Towards evening a messenger from a neighbouring friendly tribe arrived +to say that next day, about noon, the strangers might be expected; and +also that the peace, which had been concluded with their tribe during +their absence, had been ratified and accepted by them. This was +satisfactory intelligence; but, nevertheless, no precaution must be +neglected. To be thrown off guard would invite an attack, and ensure +destruction; everything must be in order: gun cleaning, flint fixing, +cartridge making, was going on in all directions; and the outpost at +the edge of the forest was not called in. All was active preparation. + +The path by which these doubtful friends were coming led through a +dense forest, and came out on the clear plain about half a mile from +the pa; which plain continued and extended in every direction around +the fortress to about the same distance, so that none could approach +unperceived. The outpost, of twenty men, was stationed at about a +couple of hundred yards from the point where the path emerged from the +wood; and as the ground sloped considerably from the forest to the +fort, the whole intervening space was clearly visible. + +Another night of alarm and sleepless expectation, the melancholy moan +of the _tetere_ still continuing to hint to any lurking enemy that we +were all wide awake; or rather, I should say, to assure him most +positively of it, for who could sleep with that diabolical din in his +ears? Morning came, and an early breakfast was cooked and devoured +hurriedly. Then groups of the younger men might be seen here and there +fully armed, and "getting up steam" by dancing the war-dance, in +anticipation of the grand dance of the whole warrior force of the +tribe, which, as a matter of course, must be performed in honour of the +visitors when they arrived: in honour, but quite as much in +intimidation, or an endeavour at it, though no one said so. Noon +arrived at last. + +Anxious glances are turning from all quarters towards the wood, from +which a path is plainly seen winding down the sloping ground towards +the pa. The outpost is on the alert. Straggling scouts are out in every +direction. All is expectation. Now there is a movement at the outpost. +They suddenly spread in an open line, ten yards between each man. One +man comes at full speed, running towards the pa, jumping and bounding +over every impediment. Now something moves in the border of the +forest,--it is a mass of black heads. Now the men are plainly visible. +The whole _taua_ has emerged upon the plain. "Here they come! here they +come!" is heard in all directions. The men of the outpost cross the +line of march in pretended resistance; they present their guns, make +horrid grimaces, dance about like mad baboons, and then fall back with +headlong speed to the next advantageous position for making a stand. +The _taua_ however comes on steadily; they are formed in a solid oblong +mass. The chief at the left of the column leads them on. The men are +all equipped for immediate action; that is to say, quite naked except +their arms and cartridge boxes, which are a warrior's clothes. No one +can possibly tell what this peaceful meeting may end in, so all are +ready for action at a second's notice. + +The _taua_ still comes steadily on. As I have said, the men are all +stripped for action, but I also notice that the appearance of nakedness +is completely taken away by the tattooing, the colour of the skin, and +the arms and equipments. The men in fact look much better than when +dressed in their Maori clothing. Every man, almost without exception, +is covered with tattooing from the knees to the waist; the face is also +covered with dark spiral lines. Each man has round his middle a belt, +to which is fastened two cartridge boxes, one behind and one before; +another belt goes over the right shoulder and under the left arm, and +from it hangs, on the left side and rather behind, another cartridge +box, and under the waist-belt is thrust, behind, at the small of the +back, the short-handled tomahawk for close fight and to finish the +wounded. Each cartridge box contains eighteen rounds, and every man has +a musket. Altogether this _taua_ is better and more uniformly armed and +equipped than ordinary; but they have been amongst the first who got +pakehas to trade with them, and are indeed in consequence the terror of +New Zealand. + +On they come, a set of tall, athletic, heavy-made men; they would, I am +sure, in the aggregate weigh some tons heavier than the same number of +men taken at random from the streets of one of our manufacturing towns. +They are now half way across the plain; they keep their formation, a +solid oblong, admirably as they advance, but they do not keep step; +this causes a very singular appearance at a distance. Instead of the +regular marching step of civilized soldiers, which may be observed at +any distance, this mass seems to progress towards you with the creeping +motion of some great reptile at a distance, and when coming down a +sloping ground this effect is quite remarkable. + +The mimic opposition is now discontinued; the outpost rushes in at full +speed, the men firing their guns in the air as they run. "_Takina! +takina!_" is the cry, and out spring three young men, the best runners +of our tribe, to perform the ceremony of the _taki_. They hold in their +hands some reeds to represent darts or _kokiri_. At this moment a +tremendous fire of _ball_ cartridge opens from the fort; the balls +whistle in every direction, over and around the advancing party, who +steadily and gravely come on, not seeming to know that a gun has been +fired; though they perfectly well understand that this salute is also a +hint of full preparation for any unexpected turn things may take. Now, +from the whole female population arises the shrill "_haere mai! haere +mai!_" Mats are waving, guns firing, dogs barking; the chief roaring to +"fall in," and form for the war dance. He appears half mad with +excitement, anxiety, and something very like apprehension of a sudden +onslaught from his friends. + +In the midst of this horrible uproar off dart the three runners. They +are not unexpected. Three young men of the _taua_ are seen to tighten +their waist-belts and hand their muskets to their comrades. On go the +three young men from the fort. They approach the front of the advancing +column; they dance and caper about like mad monkeys, twisting their +faces about in the most extraordinary manner, showing the whites of +their eyes, and lolling out their tongues. At last, after several +feints, they boldly advance within twenty yards of the supposed enemy, +and send the reed darts flying full in their faces: then they turn and +fly as if for life. Instantly, from the stranger ranks, three young men +dart forth in eager pursuit; and behind them comes the solid column, +rushing on at full speed. Run now, O "Sounding Sea," (_Tai Haruru_), +for the "Black Cloud" (_Kapua Mangu_), the swiftest of the Rarawa, is +at your back: run now, for the honour of your tribe and your own name, +run! run! It was an exciting scene. + +The two famous runners came on at a tremendous pace, the dark mass of +armed men following close behind at full speed, keeping their formation +admirably, the ground shaking under them as they rushed on. On come the +two runners (the others are left behind and disregarded). The pursuer +gains upon his man; but they are fast nearing the goal, where, +according to Maori custom, the chase must end. Run, "Sounding Sea;" +another effort! your tribe are near in full array, and armed for the +war dance; their friendly ranks are your refuge: run! run! On came the +headlong race. When within about thirty yards of the place where our +tribe was now formed in a solid oblong, each man kneeling on one knee, +with musket held in both hands, butt to ground, and somewhat sloped to +the front, the pursuing native caught at the shoulder of our man, +touched it, but could do no more. Here he must stop; to go farther +would not be "correct." He will, however, boast everywhere that he has +touched the shoulder of the famous "Sounding Sea." Our man has not, +however, been caught, which would have been a bad omen. + +At this moment the charging column comes thundering up to where their +man is standing; instantly they all kneel upon one knee, holding their +guns sloped before their faces, in the manner already described. The +_elite_ of the two tribes are now opposite to each other, all armed, +all kneeling, and formed in two solid oblong masses, the narrow end of +the oblong to the front. Only thirty yards divide them; but the front +ranks do not gaze on each other: both parties turn their eyes towards +the ground, and with heads bent downwards, and a little to one side, +appear to listen. All is silence; you might have heard a pin drop. The +uproar has turned to a calm; the men are kneeling statues; the chiefs +have disappeared--they are in the centre of their tribes. + +The pakeha is beginning to wonder what will be the end of all this; and +also to speculate on the efficacy of the buck shot with which his gun +is loaded, and wishes it was ball. Two minutes have elapsed in this +solemn silence; the more remarkable as being the first quiet two +minutes for the last two days and nights. Suddenly from the extreme +rear of the strangers' column is heard a scream--a horrid yell. A +savage, of herculean stature, comes, _mere_ in hand, and rushing madly +to the front. He seems hunted by all the furies. Bedlam never produced +so horrid a visage. Thrice, as he advances, he gives that horrid cry; +and thrice the armed tribe give answer with a long-drawn gasping sigh. +He is at the front; he jumps into the air, shaking his stone weapon; +the whites only of his eyes are visible, giving a most hideous +appearance to his face; he shouts the first words of the war song, and +instantly his tribe spring from the ground. It would be hard to +describe the scene which followed. The roaring chorus of the war song; +the horrid grimaces; the eyes all white; the tongues hanging out; the +furious, yet measured, and uniform gesticulation, jumping, and +stamping. I felt the ground plainly trembling. + +At last the war dance ended; and then my tribe (I find I am already +beginning to get Maorified), starting from the ground like a single +man, endeavoured to out-do even their amiable friends' exhibition. They +end; then the newcomers perform another demon dance; then my tribe give +another. Silence again prevails, and all sit down. Immediately a man +from the new-arrivals comes to the front of his own party; he runs to +and fro; he speaks for his tribe; these are his words:--"Peace is made! +peace is made! peace is firm! peace is secure! peace! peace! peace!" +This man is not a person of any particular consequence in his tribe, +but his brother was killed by our people in the battle I have +mentioned, and this gives him the right to be the first to proclaim +peace. His speech is ended and he "falls in." Some three or four others +"follow on the same side." Their speeches are short also, and nearly +verbatim what the first was. + +Then who, of all the world, starts forth from "ours," to speak on the +side of "law and order," but my diabolical old acquaintance the +"Relation Eater." I had by this time picked up a little Maori, and +could partly understand his speech. "Welcome! welcome! welcome! Peace +is made! not till now has there been true peace! I have seen you, and +peace is made!" Here he broke out into a song, the chorus of which was +taken up by hundreds of voices, and when it ended he made a sudden and +very expressive gesture of scattering something with his hands, which +was a signal to all present that the ceremonial was at an end for the +time. + +Our tribe at once disappeared into the pa, and at the same instant the +strangers broke into a scattered mob, and made for the long shed which +had been prepared for their reception, which was quite large enough, +and the floor covered thickly with clean rushes to sleep on. About +fifty or sixty then started for the border of the forest to bring their +clothes and baggage, which had been left there as incumbrances to the +movements of the performers in the ceremonials I have described. Part, +however, of the "_impedimenta_" had already arrived on the backs of +about thirty boys, women, and old slaves; and I noticed amongst other +things some casks of cartridges, which were, as I thought, rather +ostentatiously exposed to view. + +I soon found the reason my friend of saturnine propensities had closed +proceedings so abruptly was, that the tribe had many pressing duties of +hospitality to fulfil, and that the heavy talking was to commence next +day. I noticed also that to this time there had been no meeting of the +chiefs, and, moreover, that the two parties had kept strictly separate: +the nearest they had been to each other was thirty yards when the war +dancing was going on, and they seemed quite glad, when the short +speeches were over, to move off to a greater distance from each other. + +Soon after the dispersion of the two parties, a firing of muskets was +heard in and at the rear of the fort, accompanied by the squeaking, +squealing, and dying groans of a whole herd of pigs. Directly +afterwards a mob of fellows were seen staggering under the weight of +the dead pigs, and proceeding to the long shed already mentioned, in +front of which they were flung down, _sans ceremonie_, and without a +word spoken. I counted sixty-nine large fat pigs flung in one heap, one +on the top of the other, before that part of the shed where the +principal chief was sitting; twelve, were thrown before the interesting +savage who had "started" the war dance; and several single porkers were +thrown without any remark before certain others of the guests. The +parties, however, to whom this compliment was paid, sat quietly saying +nothing, and hardly appearing to see what was done. Behind the pigs was +placed, by the active exertion of two or three hundred people, a heap +of potatoes and _kumera_, in quantity about ten tons, so there was no +want of the raw material for a feast. + +The pigs and potatoes having been deposited, a train of women +appeared--the whole, indeed, of the young and middle-aged women of the +tribe. They advanced with a half-dancing, half-hopping sort of step, to +the time of a wild but not unmusical chant, each woman holding high in +both hands a smoking dish of some kind or other of Maori delicacy, hot +from the oven. The groundwork of this feast appeared to be sweet +potatoes and _taro_, but on the top of each smoking mess was placed +either dried shark, eels, mullet, or pork, all "piping hot." This treat +was intended to stay our guests' stomachs till they could find time to +cook for themselves. The women having placed the dishes, or, to speak +more correctly, baskets, on the ground before the shed, disappeared; +and in a miraculously short time the feast disappeared also, as was +proved by seeing the baskets flung in twos, threes, and tens, empty out +of the shed. + +Next day, pretty early in the morning, I saw our chief (as I must call +him for distinction) with a few of the principal men of the tribe, +dressed in their best Maori costume, taking their way towards the shed +of the visitors. When they got pretty near, a cry of _haere mai!_ +hailed them. They went on gravely, and observing where the principal +chief was seated, our chief advanced towards him, fell upon his neck, +embracing him in the most affectionate manner, and commenced a _tangi_, +or melancholy sort of ditty, which lasted a full half-hour; during +which, both parties, as in duty bound and in compliance with custom, +shed floods of tears. How they managed to do it is more than I can tell +to this day; except that I suppose you may train a man to do anything. +Right well do I know that either party would have almost given his life +for a chance to exterminate the other with all his tribe; and +twenty-seven years afterwards I saw the two tribes fighting in the very +quarrel which was pretended to have been made up that day. Before this, +however, both these chiefs were dead, and others reigned in their +stead. + +While the _tangi_ was going on between the two principals, the +companions of our chief each selected one of the visitors, and, rushing +into his arms, went through a similar scene. Old "Relation Eater" +singled out the horrific savage who had begun the war dance, and these +two tenderhearted individuals, for a full half-hour, seated on the +ground, hanging on each other's necks, gave vent to such a chorus of +skilfully modulated howling as would have given Momus the blue devils +to listen to. + +After the _tangi_ was ended, the two tribes seated themselves in a +large irregular circle on the plain; into this circle strode an orator, +who, having said his say, was followed by another, and so the greater +part of the day was consumed. No arms were to be seen in the hands of +either party, except the greenstone _mere_ of the principal chiefs; but +I took notice that about thirty of our people never left the nearest +gate of the pa, and that their loaded muskets, although out of sight, +were close at hand, standing against the fence inside the gate: I also +perceived that under their cloaks or mats they wore their cartridge +boxes and tomahawks. This caused me to observe the other party more +closely. They also, I perceived, had some forty men sleeping in the +shed; these fellows had not removed their cartridge boxes either, and +all their companions' arms were carefully ranged behind them in a row, +six or seven deep, against the back wall of the shed. + +The speeches of the orators were not very interesting, so I took a +stroll to a little rising ground at about a hundred yards distance, +where a company of natives, better dressed than common, were seated. +They had the best sort of ornamented cloaks, and wore in their heads, +feathers, which I already knew "commoners" could not afford to wear, as +they were only to be procured some hundreds of miles to the south. I +therefore concluded these were magnates or "personages" of some kind or +other, and determined to introduce myself. As I approached, one of +these splendid individuals nodded to me in a very familiar sort of +manner, and I, not to appear rude, returned the salute. I stepped into +the circle formed by my new friends, and had just commenced a _tena +koutou_, when a breeze of wind came sighing along the hill-top; my +friend nodded again, and his cloak blew to one side. What do I see?--or +rather what do I not see? _The head has nobody under it!_ A number of +heads had been stuck on slender rods, a cross stick being tied on to +represent the shoulders, and the cloaks thrown over all in such a +natural manner as to deceive any one at a short distance; but a green +_pakeha_, who was not expecting any such matter, to a certainty. + +I fell back a yard or two, so as to take a full view of this silent +circle, and felt that at last I had fallen into strange company. I +began to look more closely at my companions, and to try to fancy what +their characters in life had been. One had undoubtedly been a warrior; +there was something bold and defiant about the look of the head. +Another was the head of a very old man, grey, shrivelled, and wrinkled. +I was going on with my observations when I was saluted by a voice from +behind with, "Looking at the eds, sir?" It was one of the pakehas +formerly mentioned. "Yes," said I, turning round just the least +possible thing quicker than ordinary. "Eds has been a getting scarce," +says he. "I should think so," says I. "We an't ad a ed this long time," +says he. "The devil!" says I. "One o' them eds has been hurt bad," says +he. "I should think all were rather so," says I. "Oh, no, only one on +'em," says he; "the skull is split, and it won't fetch nothin'," says +he. "Oh, murder! I see, now," says I. "Eds was _werry_ scarce," says +he, shaking his own "ed." "Ah!" said I. "They had to tattoo a slave a +bit ago," says he, "and the villain ran away, tattooin' and all!" says +he. "What?" said I. "Bolted afore he was fit to kill," says he. "Stole +off with his own head?" says I. "That's just it," says he. "_Capital_ +felony!" says I. "You may say that, sir," says he. "Good morning," said +I, and walked away pretty smartly. "Loose notions about heads in this +country," said I to myself; and involuntarily putting up my hand to my +own, I thought somehow the bump of combativeness felt smaller, or +indeed had vanished altogether. "It's all very funny," said I. + +I walked down into the plain, and saw in one place a crowd of women, +boys, and others. There was a great noise of lamentation going on. I +went up to the crowd, and there beheld, lying on a clean mat, which was +spread on the ground, another head. A number of women were standing in +a row before it, screaming, wailing and quivering their hands about in +a most extraordinary manner, and cutting themselves dreadfully with +sharp flints and shells. One old woman, in the centre of the group, was +one clot of blood from head to feet, and large clots of coagulated +blood lay on the ground where she stood. The sight was absolutely +horrible, I thought at the time. She was singing or howling a +dirge-like wail. In her right hand she held a piece of _tuhua_, or +volcanic glass, as sharp as a razor: this she placed deliberately to +her left wrist, drawing it slowly upwards to her left shoulder, the +spouting blood following as it went, and from the left shoulder +downwards, across the breast to the short ribs on the right side; she +then shifted the rude but keen knife from the right hand to the left, +placed it to the right wrist, drawing it upwards to the right shoulder, +and so down across the breast to the left side, thus making a bloody +cross on the breast. And so the operation went on all the time I was +there; the old creature all the time howling in time and measure, and +keeping time, also with the knife, which at every cut was shifted from +one hand to the other, as I have described. She had scored her forehead +and cheeks before I came; her face and body were one mass of blood, and +a little stream was dropping from every finger: a more hideous object +could scarcely be conceived. I took notice that the younger women, +though they screamed as loud, did not cut near so deep as the old +woman; especially about the face. + +This custom has been falling gradually out of use; and when practised +now, in these degenerate times, the cutting and maiming is a mere form: +slight scratching to draw enough blood to swear by; but, in "the good +old times," the thing used to be done properly. I often, of late years, +have felt quite indignant to see some degenerate hussy making believe +with a piece of flint in her hand, but who had no notion of cutting +herself up properly as she ought to do. It shows a want of natural +affection in the present generation, I think; they refuse to shed tears +of blood for their friends as their mothers used to do. + +This head, I found on inquiry, was not the head of an enemy. A small +party of our friends had been surprised, and two brothers were flying +for their lives down a hill-side; a shot broke the leg of one of them +and he fell. The enemy were close at hand; already the exulting cry +"_Na! na! mate rawa!_" was heard; and the wounded man cried to his +brother, "Do not leave my head a plaything for the foe." There was no +time for deliberation. The brother _did not_ deliberate; a few slashes +with the tomahawk saved his brother's head, and he escaped with it in +his hand, dried it, and brought it home. The old woman was the mother, +the young ones were cousins: there was no sister, as I heard, when I +inquired. All the heads on the hill were heads of enemies, and several +of them are now in museums in Europe. + +With reference to the knowing remarks of the pakeha who accosted me on +the hill on the state of the head market, I am bound to remark that my +friend Mr. ---- never speculated in this "article;" but the skippers of +many of the colonial trading schooners were always ready to deal with a +man who had "a real good head," and used to commission such men as my +companion of the morning to "pick up heads" for them. It is a positive +fact that some time after this the head of a live man was sold and paid +for beforehand, and afterwards honestly delivered "as per agreement." + +The scoundrel slave who had the conscience to run away with his own +head after the trouble and expense had been gone to to tattoo it to +make it more valuable, is no fiction either. Even in "the good old +times" people would sometimes be found to behave in the most dishonest +manner. But there are good and bad to be found in all times and places. + +Now if there is one thing I hate more than another it is the +raw-head-and-bloody-bones style of writing, and in these random +reminiscences I shall avoid all particular mention of battles, +massacres, and onslaughts; except there be something particularly +characteristic of my friend the Maori in them. As for mere hacking and +hewing, there has been enough of that to be had in Europe, Asia, and +America of late; and very well described too, by numerous "our +correspondents." If I should have to fight a single combat or two, just +to please the ladies, I shall do my best not to get killed; and I +hereby promise not to kill any one myself, if I possibly can help it. +I, however, hope to be excused for the last two or three pages, as it +was necessary to point out that in the good old times, if one's own +head was not sufficient, it was quite practicable to get another. + +I must, however, get rid of our visitors. Next day, at daylight, they +disappeared: canoes from their own tribe had come to meet them (the old +woman with the flint had arrived in these canoes), and they departed +_sans ceremonie_, taking with them all that was left of the pigs and +potatoes which had been given them, and also the "fine lot of eds." +Their departure was felt as a great relief; and though it was +satisfactory to know peace was made, it was even more so to be well rid +of the peacemakers. + +Hail, lovely peace, daughter of heaven! meek-eyed inventor of Armstrong +guns and Enfield rifles; you of the liquid-fire-shell, hail! Shooter at +"bulls'-eyes," trainer of battalions, killer of wooden Frenchmen, hail! +(A bit of fine writing does one good.) Nestling under thy wing, I will +scrape sharp the point of my spear with a _pipi_ shell; I will carry +fern-root into my pa; I will _cure_ those heads which I have killed in +war, or they will spoil and "won't fetch nothin'": for these are thy +arts, O peace! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + A little Affair of "Flotsam and Jetsam."--Rebellion crushed in + the Bud.--A Pakeha's House sacked.--Maori Law.--A Maori Lawsuit. + --Affair thrown into Chancery. + + +Pakehas, though precious in the good old times, would sometimes get +into awkward scrapes. Accidents, I have observed, will happen at the +best of times. Some time after the matters I have been recounting +happened, two of the pakehas, who were "knocking about" Mr. ----'s +premises, went fishing. One of them was a very respectable old +man-of-war's man, the other was the connoisseur of heads; who, I may as +well mention, was thought to be one of that class who never could +remember to a nicety how they had come into the country, or where they +came from. + +It so happened that on their return, the little boat, not being well +fastened, went adrift in the night, and was cast on shore at about four +miles distance, in the dominions of a petty chief who was a sort of +vassal or retainer of ours. He did not belong to the tribe, and lived +on the land by the permission of our chief as a sort of tenant at will. +Of late an ill-feeling had grown up between him and the principal +chief. The vassal had in fact begun to show some airs of independence, +and had collected more men about him than our chief cared to see; but +up to this time there had been no regular outbreak between them: +possibly because the vassal had not yet sufficient force to declare +independence formally. Our chief was, however, watching for an excuse +to fall out with him before he should grow too strong. As soon as it +was heard where the boat was, the two men went for it as a matter of +course; little thinking that this encroaching vassal would have the +insolence to claim the right of "flotsam and jetsam," which belonged to +the principal chief, and which was always waived in favour of his +pakehas. On arrival, however, at this rebellious chief's dominions, +they were informed that it was his intention to stick to the boat until +he was paid a "stocking of gunpowder"--meaning a quantity as much as a +stocking would hold, which was the regular standard measure in those +days in that locality. A stocking of gunpowder! who ever heard of such +an awful imposition? The demand was enormous in value and rebellious in +principle. The thing must be put an end to at once. The principal chief +did not hesitate: rebellion must be crushed in the bud. He at once +mustered his whole force (he did not approve of "little wars"), and +sent them off under the command of the Relation Eater, who served an +ejectment in regular Maori form, by first plundering the village and +then burning it to ashes; also destroying the cultivation and +provisions, and forcing the vassal to decamp with all his people on +pain of instant massacre--a thing they did not lose a moment in doing; +and I don't think they either ate or slept till they had got fifty +miles off, where a tribe related to them received them and gave them a +welcome. + +Well, about three months after this, about day-light in the morning, I +was aroused by a great uproar of men shouting, doors smashing, and +women screaming. Up I jumped, and pulling on a few clothes in less +time, I am sure, than ever I had done before my in life, out I ran, and +at once perceived that Mr. ----'s premises were being sacked by the +rebellious vassal, who had returned with about fifty men, and was +taking this means of revenging himself for the rough handling he had +received from our chief. Men were rushing in mad haste through the +smashed windows and doors, loaded with anything and everything they +could lay hands on. The chief was stamping against the door of a room +in which he was aware the most valuable goods were kept, and shouting +for help to break it open. A large canoe was floating close to the +house, and was being rapidly filled with plunder. I saw a fat old Maori +woman, who was washerwoman to the establishment, being dragged along +the ground by a huge fellow who was trying to tear from her grasp one +of my shirts, to which she clung with perfect desperation. I perceived +at a glance that the faithful old creature would probably save a +sleeve. A long line of similar articles, my property, which had graced +the _taiepa_ fence the night before, had disappeared. + +The old man-of-war's man had placed his back exactly opposite to that +part of the fence where hung a certain striped cotton shirt and +well-scrubbed canvas trowsers, which _could_ belong to no one but +himself. He was "hitting out" lustily right and left. Mr. ---- had been +absent some days on a journey, and the head merchant, as we found after +all was over, was hiding under a bed. When the old sailor saw me, he +"sang out," in a voice clear as a bell, and calculated to be distinctly +heard above the din:--"Hit out, sir, if you please; let's make a fight +of it the best we can; our mob will be here in five minutes; Tahuna has +run to fetch them." While he thus gave both advice and information, he +also set a good example, having delivered just one thump per word, or +thereabouts. The odds were terrible, but the time was short that I was +required to fight; so I at once floored a native who was rushing by me. +He fell like a man shot, and I then perceived he was one of our own +people who had been employed about the place; so, to balance things, I +knocked down another, and then felt myself seized round the waist from +behind, by a fellow who seemed to be about as strong as a horse. + +At this moment I cast an anxious glance around the field of battle. The +old Maori woman had, as I expected, saved a good half of my shirt; she +had got on the top of an outhouse, and was waving it in a "Sister Anne" +sort of manner, and calling to an imaginary friendly host which she +pretended to see advancing to the rescue. The old sailor had fallen +under, but not surrendered to, superior force. Three natives had got +him down; but it took all they could do to _keep_ him down: he was +evidently carrying out his original idea of making a fight of it, and +gaining time. The striped shirt and canvas trowsers still hung proudly +on the fence; none of his assailants could spare a second to pull them +down. I was kicking and flinging in the endeavour to extricate myself; +or, at least, to turn round, so as to carry out a "face to face" +policy: which it would be a grand mistake to suppose was not understood +long ago in the good old times. + +I had nearly succeeded, and was thinking what particular form of +destruction I should shower on the foe, when a tremendous shout was +heard. It was "our mob" coming to the rescue; and, like heroes of old, +"sending their voice before them." In an instant both myself and the +gallant old tar were released; the enemy dashed on board their canoe, +and in another moment were off, darting away before a gale of wind and +a fair tide at a rate that put half a mile at least between them and us +before our protectors came up. "Load the gun!" cried the sailor--(there +was a nine-pound carronade on the cliff before the house, overlooking +the river). A cartridge was soon found, and a shot, and the gun loaded. +"Slew her a little," cried my now commander; "fetch a fire stick." +"Aye, aye, sir" (from self). "Wait a little; that will do--Fire!"--(in +a voice as if ordering the discharge of the whole broadside of a +three-decker). Bang! The elevation was perfectly correct. The shot +struck the water at exactly the right distance, and only a few feet to +one side. A very few feet more to the right and the shot would have +entered the stern of the canoe, and, as she was end on to us, would +have killed half the people in her. A miss, however, is as good as a +mile off. The canoe disappeared behind a point, and there we were with +an army of armed friends around us, who, by making great expedition, +had managed to come exactly in time to be too late. + +This was a _taua muru_ (a robbing expedition) in revenge for the leader +having been cleaned out by our chief, which gave them the right to rob +any one connected with, related to, or under the protection of, our +chief aforesaid, provided always that they were able. We, on the other +hand, had the clear right to kill any of the robbers, which would then +have given them the right to kill us; but until we killed some of them, +it would not have been "correct" for them to have taken life, so they +managed the thing neatly, in order that they should have no occasion to +do so. The whole proceeding was unobjectionable in every respect, and +_tika_ (correct). Had we put in our nine-pound shot at the stern of +their canoe, it would have been correct also; but as we were not able, +we had no right whatever to complain. + +The above is good law: and here I may as well inform the New Zealand +public that I am going to write the whole law of this land in a book, +which I shall call "_Ko nga ture_;" and as I intend it for the good of +both races, I shall mix the two languages up in such a way that neither +can understand; but this does not matter, as I shall add a "glossary," +in Coptic, to make things clear. + +Some time after this, a little incident worth noting happened at my +friend Mr. ----'s place. Our chief had, for some time back, a sort of +dispute with another magnate, who lived about ten miles off. I really +cannot say who was in the right: the arguments on both sides were so +nearly balanced, that I should not like to commit myself to a judgment +in the case. The question was at last brought to a fair hearing at my +friend's house. The arguments on both sides were very forcible; so much +so that in the course of the arbitration our chief and thirty of his +principal witnesses were shot dead in a heap before my friend's door, +and sixty others badly wounded, and my friend's house and store blown +up and burnt to ashes. + +My friend was all but, or, indeed, quite ruined; but it would not have +been "correct" for him to complain--_his_ loss in goods being far +overbalanced by the loss of the tribe in men. He was, however, consoled +by hundreds of friends who came in large parties to condole and _tangi_ +with him, and who, as was quite correct in such cases, shot and ate all +his stock, sheep, pigs, goats, ducks, geese, fowls, &c., all in high +compliment to himself: at which he felt proud, as a well conducted and +conditioned pakeha Maori (as he was) should do. He did not, however, +survive these honours long, poor fellow. He died; and, strange to say, +no one knew exactly what was the matter with him: some said it was the +climate, they thought. + +After this, the land about which this little misunderstanding had +arisen, was, so to speak, "thrown into chancery," where it has now +remained about forty years. But I hear that proceedings are to commence +_de novo_ (no allusion to the "new system") next summer, or at farthest +the summer after; and as I witnessed the first proceedings, when the +case comes on again "may I be there to see." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Every Englishman's House is his Castle.--My Estate and Castle.-- + How I purchased my Estate.--Native Titles to Land, of what Nature. + --Value of Land in New Zealand.--Land Commissioners.--The Triumphs + of Eloquence.--Magna Charta. + + +"Every Englishman's house is his castle," "I scorn the foreign yoke," +and glory in the name of Briton, and all that. The natural end, +however, of all castles is to be burnt or blown up. In England it is +true you can call the constable, and should any foreign power attack +you with grinding organ and white mice, you may hope for succours from +without; from which cause "castles" in England are more long-lived. In +New Zealand, however, it is different, as, to the present day, the old +system prevails, and castles continue to be disposed of in the natural +way, as has been seen lately at Taranaki. + +I now purchased a piece of land and built a "castle" for myself. I +really can't tell to the present day who I purchased the land from, for +there were about fifty different claimants, every one of whom assured +me that the other forty-nine were "humbugs," and had no right whatever. +The nature of the different titles of the different claimants were +various. One man said his ancestors had killed off the first owners; +another declared his ancestors had driven off the second party; another +man, who seemed to be listened to with more respect than ordinary, +declared that his ancestor had been the first possessor of all, and had +never been ousted, and that this ancestor was a huge lizard that lived +in a cave on the land many ages ago: and, sure enough, there was the +cave to prove it. + +Besides the principal claims there were an immense number of secondary +ones--a sort of latent equities--which had lain dormant until it was +known the pakeha had his eye on the land. Some of them seemed to me at +the time odd enough. One man required payment because his ancestors, as +he affirmed, had exercised the right of catching rats on it; but which +he (the claimant) had never done, for the best of reasons, _i.e._, +there were no rats to catch: except indeed pakeha rats, which were +plenty enough, but this variety of rodent was not counted as game. +Another claimed because his grandfather had been murdered on the land, +and--as I am a veracious pakeha--another claimed payment because _his_ +grandfather had committed the murder! Then half the country claimed +payments of various value, from one fig of tobacco to a musket, on +account of a certain _wahi tapu_, or ancient burying-ground, which was +on the land, and in which every one almost had had relations or rather +ancestors buried, as they could clearly make out, in old times; though +no one had been deposited in it for about two hundred years, and the +bones of the others had been (as they said) removed long ago to a +_torere_ in the mountains. + +It seemed an awkward circumstance that there was some difference of +opinion as to where this same _wahi tapu_ was situated, being, and +lying; for in case of my buying the land it was stipulated that I +should fence it round and make no use of it, although I had paid for +it. I, however, have put off fencing till the exact boundaries have +been made out; and indeed I don't think I shall ever be called on to do +so, the fencing proviso having been made, as I now believe, to give a +stronger look of reality to the existence of the sacred spot, it having +been observed that I had some doubts on the subject. No mention was +ever made of it after the payments had been all made, and so I think I +may venture to affirm that the existence of the said _wahi tapu_ is of +very doubtful authenticity, though it certainly cost me a round "lot of +trade." There was one old man who obstinately persisted in declaring +that he, and he alone, was the sole and rightful owner of the land; he +seemed also to have a "fixed idea" about certain barrels of gunpowder; +but as he did not prove his claim to my satisfaction, and as he had no +one to back him, I of course gave him nothing; he nevertheless demanded +the gunpowder about once a month for five-and-twenty years, till at +last he died of old age, and I am now a landed proprietor, clear of all +claims and demands, and have an undeniable right to hold my estate as +long as ever I am able. + +It took about three months' negotiation before the purchase of the land +could be made; and, indeed, I at one time gave up the idea, as I found +it quite impossible to decide whom to pay. If I paid one party, the +others vowed I should never have possession, and to pay all seemed +impossible; so at last I let all parties know that I had made up my +mind not to have the land. This, however, turned out to be the first +step I had made in the right direction; for, thereupon, all the +different claimants agreed amongst themselves to demand a certain +quantity of goods, and divide them amongst themselves afterwards. I was +glad of this, for I wished to buy the land, as I thought, in case I +should ever take a trip to the "colonies," it would look well to be +able to talk of "my estate in New Zealand." + +The day being now come on which I was to make the payment, and all +parties present, I then and there handed over to the assembled mob the +price of the land, consisting of a great lot of blankets, muskets, +tomahawks, tobacco, spades, axes, &c., &c.; and received in return a +very dirty piece of paper with all their marks on it, I having written +the terms of transfer on it in English to my own perfect satisfaction. +The cost per acre to me was, as near as can be, about five and a half +times what the same quantity of land would have cost me at the same +time in Tasmania. But this was not of much importance, as the value of +land in New Zealand then (and indeed now) being chiefly imaginary, one +could just as easily suppose it to be of a very great value as a very +small one; I therefore did not complain of the cost. + +While I am on the subject of land and land titles, I may as well here +mention that many years after the purchase of my land I received notice +to appear before certain persons called "Land Commissioners," who were +part and parcel of the new inventions which had come up soon after the +arrival of the first governor, and which are still a trouble to the +land. I was informed that I must appear and prove my title to the land +I have mentioned, on pain of forfeiture of the same. Now, I could not +see what right any one could have to plague me in this way, and if I +had had no one but the commissioners and two or three hundred men of +their tribe to deal with, I should have put my pa in fighting order, +and told them to "come on;" for before this time I had had occasion to +build a pa, in consequence of a little misunderstanding, and being a +regularly naturalized member of a strong tribe, could raise men to +defend it at the shortest notice. + +But somehow these people had cunningly managed to mix up the name of +Queen Victoria, God bless her! (no disparagement to King Potatau) in +the matter; and I, though a pakeha Maori, am a loyal subject of her +Majesty, and will stick up and fight for her as long as ever I can +muster a good imitation of courage, or a leg to stand upon. This being +the case, I made a very unwilling appearance at the court, and +explained and defended my title to the land in an oration of four +hours' and a half duration; and which, though I was much out of +practice, I flatter myself was a good specimen of English rhetoric, +and, for its own merits--as well as for another reason which I was not +aware of at the time--was listened to by the court with the greatest +patience. + +When I had concluded, and been asked "if I had anything more to say?" I +saw the commissioner beginning to count my words, which had been all +written, I suppose, in short-hand; and having ascertained how many +thousand I had spoken, he handed me a bill, in which I was charged by +the word, for every word I had spoken, at the rate of one farthing and +one twentieth per word. Oh, Cicero! Oh, Demosthenes! Oh, Pitt, Fox, +Burke, Sheridan! Oh, Daniel O'Connell! what would have become of you, +if such a stopper had been clapt on your jawing tackle? Fame would +never have cracked her trumpet, and "Dan" would never have raised the +_rint_. For my part I have never recovered the shock. I have since that +time become taciturn, and have adopted a Spartan brevity when forced to +speak, and I fear I shall never again have the full swing of my mother +tongue. Besides this, I was charged ten shillings each for a little +army of witnesses I had brought, by way of being on the sure side--five +shillings a head for calling them into court, and five more for +"examining" them; said examination consisting of one question each, +after which they were told to "be off." I do believe had I brought up a +whole tribe, as I had thoughts of doing, the commissioners would not +have minded examining them all. They were, I am bound to say, very +civil and polite; one of them told me I was "a damned, infernal, clever +fellow, and he should like to see a good many more like me." + +I hope I am not getting tedious; but this business made such an +impression on me, that I can't help being too prolix, perhaps, when +describing it. I have, however, often since that time had my doubts +whether the Queen (God bless her) got the money, or knew half as much +of the affair as they wanted to make out. I _don't_ believe it. Our +noble Queen would be clean above such a proceeding; and I mean to say +it's against Magna Charta, it is! "Justice shall _not be sold_," saith +Magna Charta; and if it's not selling justice to make a loyal pakeha +Maori pay for every word he speaks when defending his rights in a court +of justice, I don't know what is. + +Well, to make matters up, they after some time gave me a title for my +land (as if I had not one before); but then, after some years, they +made me give it back again, on purpose, as they said, that they might +give me a better! But since that time several more years have passed, +and I have not got it; so, as these things are now all the fashion, "I +wish I may get it." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + How I kept House.--Maori Freebooters.--An Ugly Customer.--The + "Suaviter in Modo."--A Single Combat to amuse the Ladies.--The + true Maori Gentleman.--Character of the Maori People. + + +I never yet could get the proper knack of telling a story. Here I am +now, a good forty years ahead of where I ought to be, talking of "title +deeds" and "land commissioners," things belonging to the new and +deplorable state of affairs which began when this country became "a +British colony and possession," and also "one of the brightest jewels +in the British crown." I must go back. + +Having purchased my "estate," I set up housekeeping. My house was a +good commodious _raupo_ building; and as I had a princely income of a +few hundred a year "in trade," I kept house in a very magnificent and +hospitable style. I kept always eight stout paid Maori retainers; the +pay being one fig of tobacco per week, and their potatoes, which was +about as much more. Their duties were not heavy; being chiefly to amuse +themselves fishing, wrestling, shooting pigeons, or pig-hunting, with +an occasional pull in the boat when I went on a water excursion. +Besides these paid retainers, there was always about a dozen hangers +on, who considered themselves apart of the establishment, and who, no +doubt, managed to live at my expense; but as that expense was merely a +few hundredweight of potatoes a week, and an odd pig now and then, it +was not perceptible in the good old times. + +Indeed these hangers on, as I call them, were necessary; for now and +then, in those brave old times, little experiments would be made by +certain Maori gentlemen of freebooting propensities, who were in great +want of "British manufactures," to see what could be got by bullying +"the pakeha," and to whom a good display of physical force was the only +argument worth notice. These gentry generally came from a long +distance, made a sudden appearance, and, thanks to my faithful +retainers--who, as a matter of course, were all bound to fight for me, +though I should have found it hard to get much _work_ out of them--made +as sudden a retreat; though on one or two occasions, when my standing +army were accidentally absent, I had to do battle single-handed. + +I think I have promised somewhere that I would perform a single combat +for the amusement of the ladies, and I may as well do it now as at any +other time. I shall, therefore, recount a little affair I had with one +of these gentry; as it is indeed quite necessary I should, if I am to +give any true idea of "the good old times." I must, however, protest +against the misdeeds of a few ruffians--human wolves--being charged +against the whole of their countrymen. At the time I am speaking of, +the only restraint on such people was the fear of retaliation, and the +consequence was, that often a dare-devil savage would run a long career +of murder, robbery, and outrage, before meeting with a check, simply +from the terror he inspired, and the "luck" which often accompanies +outrageous daring. At a time, however, and in a country like New +Zealand, where every man was a fighting man or nothing, these +desperadoes, sooner or later, came to grief; being at last invariably +shot, or run through the body, by some sturdy freeholder, whose rights +they had invaded. + +I had two friends staying with me, young men who had come to see me +from the neighbouring colonies, and to take a summer tour in New +Zealand; and it so happened that no less than three times during my +absence from home, and when I had taken almost all my people along with +me, my castle had been invaded by one of the most notorious ruffians +who had ever been an impersonation of, or lived by, the law of force. +This interesting specimen of the _genus homo_ had, on the last of these +visits, demanded that my friends should hand over to him one pair of +blankets; but as the prospectus he produced, with respect to payment, +was not at all satisfactory, my friends declined to enter into the +speculation, the more particularly as the blankets were mine. Our +freebooting acquaintance then, to explain his views more clearly, +knocked both my friends down; threatened to kill them both with his +tomahawk; then rushed into the bedroom, dragged out all the bedclothes, +and burnt them on the kitchen fire. + +This last affair was rather displeasing to me. I held to the theory +that every Englishman's house was his castle, and was moreover rather +savage at my guests having been so roughly handled. In fact I began to +feel that, though I had up to this time managed to hold my own pretty +well, I was at last in danger of falling under the imposition of "black +mail," and losing my _status_ as an independent potentate--a +_rangatira_ of the first water. I then and there declared loudly that +it was well for the offender that I had not been at home, and that if +ever he tried his tricks with _me_ he would find out his mistake. These +declarations of war, I perceived, were heard by my men in a sort of +incredulous silence (silence in New Zealand gives _dis_-sent), and +though the fellows were stout chaps who would not mind a row with any +ordinary mortal, I verily believe they would have all run at the first +appearance of this redoubted ruffian. Indeed his antecedents had been +such as might have almost been their excuse. + +He had killed several men in fair fight, and had also--as was well +known--committed two most diabolical murders; one of which was on his +own wife, a fine young woman, whose brains he blew out at half a +second's notice for no further provocation than this:--he was sitting +in the verandah of his house, and told her to bring him a light for his +pipe. She, being occupied in domestic affairs, said, "Can't you fetch +it yourself? I am going for water." She had the calibash in her hand +and their infant child on her back. He snatched up his gun and +instantly shot her dead on the spot; and I had heard him afterwards +describing quite coolly the comical way in which her brains had been +knocked out by the shot with which the gun was loaded. He also had, for +some trifling provocation, lopped off the arm of his own brother, or +cousin, I forget which; and was, altogether, from his tremendous bodily +strength and utter insensibility to danger, about as "ugly a customer" +as one would care to meet. + +I am now describing a regular Maori ruffian of the good old times; the +natural growth of a state of society wherein might was to a very great +extent right, and where bodily strength and courage were almost the +sole qualities for which a man was respected or valued. He was a +bullet-headed, scowling, bow-legged, broad-shouldered, herculean +savage, and all these qualifications combined made him unquestionably +"a great _rangatira_;" and, as he had never been defeated, his _mana_ +was in full force. + +A few weeks after the affair of the blankets, as I was sitting all +alone reading a Sydney newspaper (which, being only a year old, was +highly interesting), my friends and all my natives having gone on an +expedition to haul a large fishing-net, whom should I see enter the +room and squat down on the floor, as if taking permanent possession, +but the amiable and highly interesting individual I have taken so much +trouble to describe. He said nothing, but his posture and countenance +spoke whole volumes of defiance and murderous intent. He had heard of +the threats I had made against him, and there he was; let me turn him +out if I dare. That was his meaning,--there was no mistaking it. + +I have all my life been an admirer of the _suaviter in modo_; though it +is quite out of place in New Zealand. If you tell a man--a Maori I +mean--in a gentle tone of voice and with a quiet manner that if he +continues a given line of conduct you will begin to commence to knock +him down, he simply disbelieves you, and thereby forces you to do that +which, if you could have persuaded yourself to have spoken very +uncivilly at first, there would have been no occasion for. I have seen +many proofs of this, and though I have done my best for many years to +improve the understanding of my Maori friends in this particular, I +find still there are but very few who can understand at all how it is +possible that the _suaviter in modo_ can be combined with the _fortiter +in re_. They in fact can't understand it, for some reason perfectly +inexplicable to me. It was, however, quite a matter of indifference, I +could perceive, how I should open proceedings with my friend; as he +evidently meant mischief. "Habit is second nature," so I instinctively +took to the _suaviter_. + +"Friend," said I, in a very mild tone, and with as amiable a smile as I +could get up, in spite of a certain clenching of the teeth which +somehow came on me at the moment, "my advice to you is to be off." He +seemed to nestle himself firmer in his seat, and made no answer but a +scowl of defiance. "I am thinking, friend, that this is my house," said +I; and springing upon him, I placed my foot to his shoulder and gave a +shove which would have sent most people heels over head. Not so, +however, with my friend. It shook him, certainly, a little; but in an +instant, as quick as lightning, and as it appeared with a single +motion, he bounded from the ground, flung his mat away over his head, +and struck a furious blow at my head with his tomahawk. I escaped +instant death by a quickness equal to or greater than his own. My eye +was quick, and so was my arm: life was at stake. I caught the tomahawk +in full descent: the edge grazed my hand; but my arm, stiffened like a +bar of iron, arrested the blow. + +He made one furious, but ineffectual, effort to tear the tomahawk from +my grasp; and then we seized one another round the middle, and +struggled like maniacs in the endeavour to dash each other against the +boarded floor; I holding on for dear life to the tomahawk, and making +desperate efforts to get it from him, but without a chance of success, +as it was fastened to his wrist by a strong thong of leather. He was, +as I soon found, somewhat stronger than me, and heavier; but I was as +active as a cat, and as long-winded as an emu, and very far from weak. +At last he got a _wiri_ round my leg; and had it not been for the table +on which we both fell, and which, in smashing to pieces, broke our +fall, I might have been disabled, and in that case instantly +tomahawked. We now rolled over and over on the floor like two mad +bulldogs; he trying to bite, and I trying to stun him by dashing his +bullet head against the floor. Up again!--still both holding on to the +tomahawk. Another furious struggle, in the course of which both our +heads, and half our bodies, were dashed through the two glass windows +in the room, and every single article of furniture was reduced to +atoms. Down again, rolling like mad, and dancing about amongst the +rubbish--the wreck of the house. + +By this time we were both covered with blood from various wounds, +received I don't know how. I had been all this time fighting under a +great disadvantage, for my friend was trying to kill me, and I was only +trying to disarm and tie him up--a much harder thing than to kill. My +reason for going to this trouble was, that as there were no witnesses +to the row, if I killed him, I might have had serious difficulties with +his tribe. + +Up again; another terrific tussle for the tomahawk; down again with a +crash: and so this life or death battle went on, down and up, up and +down, for a full hour. At last I perceived that my friend was getting +weaker, and felt that victory was only now a question of time. I, so +far from being fatigued, was even stronger. We had another desperate +wrestling match. I lifted my friend high in my arms, and dashed him, +panting, furious, foaming at the mouth--but _beaten_--against the +ground. There he lies: the worshipper of force. His God has deserted +him. + +But no, not yet. He has one more chance; and a fatal one it nearly +proved to me. I began to unfasten the tomahawk from his wrist. An odd +expression came over his countenance. He spoke for the first time. +"Enough! I am beaten; let me rise." Now I had often witnessed the manly +and becoming manner in which some Maoris can take defeat, when they +have been defeated in what they consider fair play. I had also ceased +to fear my friend, and so incautiously let go his left arm. Quick as +lightning, he snatched at a large carving fork, which, unperceived by +me, was lying on the floor amongst the smashed furniture and _debris_ +of my household effects; his fingers touched the handle and it rolled +away out of his reach: my life was saved. He then struck me with all +his remaining force on the side of the head, causing the blood to flow +out of my mouth. One more short struggle, and he was conquered. + +But now I had at last got angry: the drunkenness, the exhilaration of +fight, which comes on some constitutions, was fairly on me. I had also +a consciousness that now I must kill my man, or, sooner or later, he +would kill me. I thought of the place I would bury him; how I would +stun him first with the back of the tomahawk, to prevent too much blood +being seen; how I would then carry him off (I could carry two such men +now, easy): I would _murder_ him and cover him up. I unwound the +tomahawk from his wrist: he was passive and helpless now. I wished he +was stronger, and told him to get up and "die standing," as his +countrymen say. I clutched the tomahawk for the _coup-de-grace_ (I +can't help it, young ladies, the devil is in me);--at this instant a +thundering sound of feet is heard--a whole tribe are coming! + +Now am I either lost or saved!--saved from doing that which I should +afterwards repent, though constrained by necessity to do it. The rush +of charging feet comes closer, and in an instant comes dashing and +smashing through doors and windows, in breathless haste and alarm, a +whole tribe of friends. Small ceremony now with my antagonist. He was +dragged by the heels, stamped on, kicked, and thrown half-dead, or +nearly quite dead, into his canoe. + +All the time we had been fighting, a little slave imp of a boy +belonging to my antagonist had been loading the canoe with my goods and +chattels, and had managed to make a very fair plunder of it. These were +all now brought back by my friends, except one cloth jacket, which +happened to be concealed under the _whariki_; and which I only mention +because I remember that the attempt to recover it some time afterwards +cost one of my friends his life. The savage scoundrel, who had so +nearly done for me, broke two of his ribs, and so otherwise injured him +that he never recovered, and died after lingering about a year. My +friends were going on a journey, and had called to see me as they +passed. They saw the slave boy employed as I have stated, and knowing +to whom he belonged had rushed at once to the rescue, little expecting +to find me alive. + +I may as well now dispose of this friend of mine, by giving his after +history. He for a long time after our fight went continually armed with +a double gun, and said he would shoot me wherever he met me; he however +had had enough of attacking me in my "castle," and so did not call +there any more. I also went continually armed, and took care also to +have always some of my people at hand. After this, this fellow +committed two more murders, and also killed in fair fight with his own +hand the first man in a native battle, in which the numbers on each +side were about three hundred, and which I witnessed. The man he killed +was a remarkably fine young fellow, a great favourite of mine. At last, +having attacked and attempted to murder another native, he was shot +through the heart by the person he attempted to murder, and fell dead +on the spot, and so there died "a great _rangatira_." His tribe quietly +buried him and said no more about it, which showed their sense of +right. Had he been killed in what they considered an unjust manner, +they would have revenged his death at any cost; but I have no doubt +they themselves were glad to get rid of him, for he was a terror to all +about him. I have been in many a scrape both by sea and land, but I +must confess that I never met a more able hand at an argument than this +Maori _rangatira_. + +I have not mentioned my friend's name with whom I had this discussion on +the rights of Englishmen, because he has left a son, who is a great +_rangatira_, and who might feel displeased if I was too particular; and +I am not quite so able now to carry out a "face-to-face" policy as I was +a great many years ago: besides there is a sort of "honour-amongst-thieves" +feeling between myself and my Maori friends on certain matters which we +mutually understand are not for the ears of the "new people." + +Now, ladies, I call that a fairish good fight, considering no one is +killed on either side. I promise to be good in future and to keep the +peace, if people will let me; and indeed, I may as well mention, that +from that day to this I have never had occasion to explain again to a +Maori how it is that "every Englishman's house is his castle." + +"Fair play is a jewel;" and I will here, as bound in honour to do, +declare that I have met amongst the natives with men who would be a +credit to any nation; men on whom nature had plainly stamped the mark +of "Noble," of the finest bodily form, quick and intelligent in mind, +polite and brave, and capable of the most self-sacrificing acts for the +good of others; patient, forbearing, and affectionate in their +families: in a word, gentlemen. These men were the more remarkable as +they had grown up surrounded by a set of circumstances of the most +unfavourable kind for the development of the qualities of which they +were possessed; and I have often looked on with admiration, when I have +seen them protesting against, and endeavouring to restrain some of, the +dreadful barbarities of their countrymen. + +As for the Maori people in general, they are neither so good nor so bad +as their friends and enemies have painted them, and I suspect are +pretty much like what almost any other people would have become, if +subjected for ages to the same external circumstances. For ages they +have struggled against necessity in all its shapes. This has given to +them a remarkable greediness for gain in every visible and immediately +tangible form. It has even left its mark on their language. Without the +aid of iron the most trifling tool or utensil could only be procured by +an enormously disproportionate outlay of labour in its construction, +and, in consequence, it became precious to a degree scarcely +conceivable by people of civilized and wealthy countries. This great +value attached to personal property of all kinds, increased +proportionately the temptation to plunder; and where no law existed, or +could exist, of sufficient force to repress the inclination, every man, +as a natural consequence, became a soldier; if it were only for the +defence of his own property and that of those who were banded with +him--his tribe, or family. + +From this state of things regular warfare arose, as a matter of course; +the military art was studied as a science, and brought to great +perfection, as applied to the arms used; and a marked military +character was given to the people. The necessity of labour, the +necessity of warfare, and a temperate climate, gave them strength of +body, accompanied by a perseverance and energy of mind, perfectly +astonishing. With rude and blunt stones they felled the giant +kauri--toughest of pines; and from it, in process of time, at an +expense of labour, perseverance, and ingenuity, perfectly astounding to +those who know what it really was, produced, carved, painted, and +inlaid, a masterpiece of art, and an object of beauty--the war canoe, +capable of carrying a hundred men on a distant expedition, through the +boisterous seas surrounding their island. + +As a consequence of their warlike habits and character, they are +self-possessed and confident in themselves and their own powers, and +have much diplomatic finesse and casuistry at command. Their +intelligence causes them theoretically to acknowledge the benefits of +law, which they see established amongst us; but their hatred of +restraint causes them practically to abhor and resist its full +enforcement amongst themselves. Doubting our professions of friendship, +fearing our ultimate designs, led astray by false friends, possessed of +that "little learning" which is, in their case, most emphatically "a +dangerous thing," and divided amongst themselves,--such are the people +with whom we are now in contact--such the people to whom, for our own +safety and their preservation, we must give new laws and institutions, +new habits of life, new ideas, sentiments and information--whom we must +either civilize or, by our mere contact, exterminate. How is this to be +done?[1] Let me see. I think I shall not answer this question until I +am prime minister. + + [1] PRINTER'S DEVIL.--How is _this_ to be done?--_which?_--_civilize_ + or _exterminate_? PAKEHA MAORI.--_Eaha mau._ + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Excitement caused by first Contact with Europeans.--The two great + Institutions of Maori Land.--The Muru.--The Tapu. Instances of + Legal Robbery.--Descriptions and Examples of the Muru.--Profit and + Loss.--Explanation of some of the Workings of the Law of Muru. + + +The natives have been for fifty years or more in a continual state of +excitement on one subject or another: this has had a markedly bad +effect on their character and physical condition, as I shall by-and-by +take occasion to point out. When the first straggling ships came here, +the smallest bit of iron was a prize so inestimable that I might be +thought to exaggerate were I to tell the bare truth on the subject. The +excitement and speculation caused by a ship being seen off the coast +were immense. Where would she anchor? What _iron_ could be got from +her? Would it be possible to seize her? The oracle was consulted, +preparations were made to follow her along the coast, even through an +enemy's country, at all risks; and when she disappeared she was not +forgotten, but would continue long to be the subject of anxious +expectation and speculation. + +After this, regular trading began. The great madness then was for +muskets and gunpowder. A furious competition was kept up. Should any +tribe fail to procure a stock of these articles as soon as its +neighbours, extermination was its probable doom. We may then imagine +the excitement, the over-labour, the hardship, the starvation +(occasioned by crops neglected whilst labouring to produce flax or +other commodity demanded in payment)--I say imagine, but I have seen at +least part of it. + +After the demand for arms was supplied, came a perfect furor for iron +tools, instruments of husbandry, clothing, and all kinds of pakeha +manufactures. These things having been quite beyond their means while +they were supplying themselves with arms, they were in the most extreme +want of them; particularly iron tools. A few years ago the madness ran +upon horses and cattle; now, young New Zealand believes in nothing but +money, and they are continually tormenting themselves with plans to +acquire it in large sums at once, without the trouble of slow and +saving industry; which, as applied to the accumulation of money, they +neither approve of nor understand: nor will they ever, as a people, +take this mode till convinced that money, like everything else of +value, can only be procured as a rule by giving full value for it, +either in labour or the produce of labour. + +Here I am, I find, again before my story. Right down to the present +time, talking of "young New Zealand," and within a hair's-breadth of +settling "the Maori difficulty" without having been paid for it; which +would have been a great oversight, and contrary to the customs of New +Zealand. I must go back. + +There were in the old times two great institutions, which ruled with +iron rod in Maori land--the _Tapu_ and the _Muru_. Pakehas who knew no +better called the _muru_ simply "robbery," because the word _muru_, in +its common signification, means to plunder. But I speak of the regular +legalized and established system of plundering, as penalty for +offences; which in a rough way resembled our law by which a man is +obliged to pay "damages." Great abuses had, however, crept into this +system--so great, indeed, as to render the retention of any sort of +movable property almost an impossibility, and in a great measure, too, +discourage the inclination to labour for its acquisition. These great +inconveniences were, however, met, or in some degree softened, by an +expedient of a peculiarly Maori nature, which I shall by-and-by +explain. + +The offences for which people were plundered were sometimes of a nature +which, to a _mere_ pakeha, would seem curious. A man's child fell in +the fire and was almost burnt to death. The father was immediately +plundered to an extent that almost left him without the means of +subsistence: fishing-nets, canoes, pigs, provisions--all went. His +canoe upset, and he and all his family narrowly escaped drowning--some +were, perhaps, drowned. He was immediately robbed, and well pummelled +with a club into the bargain, if he was not good at the science of +self-defence--the club part of the ceremony being always fairly +administered one against one, and after fair warning given to defend +himself. He might be clearing some land for potatoes, burning off the +fern, and the fire spreads farther than he intended, and gets into a +_wahi tapu_ or burial-ground. No matter whether any one has been buried +in it or no for the last hundred years: he is tremendously robbed. In +fact, for ten thousand different causes a man might be robbed; and I +can really imagine a case in which a man for scratching his own head +might be legally robbed. + +Now as the enforcers of this law were also the parties who received the +damages, as well as the judges of the amount--which in many cases (such +as that of the burnt child) would be everything they could by any means +lay hands on--it is easy to perceive that under such a system, personal +property was an evanescent sort of thing altogether. These executions +or distraints were never resisted. Indeed in many cases (as I shall +explain by-and-by), it would have been felt as a slight, and even an +insult, _not_ to be robbed; the sacking of a man's establishment being +often taken as a high compliment, especially if his head was broken +into the bargain: and to resist the execution would not only have been +looked upon as mean and disgraceful in the highest degree, _but it +would have debarred the contemptible individual from the privilege of +robbing his neighbours_; which was the compensating expedient I have +alluded to. All this may seem a waste of words to my pakeha Maori +readers, to whom these things have become such matters of course as to +be no longer remarkable; but I have remembered that there are so many +new people in the country who don't understand the beauty of being +knocked down and robbed, that I shall say a few more words on the +subject. + +The tract of country inhabited by a single tribe might be, say, from +forty to a hundred miles square, and the different villages of the +different sections of the tribe would be scattered over this area at +different distances from each other. We will by way of illustrating the +working of the _muru_ system, take the case of the burnt child. Soon +after the accident it would be heard of in the neighbouring villages; +the family of the mother are probably the inhabitants of one of them, +and have, according to the law of _muru_, the first and greatest right +to clean out the afflicted father; a child being considered to belong +to the family of the mother more than to that of the father--in fact, +it is their child, which the father has the rearing of. The child was, +moreover, a promising lump of a boy, the makings of a future warrior, +and consequently very valuable to the whole tribe in general; but to +the mother's family in particular. "A pretty thing to let him get +spoiled." Then he is a boy of good family, a _rangatira_ by birth, and +it would never do to let the thing pass without making a noise about +it: that would be an insult to the dignity of the families of both +father and mother. Decidedly, besides being robbed, the father must be +assaulted with a spear. True, he is a famous spearsman, and for his own +credit must "hurt" some one or another if attacked. But this is of no +consequence: a flesh wound more or less deep is to be counted on; and +then think of the plunder! It is against the law of _muru_ that any one +should be killed, and first blood ends the duel. Then the natural +affection of all the child's relations is great. They are all in a +great state of excitement, and trying to remember how many canoes, and +pigs, and other valuable articles, the father has got: for this must be +a clean sweep. + +A strong party is now mustered, headed probably by the brother of the +mother of the child. He is a stout chap, and carries a long tough +spear. A messenger is sent to the father, to say that the _taua muru_ +is coming, and may be expected tomorrow, or the next day. He asks, "Is +it a great _taua_?" "Yes; it is a very great _taua_ indeed." The victim +smiles, he feels highly complimented; he _is_ then a man of +consequence. His child is also of great consideration; he is thought +worthy of a large force being sent to rob him! Now he sets all in +motion to prepare a huge feast for the friendly robbers, his relations. +He may as well be liberal, for his provisions are sure to go, whether +or no. Pigs are killed and baked whole, potatoes are piled up in great +heaps, all is made ready; he looks out his best spear, and keeps it +always ready in his hand. At last the _taua_ appears on a hill half a +mile off; then the whole fighting men of the section of the tribe of +which he is an important member, collect at his back, all armed with +spear and club, to show that they could resist, if they would: a thing, +however, not to be thought of under the circumstances. + +On comes the _taua_. The mother begins to cry in proper form; the tribe +shout the call of welcome to the approaching robbers; and then with a +grand rush, all armed, and looking as if they intended to exterminate +all before them, the _kai muru_ appear on the scene. They dance the war +dance, which the villagers answer with another. Then the chief's +brother-in-law advances, spear in hand, with the most alarming +gestures. "Stand up!--stand up!--I will kill you this day," is his cry. +The defendant is not slow to answer the challenge. A most exciting, and +what to a new pakeha would appear a most desperately dangerous, fencing +bout with spears, instantly commences. The attack and defence are in +the highest degree scientific; the spear shafts keep up a continuous +rattle; the thrust, and parry, and stroke with the spear shaft follow +each other with almost incredible rapidity, and are too rapid to be +followed by an unpractised eye. At last the brother-in-law is slightly +touched; blood also drops from our chief's thigh. The fight instantly +ceases; leaning on their spears, probably a little badinage takes place +between them, and then the brother-in-law roars out, "_Murua! murua! +murua!_" Then the new arrivals commence a regular sack, and the two +principals sit down quietly with a few others for a friendly chat, in +which the child's name is never mentioned, or the inquiry as to whether +he is dead or alive even made. + +The case I have just described would, however, be one of more than +ordinary importance; slighter "accidents and offences" would be atoned +for by a milder form of operation. But the general effect was to keep +personal property circulating from hand to hand pretty briskly, or +indeed to convert it into public property; for no man could say who +would be the owner of his canoe, or blanket, in a month's time. Indeed, +in that space of time, I once saw a nice coat, which a native had got +from the captain of a trading schooner, and which was an article much +coveted in those days, pass through the hands, and over the backs, of +six different owners, and return, considerably the worse for wear, to +the original purchaser; and all these transfers had been made by legal +process of _muru_. I have been often myself paid the compliment of +being robbed for little accidents occurring in my family, and have +several times also, from a feeling of politeness, robbed my Maori +friends; though I can't say I was a great gainer by these transactions. + +I think the greatest haul I ever made was about half a bag of shot, +which I thought a famous joke, seeing that I had sold it the day before +to the owner for full value. A month after this I was disturbed early +in the morning, by a voice shouting "Get up!--get up! I will kill you +this day. You have roasted my grandfather. Get up!--_stand_ up!" I, of +course, guessed that I had committed some heinous though involuntary +offence, and the "stand up" hinted the immediate probable consequences; +so out I turned, spear in hand, and who should I see, armed with a +bayonet on the end of a long pole, but my friend the late owner of the +bag of shot. He came at me with pretended fury; made some smart bangs +and thrusts, which I parried, and then explained to me that I had +"cooked his grandfather;" and that if I did not come down handsome in +the way of damages, deeply as he might regret the necessity, his own +credit, and the law of _muru_, compelled him either to sack my house, +or die in the attempt. I was glad enough to prevent either event, by +paying him two whole bags of shot, two blankets, divers fish-hooks, and +certain figs of tobacco, which he demanded. I found that I had really +and truly committed a most horrid crime. I had on a journey made my +fire at the foot of a tree, in the top of which the bones of my +friend's grandfather had once been deposited, but from which they had +been removed ten years before. The tree caught fire and had burnt down: +and I, therefore, by a convenient sort of figure of speech, had +"roasted his grandfather," and had to pay the penalty accordingly. + +It did not require much financial ability on my part, after a few +experiences of this nature, to perceive that I had better avail myself +of my privileges as a pakeha, and have nothing further to do with the +law of _muru_--a determination I have kept to strictly. If ever I have +unwittingly injured any of my neighbours, I have always made what I +considered just compensation, and resisted the _muru_ altogether: and I +will say this for my friends, that when any of them have done an +accidental piece of mischief, they have, in most cases without being +asked, offered to pay for it. + +The above slight sketch of the penal law of New Zealand I present and +dedicate to the Law Lords of England; as it might, perhaps, afford some +hints for a reform in our own. The only remark I shall have to add is, +that if a man killed another, "malice prepense aforethought," the act, +in nineteen cases out of twenty, would be either a very meritorious +one, or of no consequence whatever; in either of which cases the penal +code had, of course, nothing to do in the matter. If, however, a man +killed another by _accident_, in the majority of cases the consequences +would be most serious; and not only the involuntary homicide, but every +one connected with him, would be plundered of everything they possessed +worth taking. + +This, however, to an English lawyer, may require some explanation, +which is as follows:--If a man thought fit to kill his own slave, it +was nobody's affair but his own; the law had nothing to do with it. If +he killed a man of another tribe, he had nothing to do but declare it +was in revenge or retaliation for some aggression, either recent or +traditional, by the other tribe; of which examples were never scarce. +In this case, the action became at once highly meritorious, and his +whole tribe would support and defend him to the last extremity. If he, +however, killed a man by accident, the slain man would be, as a matter +of course, in most instances, one of his ordinary companions--_i.e._, +one of his own tribe. The accidental discharge of a gun often caused +death in this way. Then, indeed, the law of _muru_ had full swing, and +the wholesale plunder of the criminal and family was the penalty. +Murder, as the natives understood it: that is to say, the malicious +destruction of a man of _the same tribe_, did not happen so frequently +as might be expected; and when it did, went in most cases unpunished: +the murderer, in general, managed to escape to some other section of +the tribe where he had relations; who, as he fled to them for +protection, were bound to give it, and always ready to do so; or +otherwise he would stand his ground and defy all comers, by means of +the strength of his own family or section, who all would defend him and +protect him as a mere matter of course: and as the law of _utu_ or _lex +talionis_ was the only one which applied in this case, and as, unlike +the law of _muru_, nothing was to be got by enforcing it but hard +blows, murder in most cases went unpunished. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + The Muru falling into Disuse.--Why.--Examples of the Tapu.--The + Personal Tapu.--Evading the Tapu.--The Undertaker's Tapu.--How I + got Tabooed.--Frightful Difficulties.--How I got out of them.--The + War Tapu.--Maori War Customs. + + +The law of _muru_ is now but little used, and only on a small scale. +The degenerate men of the present day in general content themselves +with asking "payment," and, after some cavilling as to the amount, it +is generally given; but if refused, the case is brought before a native +magistrate: the pleadings on both sides are often such as would astound +our barristers, and the decisions of a nature to throw those famous +ones by Sancho Panza and Walter the Doubter for ever into the shade. + +I think the reason that the _muru_ is so much less practised than +formerly, is the fact that the natives are now far better supplied with +the necessaries and comforts of life than they were many years ago; +especially iron tools and utensils, and in consequence the temptation +to plunder is proportionately decreased. Money would still be a +temptation; but it is so easily concealed, and in general they have so +little of it, that other means are adopted for its acquisition. When I +first saw the natives, the chance of getting an axe or a spade by the +summary process of _muru_, or--at a still more remote period--a few +wooden implements, or a canoe, was so great a temptation, that the +lucky possessor was continually watched by many eager and observant +eyes, in hopes to pick a hole in his coat, by which the _muru_ might be +legally brought to bear upon him. I say legally, for the natives always +tried to have a sufficient excuse: and I absolutely declare, odd as it +may seem, that actual, unauthorized, and inexcusable robbery or theft +was less frequent than in any country I ever have been in, though the +temptation to steal was a thousandfold greater. + +The natives of the present day are, however, improving in this respect, +and, amongst other arts of civilization, are beginning to have very +pretty notions of housebreaking; they have even tried highway robbery, +though in a bungling way. The fact is they are just now between two +tides. The old institutions which, barbarous and rude as they were, +were respected and in some degree useful, are wearing out, and have +lost all beneficial effect, and at the same time the laws and usages of +civilization have not acquired any sufficient force. This state of +things is very unfavourable to the _morale_ of Young New Zealand; but +it is likely to change for the better, for it is a maxim of mine that +"laws, if not _made_, will _grow_." + +I must now take some little notice of the other great institution, the +_tapu_. The limits of these flying sketches of the good old times will +not allow of more than a partial notice of the all-pervading _tapu_. +Earth, air, fire, water, goods and chattels, growing crops, men, women, +and children,--everything, absolutely, was subject to its influence; +and a more perplexing puzzle to new pakehas, who were continually from +ignorance infringing some of its rules, could not be well imagined. The +natives, however, made considerable allowance for this ignorance; as +well they might, seeing that they themselves, though from infancy to +old age enveloped in a cloud of _tapu_, would sometimes fall into +similar scrapes. + +The original object of the ordinary _tapu_ seems to have been the +preservation of property. Of this nature in a great degree was the +ordinary personal _tapu_. This form of the _tapu_ was permanent, and +consisted in a certain sacred character which attached to the person of +a chief, and never left him. It was his birthright: a part, in fact, of +himself, of which he could not be divested; and it was well understood +and recognized at all times, as a matter of course. The fighting men +and petty chiefs, and every one, indeed, who could by any means claim +the title of _rangatira_--which, in the sense I now use it, means +gentleman--were all in some degree more or less possessed of this +mysterious quality. It extended or was communicated to all their +movable property; especially to their clothes, weapons, ornaments, and +tools, and to everything, in fact, which they touched. This prevented +their chattels from being stolen or mislaid, or spoiled by children, or +used or handled in any way by others. And as in the old times, as I +have before stated, every kind of property of this kind was precious, +in consequence of the great labour and time necessarily, for want of +iron tools, expended in the manufacture, this form of the _tapu_ was of +great real service. An infringement of it subjected the offender to +various dreadful imaginary punishments; of which deadly sickness was +one, as well as to the operation of the law of _muru_ already +mentioned. If the transgression was involuntary, the chief, or a +priest, or _tohunga_, could, by a certain mystical ceremony, prevent or +remit the doleful and mysterious part of the punishment, if he chose; +but the civil action, or the robbery by law of _muru_, would most +likely have to take its course, though possibly in a mitigated form, +according to the circumstances. + +I have stated that the worst part of the punishment of an offence +against this form of the _tapu_ was imaginary; but in truth, though +imaginary, it was not the less a severe punishment. "Conscience makes +cowards of us all," and there was scarcely a man in a thousand, _if_ +one, who had sufficient resolution to dare the shadowy terrors of the +_tapu_. I actually have seen an instance where the offender, though an +involuntary one, was killed stone dead in six hours, by what I +considered the effects of his own terrified imagination; but what all +the natives at the time believed to be the work of the terrible avenger +of the _tapu_. The case I may as well describe, as it was a strong one, +and shows how, when falsehoods are once believed, they will meet with +apparent proof from accidental circumstances. + +A chief of very high rank, standing, and _mana_, was on a war +expedition; with him were about five hundred men. His own personal +_tapu_ was increased twofold, as was that of all the warriors who were +with him, by the _war tapu_. The _taua_ being on a very dangerous +expedition, they were, over and above the ordinary personal _tapu_, +made sacred in the highest degree, and were obliged to observe strictly +several mysterious and sacred customs; some of which I may have to +explain by-and-by. They were, in fact, as irreverent pakehas used to +say, "tabooed an inch thick;" and as for the head chief, he was +perfectly unapproachable. The expedition halted to dine. The portion of +food set apart for the chief, in a neat _paro_ or shallow basket of +green flax leaves, was, of course, enough for two or three men, and +consequently the greater part remained unconsumed. The party, having +dined, moved on; and soon after a party of slaves and others, who had +been some mile or two in the rear, came up, carrying ammunition and +baggage. One of the slaves, a stout hungry fellow, seeing the chief's +unfinished dinner, ate it up before asking any questions. He had hardly +finished, when he was informed by a horror-stricken individual--another +slave who had remained behind when the _taua_ had moved on--of the +fatal act he had committed. I knew the unfortunate delinquent well: he +was remarkable for courage, and had signalized himself in the wars of +the tribe. (The able-bodied slaves are always expected to fight in the +quarrels of their masters; to do which they are nothing loth.) No +sooner did he hear the fatal news than he was seized with the most +extraordinary convulsions and cramps in the stomach, which never ceased +till he died, about sundown the same day. He was a strong man, in the +prime of life; and if any pakeha free-thinker should have said he was +not killed by the _tapu_ of the chief, which had been communicated to +the food by contact, he would have been listened to with feelings of +contempt for his ignorance and inability to understand plain and direct +evidence. + +It will be seen at once that this form of the _tapu_ was a great +preserver of property. The most valuable articles might, in ordinary +circumstances, be left to its protection, in the absence of the owners, +for any length of time. It also prevented borrowing and lending in a +very great degree; and though much laughed at and grumbled at by +unthinking pakehas--who would be always trying to get the natives to +give it up, without offering them anything equally effective in its +place, or indeed knowing its real object or uses--it held its ground in +full force for many years; and, in a certain but not so very observable +a form, it exists still. This form of the _tapu_, though latent in +young folks of _rangatira_ rank, was not supposed to develope itself +fully till they had arrived at mature age, and set up house on their +own account. The lads and boys "knocked about" amongst the slaves and +lower orders, carried fuel or provisions on their backs, and did all +those duties which this personal _tapu_ prevented the elders from +doing; and which restraint was sometimes very troublesome and +inconvenient. + +A man of any standing could not carry provisions of any kind on his +back; or if he did they were rendered _tapu_, and in consequence +useless to any one but himself. If he went into the shed used as a +kitchen (a thing, however, he would never think of doing except on some +great emergency), all the pots, ovens, food, &c., would be at once +rendered useless: none of the cooks or inferior people could make use +of them, or partake of anything which had been cooked in them. He might +certainly light a little fire in his own house; not for cooking, as +that never by any chance could be done in his house, but for warmth: +but that, or any other fire, if he should have blown upon it with his +breath in lighting it, became at once _tapu_, and could be used for no +common or culinary purpose. Even to light a pipe at it would subject +any inferior person (and in many instances an equal) to a terrible +attack of the _tapu morbus_; besides being a slight or affront to the +dignity of the person himself. + +I have seen two or three young men when on a journey fairly wearing +themselves out on a wet day and with bad apparatus, trying to make fire +to cook with, by rubbing two sticks together; when at the same time +there was a roaring fire close at hand at which several _rangatira_ and +myself were warming ourselves: but it was _tapu_, sacred fire--one of +the _rangatira_ had made it from his own tinder box, and blown upon it +in lighting it, and as there was not another tinder box amongst us, +fast we must, though hungry as sharks, till common culinary fire could +be obtained. A native whose personal _tapu_ was perhaps of the +strongest, might, when at the house of a pakeha, ask for a drink of +water; and the pakeha, being green, would hand him some water in a +glass, or, in those days, more probably in a tea-cup; the native would +drink the water, and then gravely and quietly break the cup to pieces, +or otherwise he would appropriate it by causing it to vanish under his +mat. The new pakeha would immediately fly into a passion, to the great +astonishment of the native; who considered as a matter of course, that +the cup or glass was, in the estimation of the pakeha, a very worthless +article, or he would not have given it into his hand and allowed him to +put it to his head, the part most strongly infected by the _tapu_. Both +parties would be surprised and displeased; the native wondering what +could have put the pakeha into such a taking, and the pakeha "wondering +at the rascal's impudence, and what he meant by it?" + +The proper line of conduct for the pakeha in the above case made and +provided, supposing him to be of a hospitable and obliging disposition, +would be to lay hold of some vessel containing about two gallons of +water (to allow for waste), and hold it up before the native's face; +the native would then stoop down and put his hand, bent into the shape +of a funnel or conductor for the water, to his mouth; then, from the +height of a foot or so, the pakeha would send a cataract of water into +the said funnel, and continue the shower till the native gave a slight +upward nod of the head, which meant "enough:" by which time, from the +awkwardness of the pakeha, the two gallons of water would be about +expended, half, at least, on the top of the native's head; but he would +not, however, appear to notice the circumstance, and would appreciate +the civility of his pakeha friend. I have often drunk in this way in +the old times: asking for a drink of water at a native village, a +native would gravely approach with a calabash, and hold it up before me +ready to pour forth its contents; when I, of course, cocked my hand and +lip in the most knowing manner. If I had laid hold of the calabash and +drunk in the ordinary way, as practised by pakehas, I should have at +once fallen in the estimation of all by-standers, and been set down as +a _tutua_, a nobody, who had no _tapu_ or _mana_ about him--a mere +scrub of a pakeha, whom any one might eat or drink after without the +slightest danger of being poisoned. + +These things are all changed now; and though I have often, in the good +old times, been tabooed in the most diabolical and dignified manner, +there are only a few old men left now who, by little unmistakable +signs, I perceive consider it would be very uncivil to act in any way +which would suppose my _tapu_ to have disappeared before the influx of +new-fangled pakeha notions. Indeed I feel myself sometimes as if I had +somehow insensibly become partially civilized. What it will all end in, +I don't know. + +This same personal _tapu_ would even hold its own in some cases against +the _muru_; though not in a sufficiently general manner to seriously +affect the operation of that well-enforced law. Its inconveniences +were, on the other hand, many, and the expedients resorted to to avoid +them were sometimes comical enough. I was once going on an excursion +with a number of natives; we had two canoes, and one of them started a +little before the other. I was with the canoe which had been left +behind, and just as we were setting off it was discovered that amongst +twenty stout fellows my companions there was no one who had a back!--as +they expressed it: consequently there was no one to carry our +provisions into the canoe. All the lads, women, and slaves had gone off +in the other canoe,--all those who had backs,--and so there we were +left, a very disconsolate lot of _rangatira_, who could not carry their +own provisions into the canoe, and who at the same time could not go +without them. The provisions consisted of several heavy baskets of +potatoes, some dried sharks, and a large pig baked whole. What was to +be done? We were all brought to a full stop, though in a great hurry to +go on. We were beginning to think we must give up the expedition +altogether, and were very much disappointed accordingly, when a clever +fellow--who, had he been bred a lawyer, would have made nothing of +driving a mail coach through an act of parliament--set us all to rights +in a moment. "I'll tell you what we must do," said he, "we will not +carry (_pikau_) the provisions, we will _hiki_ them." (_Hiki_ is the +word in Maori which describes the act of carrying an infant in the +arms.) This was a great discovery! A huge handsome fellow seized on the +baked pig and dandled it, or _hiki'd_ it, in his arms like an infant; +another laid hold of a shark, others took baskets of potatoes, and +carrying them in this way deposited them in the canoe. And so, having +thus evaded the law, we started on our expedition. + +I remember another amusing instance in which the inconvenience arising +from the _tapu_ was evaded. I must, however, notice that these +instances were only evasions of the ordinary kind of _tapu_,--what I +have called the personal _tapu_; not the more dangerous and dreadful +kind connected with the mystic doings of the _tohunga_, or that other +form of _tapu_ connected with the handling of the dead. Indeed, my +companions in the instance I have mentioned, though all _rangatira_, +were young men on whom the personal _tapu_ had not arrived at the +fullest perfection: it seemed, indeed, sometimes to sit very lightly on +them, and I doubt very much if the play upon the words _hiki_ and +_pikau_ would have reconciled any of the elders of the tribe to +carrying a roasted pig in their arms; or, if they did do so, I feel +quite certain that no amount of argument would have persuaded the +younger men to eat it: as for slaves or women, to _look_ at it would +almost be dangerous to them. + +The other instance of dodging the law was as follows. I was the first +pakeha who had ever arrived at a certain populous inland village. The +whole of the inhabitants were in a great state of commotion and +curiosity, for many of them had never seen a pakeha before. As I +advanced, the whole juvenile population ran before me at a safe +distance of about a hundred yards, eyeing me, as I perceived, with +great terror and distrust. At last I suddenly made a charge at them, +rolling my eyes and showing my teeth; and to see the small savages +tumbling over one another and running for their lives was something +curious: and though my "demonstration" did not continue more than +twenty yards, I am sure some of the little villains ran a mile before +looking behind to see whether the ferocious monster called a pakeha was +gaining on them. They did run! I arrived at the centre of the village +and was conducted to a large house or shed, which had been constructed +as a place of reception for visitors, and as a general lounging place +for all the inhabitants. It was a _whare noa_, a house to which, from +its general and temporary uses, the _tapu_ was not supposed to attach: +I mean, of course, the ordinary personal _tapu_ or _tapu rangatira_. +Any person, however, _infected_ with any of the more serious or +extraordinary forms of the _tapu_ entering it, would at once render it +uninhabitable. I took my seat. The house was full, and nearly the whole +of the rest of the population were blocking up the open front of the +large shed; all striving to see the pakeha, and passing to the rear +from man to man every word he happened to speak. I could hear them say +to the people behind, "The pakeha has stood up!" "Now he has sat down +again!" "He has said, how do you all do?" "He has said, this is a nice +place of yours!" &c. &c. + +Now there happened to be at a distance, an old gentleman engaged in +clearing the weeds from a _kumera_ or sweet potato field, and as the +kumera in the old times was the crop on which the natives depended +chiefly for support, like all valuable things it was _tapu_, and the +parties who entered the field to remove the weeds were _tapu pro tem._ +also. One of the effects of this temporary extra _tapu_ was that the +parties could not enter any regular dwelling-house, or, indeed, any +house used by others. The breach of this rule would not be dangerous in +a personal sense, but the effect would be that the crop of sweet +potatoes would fail. The industrious individual I have alluded to, +hearing the cry of "A pakeha! a pakeha!" from many voices, and having +never had an opportunity to examine that variety of the species, or +_genus homo_, flung down his wooden _kaheru_ or weed exterminator, and +rushed towards the town house before mentioned. What could he do? The +_tapu_ forbade his entrance, and the front was so completely blocked up +by his admiring neighbours that he could not get sight of the wonderful +guest. In these desperate circumstances a bright thought struck him: he +would, by a bold and ingenious device, give the _tapu_ the slip. He ran +to the back of the house, made with some difficulty a hole in the +padded _raupo_ wall, and squeezed his head through it. The elastic wall +of _raupo_ closed again around his neck; and the _tapu_ was fairly +beaten! No one could say he was _in_ the house. He was certainly more +out than in; and there, seemingly hanging from, or stuck against the +wall, remained for hours, with open mouth and wondering eyes, this +brazen head; till at last, the shades of night obstructing its vision, +a rustling noise in the wall of flags and reeds announced the departure +of my ingenious admirer. + +Some of the forms of the _tapu_, however, were not to be trifled with, +and were of a most virulent kind. Of this kind was the _tapu_ of those +who handled the dead, or conveyed the body to its last resting-place. +This _tapu_ was, in fact, the uncleanness of the old Jewish law; it +lasted about the same time, and was removed in almost the same way. It +was a most serious affair. The person who came under this form of the +_tapu_ was cut off from all contact, and almost all communication, with +the human race. He could not enter any house, or come in contact with +any person or thing, without utterly defiling them. He could not even +touch food with his hands; which had become so frightfully _tapu_, or +unclean, as to be quite useless. Food would be placed for him on the +ground, and he would then sit or kneel down, and, with his hands +carefully held behind his back, would gnaw it in the best way he could. +In some cases he would be fed by another person, who, with +out-stretched arm, would manage to do it without touching the _tapu'd_ +individual; but this feeder was subjected to many and severe +restrictions, not much less onerous than those to which the other was +subject. + +In almost every populous native village there was a person +who--probably for the sake of immunity from labour, or from being good +for nothing else--took up the undertaking business as a regular +profession, and, in consequence, was never for a moment, for years +together, clear of the horrid inconveniences of the _tapu_, as well as +its dangers. One of these people might be easily recognized, after a +little experience, even by a pakeha. Old, withered, haggard, clothed in +the most miserable rags, and daubed all over from head to foot with red +paint (the native funereal colour), made of stinking shark oil and red +ochre mixed, keeping always at a distance, silent and solitary, often +half insane, he might be seen sitting motionless all day at forty or +fifty yards distance from the common path or thoroughfare of the +village. There, under the "lee" of a bush, or tuft of flax, he gazed +silently, and with "lacklustre eye," on the busy doings of the Maori +world, of which he was hardly to be called a member. Twice a day some +food would be thrown on the ground before him, to gnaw as best he +might, without the use of hands; and at night, tightening his greasy +rags around him, he would crawl into some miserable lair of leaves and +rubbish; there, cold, half starved, miserable, and dirty, to pass, in +fitful ghost-haunted slumbers, a wretched night, as prelude to another +wretched day. It requires, they say, all sorts of people to make a +world; and I have often thought, in observing one of these miserable +objects, that his, or hers, was the very lowest ebb to which a human +being's prospects in life could be brought by adverse fate. When I met, +or rather saw, a female practitioner, I fairly ran for it; and, +believing my readers to be equally tender-hearted, I shall not venture +on any more description, but merely say that the male undertaker, such +as I have described him, would be an Apollo, in comparison with one of +these hags. + +What will my kind reader say when I tell him that I myself once got +_tapu'd_ with this same horrible, most horrible, style of _tapu_? I +hold it to be a fact that there is not one man in New Zealand but +myself who has a clear understanding of what the word "excommunication" +means: indeed I did not understand what it meant till I got _tapu'd_. I +was returning with about sixty men from a journey along the west coast, +and was a short distance in advance of the party, when I came to where +the side of a hill had fallen down on to the beach and exposed a number +of human bones. There was a large skull rolling about in the water, and +I took up this skull without consideration, carried it to the side of +the hill, scraped a hole, and covered it up. Just as I had finished +burying it up came my friends, and I saw at once, by the astonishment +and dismay depicted on their countenances, that I had committed some +most unfortunate act. They soon let me know that the hill had been a +burial-place of their tribe, and jumped at once to the conclusion that +the skull was the skull of one of their most famous chiefs; whose name +they told me. They informed me also that I was no longer fit company +for human beings, and begged me to fall to the rear and keep my +distance. They told me all this from a very respectful distance, and if +I made a step towards them, they all ran as if I had been infected by +the plague. This was an awkward state of things, but as it could not be +helped, I voted myself _tapu_, and kept clear of my friends till night. + +At night when they camped, I was obliged to take my solitary abode at a +distance under shelter of a rock. When the evening meal was cooked, +they brought me a fair allowance, and set it down at a respectful +distance from where I sat; fully expecting, I suppose, that I should +bob at it as Maori _kai tango atua_, or undertakers, are wont to do. I +had, however, no idea of any such proceeding; and, pulling out my +knife, proceeded to operate in the usual manner. I was checked by an +exclamation of horror and surprise from the whole band--"Oh, what are +you about? You are not going to touch food with your _hands_!" "Indeed, +but I am," said I, and stretched out my hand. Here another scream--"You +must not do that: it's the worst of all things. One of us will feed +you: it's wrong, wrong, very wrong!" "Oh, bother," said I, and fell too +at once. I declare, positively, I had no sooner done so than I felt +sorry. The expression of horror, contempt, and pity, observable in +their faces, convinced me that I had not only offended and hurt their +feelings, but that I had lowered myself greatly in their estimation. +Certainly I was a pakeha, and pakehas will do most unaccountable +things, and may be, in ordinary cases, excused; but this, I saw at +once, was an act which, to my friends, seemed the _ne plus ultra_ of +abomination. I now can well understand that, while sitting there eating +my potatoes, I must have appeared to them a ghoul, a vampire; worse +than even one of their own dreadful _atua_, who, at the command of a +witch, or to avenge some breach of the _tapu_, enters into a man's body +and slowly eats away his vitals. I can see it now, and understand what +a frightful object I must have appeared. + +My friends broke up their camp at once, not feeling sure, after what I +had done, but I might walk in amongst them, in the night, when they +were asleep, and bedevil them all. They marched all night, and in the +morning came to my house, where they spread consternation and dismay +amongst my household by telling them in what a condition I was coming +home. The whole of my establishment at this time being natives, ran off +at once; and when I got home next evening, hungry and vexed, there was +not a soul to be seen. The house and kitchen were shut up, fires out, +and, as I fancied, everything looked dreary and uncomfortable. If only +a dog had come and wagged his tail in welcome, it would have been +something; but even my dog was gone. Certainly there was an old tom +cat; but I hate cats: there is no sincerity in them, and so I had +kicked this old tom, on principle, whenever he came in my way, and now, +when he saw me, he ran for his life into the bush. + +The instinct of a hungry man sent me into the kitchen; there was +nothing eatable to be seen but a raw leg of pork, and the fire was out. +I now began to suspect that this attempt of mine to look down the +_tapu_ would fail, and that I should remain excommunicated for some +frightfully indefinite period. I began to think of Robinson Crusoe, and +to wonder if I could hold out as well as he did. Then I looked hard at +the leg of pork. The idea that I must cook it for myself, brought home +to me the fact more forcibly than anything else how I had "fallen from +my high estate"--cooking being the very last thing a _rangatira_ can +turn his hand to. But why should I have anything more to do with +cooking?--was I not cast off and repudiated by the human race? (A +horrible misanthropy was fast taking hold of me.) Why should I not tear +my leg of pork raw, like a wolf? "I will run a-muck!"--suddenly said I. +"I wonder how many I can kill before they 'bag' me? But--I must have +some supper." + +I soon made a fire, and, after a little rummaging, found the _materiel_ +for a good meal. My cooking was not so bad either, I thought; but +certainly hunger is not hard to please in this respect, and I had eaten +nothing since the diabolical meal of the preceding evening, and had +travelled more than twenty miles. I washed my hands six or seven times, +scrubbing away and muttering with an intonation that would have been a +fortune to a tragic actor, "Out, damned spot;" and so, after having +washed and dried my hands, looked at them, returned, and washed again, +again washed, and so on, several times, I sat down and demolished two +days' allowance. After which, reclining before the fire with my pipe, +and a blanket over my shoulders, a more kindly feeling towards my +fellow-men stole gradually upon me. "I wonder," said I to myself, "how +long this devilish _tapu_ will last! I wonder if there is to be any end +at all to it! I won't run a-muck for a week, at all events, till I see +what may turn up. Confounded plague though to have to cook!" Having +resolved as above, not to take any one's life for a week, I felt more +patient. + +Four days passed, somehow or another, and on the morning of the fifth, +to my extreme delight, I saw a small canoe, pulled by one man, landing +on the beach before the house. He fastened his canoe and advanced +towards the kitchen, which was detached from the house, and, in the +late deplorable state of affairs, had become my regular residence. I +sat in the doorway, and soon perceived that my visitor was a famous +_tohunga_, or priest, and who also had the reputation of being a witch +of no ordinary dimensions. He was an old, grave, stolid-looking savage, +with one eye; the other had been knocked out long ago in a fight, +before he turned parson. On he came, with a slow, measured step, +slightly gesticulating with one hand, and holding in the other a very +small basket, not more than nine or ten inches long. He came on, +mumbling and grumbling a perfectly unintelligible _karakia_ or +incantation. I guessed at once he was coming to disenchant me, and +prepared my mind to submit to any conditions or ceremonial he should +think fit to impose. My old friend came gravely up, and putting his +hand into the little basket pulled out a baked _kumera_, saying, "_He +kai mau._" I of course accepted the offered food, took a bite, and as I +ate he mumbled his incantation over me. + +I remember I felt a curious sensation at the time, like what I fancied +a man must feel who had just sold himself, body and bones, to the +devil. For a moment I asked myself the question whether I was not +actually being then and there handed over to the powers of darkness. +The thought startled me. There was I, an unworthy but believing member +of the Church of England as by Parliament established, "knuckling down" +abjectly to the ministration of a ferocious old cannibal, wizard, +sorcerer, high priest,--or, as it appeared very probable,--to Satan +himself. "Blacken his remaining eye! knock him over and run the +country!" whispered quite plainly in my ear my guardian angel, or else +a little impulsive sprite who often made suggestions to me in those +days. For a couple of seconds the sorcerer's eye was in desperate +danger; but just in those moments the ceremony, or at least this most +objectionable part of it, came to an end. + +The _tohunga_ stood back and said, "Have you been in the house?" +Fortunately I had presence of mind enough to _forget_ that I had, and +said, "No." "Throw out all those pots and kettles." I saw it was no use +to resist, so out they went. "Fling out those dishes" was the next +command. "The dishes?--they will break." "I am going to break them +all." Capital fun this. Out go the dishes; "and may the ----." I fear I +was about to say something bad. "Fling out those knives, and those +things with sharp points"--(the old villain did not know what to call +the forks!)--"and those shells with handles to them"--(spoons!)--"out +with everything." The last sweeping order is obeyed, and the kitchen is +fairly empty. The worst is over now at last, thank goodness, said I to +myself. "Strip off all your clothes." "What?--strip naked!--you +desperate old thief--mind your eye." Human patience could bear no more. +Out I jumped. I did "strip." Off came my jacket. "How would you prefer +being killed, old ruffian?--can you do anything in this way?" (Here a +pugilistic demonstration.) "Strip!--he doesn't mean to give me five +dozen, does he?" said I, rather bewildered, and looking sharp to see if +he had anything like an instrument of flagellation in his possession. +"Come on!--what are you waiting for?" said I. + +In those days, when labouring under what Dickens calls the "description +of temporary insanity which arises from a sense of injury," I always +involuntarily fell back upon my mother tongue; which in this case was +perhaps fortunate, as my necromantic old friend did not appreciate the +full force of my eloquence. He could not, however, mistake my warlike +and rebellious attitude, and could see clearly I was going into one of +those most unaccountable rages that pakehas were liable to fly into, +without any imaginable cause. "Boy," said he, gravely and quietly, and +without seeming to notice my very noticeable declaration of war and +independence, "don't act foolishly; don't go mad. No one will ever come +near you while you have those clothes. You will be miserable here by +yourself. And what is the use of being angry?--what will _anger_ do for +you?" The perfect coolness of my old friend, the complete disregard he +paid to my explosion of wrath, as well as his reasoning, began to make +me feel a little disconcerted. He evidently had come with the purpose +and intention to get me out of a very awkward scrape, and I began also +to feel that, looking at the affair from his point of view, I was just +possibly not making a very respectable figure: then, if I understood +him rightly, there would be no _flogging_. "Well," said I, at last, +"Fate compels: to fate, and not old Hurlo-thrumbo there, I yield--so +here goes." Let me not dwell upon the humiliating concession to the +powers of _tapu_. Suffice it to say, I disrobed, and received +permission to enter my own house in search of other garments. + +When I came out again, my old friend was sitting down with a stone in +his hand, battering the last pot to pieces, and looking as if he was +performing a very meritorious action. He carried away all the smashed +kitchen utensils and my clothes in baskets, and deposited them in a +thicket at a considerable distance from the house. (I stole the knives, +forks, and spoons back again some time after, as he had not broken +them.) He then bid me good-by; and the same evening all my household +came flocking back: but years passed before any one but myself would go +into the kitchen, and I had to build another. And for several years +also I could observe, by the respectable distance kept by young natives +and servants, and the nervous manner with which they avoided my pipe in +particular, that they considered I had not been as completely purified +from the _tapu tango atua_ as I might have been. I now am aware, that +in consideration of my being a pakeha--and also, perhaps, lest, driven +to desperation, I should run away entirely, which would have been +looked upon as a great misfortune to the tribe--I was let off very +easy, and might therefore be supposed to retain some tinge of the +dreadful infection. + +Besides these descriptions of _tapu_, there were many other. There was +the _war tapu_, which in itself included fifty different "sacred +customs," one of which was this. Often when the fighting men left the +pa or camp, they being themselves made _tapu_--or sacred, as in this +particular case the word means--all those who remained behind, old men, +women, slaves, and all non-combatants, were obliged strictly to fast +while the warriors were fighting; and, indeed, from the time they left +the camp till their return, even to smoke a pipe would be a breach of +this rule. These war customs, as well as other forms of the _tapu_, are +evidently derived from a very ancient religion, and did not take their +rise in this country. I shall, probably, some of these days, treat of +them at more length, and endeavour to trace them to their source. + +Sacrifices were often made to the war demon, and I know of one instance +in which, when a tribe were surrounded by an overwhelming force of +their enemies, and had nothing but extermination--immediate and +unrelenting--before them, the war chief cut out the heart of his own +son as an offering for victory; and then he and his tribe, with the +fury of despair and the courage of fanatics, rushed upon the foe, +defeated them with terrific slaughter, and the war demon had much +praise, and many men were eaten. + +The warriors, when on a dangerous expedition, also observed strictly +the custom to which allusion is made in 1st Samuel, xxi. 4, 5. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + The Tapu Tohunga.--The Maori Oracle.--Responses of the + Oracle.--Priestcraft. + + +Then came the _tapu tohunga_, or priest's _tapu_, a quite different +kind or form of _tapu_ from those which I have spoken of. These +_tohunga_ presided over all those ceremonies and customs which had +something approaching to a religious character. They also pretended to +the power--by means of certain familiar spirits--to foretell future +events, and even in some cases to control them. The belief in the power +of these _tohunga_ to foretell events was very strong, and the +incredulous pakeha who laughed at them was thought a person quite +incapable of understanding plain evidence. I must allow that some of +their predictions were of a most daring nature, and, happening to turn +out perfectly successful, there may be some excuse for an ignorant +people believing in them. Most of these predictions were, however, +given--like the oracles of old--in terms which would admit a double +meaning and secure the character of the soothsayer, no matter how the +event turned out. + +It is also remarkable that these _tohunga_ did not pretend to divine +future events by any knowledge or power existing in themselves; they +pretended to be for the time inspired by the familiar spirit, and +passive in his hands. This spirit "entered into" them, and, on being +questioned, gave a response in a sort of half-whistling half-articulate +voice, supposed to be the proper language of spirits; and I have known +a _tohunga_ who, having made a false prediction, laid the blame on the +"tricksy spirit," who he said had purposely spoken false, for certain +good and sufficient spiritual reasons which he then explained. Amongst +the fading customs and beliefs of the good old times the _tohunga_ +still holds his ground, and the oracle is as often consulted (though +not so openly) as it was a hundred years ago, and is as firmly believed +in; and this by natives who are professed Christians: the inquiries are +often on subjects of the most vital importance to the welfare of the +colony. A certain _tohunga_ has even quite lately, to my certain +knowledge, been paid a large sum of money to do a miracle! I saw the +money paid, and I saw the miracle. And the miracle was a good enough +sort of miracle, as miracles go in these times. The natives know we +laugh at their belief in these things, and they would much rather we +were angry, for then they would defy us; but as we simply laugh at +their credulity, they do all they can to conceal it from us: but +nevertheless the chiefs, on all matters of importance, continue to +consult the Maori oracle. + +I shall give two instances of predictions which came under my own +observation, and which will show how much the same priestcraft has been +in all times. + +A man--a petty chief--had a serious quarrel with his relations, left +his tribe, and went to a distant part of the country, saying that he +cast them off and would never return. After a time the relations became +both uneasy at his absence and sorry for the disagreement. The presence +of the head of the family was also of consequence to them. They +therefore inquired of the oracle if he would return. At night the +_tohunga_ invoked the familiar spirit, he became inspired, and in a +sort of hollow whistle came the words of fate:--"He will return; but +yet not return." This response was given several times, and then the +spirit departed, leaving the priest or _tohunga_ to the guidance of his +own unaided wits. No one could understand the meaning of the response: +the priest himself said he could make nothing of it. The spirit of +course knew his own meaning; but all agreed that, whatever that meaning +was, it would turn out true. Now the conclusion of this story is rather +extraordinary. Some time after this, several of the chief's relations +went to offer reconciliation and to endeavour to persuade him to return +home. Six months afterwards they returned, bringing him along with them +_a corpse_: they had found him dying, and carried his body home. Now +all knew the meaning of the words of the oracle, "He will return, but +yet not return." + +Another instance, which I witnessed myself, was as follows:--A captain +of a large ship had run away with a Maori girl--or a Maori girl had run +away with a ship captain; I should not like to swear which is the +proper form of expression--and the relations, as in such cases happens +in most countries, thought it incumbent on them to get into a great +taking, and make as much noise as possible about the matter. Off they +set to the _tohunga_. I happened to be at his place at the time, and +saw and heard all I am about to recount. The relations of the girl did +not merely confine themselves to asking questions, they demanded active +assistance. The ship had gone to sea loaded for a long voyage; the +fugitives had fairly escaped; and what the relations wanted was that +the _atua_, or familiar spirit of the _tohunga_, should bring the ship +back into port, so that they might have an opportunity to recover the +lost ornament of the family. I heard the whole. + +The priest hummed and hawed. "He did not know; could not say. We should +hear what the 'boy' would say. He would do as he liked. Could not +compel him;" and so forth. At night all assembled in the house where +the priest usually performed. All was expectation. I saw I was _de +trop_, in the opinion of our soothsayer: in fact, I had got the name of +an infidel (which I have since taken care to get rid of), and the +spirit was unwilling to enter where there was an unbeliever. My friend +the priest hinted to me politely that a nice bed had been made for me +in the next house. I thanked him in the most approved Maori fashion, +but said I was "very comfortable where I was;" and, suiting the action +to the word, rolled my cloak about me, and lay down on the rushes, with +which the floor was covered. + +About midnight I heard the spirit saluting the guests, and them +saluting him; and I also noticed they hailed him as "relation," and +then gravely preferred the request that he would "drive back the ship +which had stolen his cousin." The response, after a short time, came in +the hollow mysterious whistling voice,--"The ship's nose I will batter +out on the great sea." This answer was repeated several times, and then +the spirit departed, and would not be recalled. The rest of the night +was spent in conjecturing what could be the meaning of these words. All +agreed that there must be more in them than met the ear; but no one +could say it was a clear concession of the request made. As for the +priest, he said he could not understand it, and that "the spirit was a +great rogue"--a _koroke hangareka_. He, however, kept throwing out +hints now and then that something more than common was meant, and +talked generally in the "we shall see" style. + +Now here comes the end of the affair. About ten days after this in +comes the ship. She had been "battered" with a vengeance. She had been +met by a terrible gale when a couple of hundred miles off the land, and +had sprung a leak in the bow. The bow in Maori is called the "nose" +(_ihu_). The vessel had been in great danger, and had been actually +forced to run for the nearest port; which happened to be the one she +had left. Now, after such a coincidence as this, I can hardly blame the +ignorant natives for believing in the oracle, for I actually caught +myself quoting, "Can the devil speak truth?" Indeed I have in the good +old times known several pakehas who "thought there was something in +it," and two who formally and believingly consulted the oracle, and +paid a high _douceur_ to the priest. + +I shall give one more instance of the response of the Maori oracle. A +certain northern tribe, noted for their valour, but not very numerous, +sent the whole of their best men on a war expedition to the south. This +happened about forty years ago. Before the _taua_ started, the oracle +was consulted, and the answer to the question, "Shall this expedition +be successful?" came. "A desolate country!--a desolate country!--a +desolate country!" This the eager warriors accepted as a most +favourable response: they said the enemy's country would be desolated. +It, however, so turned out that they were all exterminated to a man; +and the miserable remnant of their tribe, weakened and rendered +helpless by their loss, became a prey to their more immediate +neighbours, lost their lands, and have ceased from that day to be heard +of as an independent tribe. So, in fact, it was the country of the +eager inquirers which was laid "desolate." Every one praised the +oracle, and its character was held higher than ever. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + The Priest evokes a Spirit.--The Consequences.--A Maori + Tragedy.--The "Tohunga" again. + + +These priests or _tohunga_ would, and do to this hour, undertake to +call up the spirit of any dead person, if paid for the same. I have +seen many of these exhibitions, but one instance will suffice as an +example. + +A young chief, who had been very popular and greatly respected in his +tribe, had been killed in battle; and, at the request of several of his +nearest friends, the _tohunga_ had promised on a certain night to call +up his spirit to speak to them, and answer certain questions they +wished to put. The priest was to come to the village of the relations, +and the interview was to take place in a large house common to all the +population. This young man had been a great friend of mine; and so, the +day before the event, I was sent to by his relations, and told that an +opportunity offered of conversing with my friend once more. I was not +much inclined to bear a part in such outrageous mummery, but curiosity +caused me to go. It is necessary to remark that this young chief was a +man in advance of his times and people in many respects. He was the +first of his tribe who could read and write; and, amongst other unusual +things for a native to do, he kept a register of deaths and births, and +a journal of any remarkable events which happened in the tribe. Now +this book was lost: no one could find it; although his friends had +searched unceasingly for it, as it contained many matters of interest, +and they wished to preserve it for his sake. I also wished to get it, +and had often inquired if it had been found, but had always been +answered in the negative. + +The appointed time came, and at night we all met the priest in the +large house I have mentioned. Fires were lit, which gave an uncertain +flickering light, and the priest retired to the darkest corner. All was +expectation, and the silence was only broken by the sobbing of the +sister, and other female relations of the dead man: they seemed to be, +and indeed were, in an agony of excitement, agitation, and grief. This +state of things continued for a long time, and I began to feel in a way +surprising to myself, as if there was something real in the matter. The +heartbreaking sobs of the women, and the grave and solemn silence of +the men, convinced me, that to them at least, this was a serious +matter: I saw the brother of the dead man now and then silently wiping +the tears from his eyes. I wished I had not come, for I felt that any +unintentional symptom of incredulity on my part would shock and hurt +the feelings of my friends extremely; and yet, whilst feeling thus, I +felt myself more and more near to believing in the deception about to +be practised: the real grief, and also the general undoubting faith, in +all around me, had this effect. + +We were all seated on the rush-strewn floor; about thirty persons. The +door was shut; the fire had burnt down, leaving nothing but glowing +charcoal, and the room was oppressively hot. The light was little +better than darkness; and the part of the room in which the _tohunga_ +sat was now in perfect darkness. Suddenly, without the slightest +warning, a voice came out of the darkness. "Salutation!--salutation to +you all!--salutation!--salutation to you, my tribe!--family, I salute +you!--friends, I salute you!--friend, my pakeha friend, I salute you." +The high-handed daring imposture was successful: our feelings were +taken by storm. A cry expressive of affection and despair, such as was +not good to hear, came from the sister of the dead chief, a fine, +stately and really handsome woman of about five-and-twenty. She was +rushing, with both arms extended, into the dark, in the direction from +whence the voice came; but was instantly seized round the waist and +restrained by her brother by main force, till, moaning and fainting, +she lay still on the ground. At the same instant another female voice +was heard from a young girl, who was held by the wrists by two young +men, her brothers. "Is it you?--is it you?--_truly_ is it you?--_aue! +aue!_ they hold me, they restrain me: wonder not that I have not +followed you; they restrain me, they watch me; but I go to you. The sun +shall not rise, the sun shall not rise, _aue! aue!_" Here she fell +insensible on the rush floor, and with the sister was carried out. The +remaining women were all weeping and exclaiming, but were silenced by +the men, who were themselves nearly as much excited, though not so +clamorous. I, however, did notice two old men, who sat close to me, +were not in the slightest degree moved in any way, though they did not +seem at all incredulous, but quite the contrary. + +The spirit spoke again. "Speak to me, the tribe!--speak to me, the +family!--speak to me, the pakeha!" The "pakeha," however, was not at +the moment inclined for conversation. The deep distress of the two +women, the evident belief of all around him of the presence of the +spirit, the "darkness visible," and the novelty of the scene, gave rise +to a state of feeling not favourable to the conversational powers. +Besides, I felt reluctant to give too much apparent credence to an +imposture, which at the very same time, by some strange impulse, I felt +half ready to give way to. + +At last the brother spoke, and asked, "How is it with you?--is it well +with you in _that_ country?" The answer came--(the voice all through, +it is to be remembered, was not the voice of the _tohunga_, but a +strange melancholy sound, like the sound of the wind blowing into a +hollow vessel,)--"It is well with me: my place is a good place." The +brother spoke again--"Have you seen ----, and ----, and ----?" (I +forget the names mentioned.) "Yes, they are all with me." A woman's +voice now from another part of the room anxiously cried out--"Have you +seen my sister?" "Yes, I have seen her." "Tell her my love is great +towards her and never will cease." "Yes, I will tell." Here the woman +burst into tears, and the pakeha felt a strange swelling of the chest, +which he could in no way account for. + +The spirit spoke again. "Give my large tame pig to the priest," (the +pakeha was disenchanted at once,) "and my double-gun." Here the brother +interrupted--"Your gun is a _manatunga_; I shall keep it." He is also +disenchanted, thought I, but I was mistaken; he believed, but wished to +keep the gun his brother had carried so long. + +An idea now struck me that I could expose the imposture without showing +palpable disbelief. "We cannot find your book," said I, "where have you +concealed it?" The answer instantly came, "I concealed it between the +_tahuhu_ of my house and the thatch, straight over you as you go in at +the door." Here the brother rushed out; all was silence till his +return. In five minutes he came back _with the book in his hand_! I was +beaten, but made another effort.--"What have you written in that book?" +said I. "A great many things." "Tell me some of them." "Which of them?" +"Any of them." "You are seeking for some information, what do you want +to know? I will tell you." Then suddenly--"Farewell, O tribe! farewell, +my family, I go!" Here a general and impressive cry of "farewell" arose +from every one in the house. "Farewell," again cried the spirit, _from +deep beneath the ground_! "Farewell," again from _high in air_! +"Farewell," again came moaning through the distant darkness of the +night. "Farewell!" I was for a moment stunned. The deception was +perfect. There was a dead silence--at last. "A ventriloquist," said +I--"or--or--_perhaps_ the devil." + +I was fagged and confused. It was past mid-night; the company broke up, +and I went to a house where a bed had been prepared for me. I wished to +be quiet and alone; but it was fated there should be little quiet that +night. I was just falling asleep, after having thought for some time on +the extraordinary scenes I had witnessed, when I heard the report of a +musket at some little distance, followed by the shouting of men and the +screams of women. Out I rushed. I had a presentiment of some horrible +catastrophe. Men were running by, hastily armed. I could get no +information, so went with the stream. There was a bright flame +beginning to spring up at a short distance, and every one appeared +going in that direction: I was soon there. + +A house had been set on fire to make a light. Before another house, +close at hand, a dense circle of human beings was formed. I pushed my +way through, and then saw, by the bright light of the flaming house, a +scene which is still fresh before me: there, in the verandah of the +house, was an old grey-bearded man; he knelt upon one knee, and on the +other he supported the dead body of the young girl who had said she +would follow the spirit to spirit land. The delicate-looking body from +the waist upwards was bare and bloody; the old man's right arm was +under the neck, the lower part of his long grey beard was dabbled with +blood, his left hand was twisting his matted hair; he did not weep, he +_howled_, and the sound was that of a heathen despair, knowing no hope. +The young girl had secretly procured a loaded musket, tied to the +trigger a loop for her foot, placed the muzzle to her tender breast, +and blown herself to shatters. And the old man was her father, and a +_tohunga_. A calm low voice now spoke close beside me, "She has +followed her _rangatira_," it said. I looked round, and saw the famous +_tohunga_ of the night. + +Now, young ladies, I have promised not to frighten you with +raw-head-and-bloody-bones stories; a sort of thing I detest, but which +has been too much the fashion with folks who write of matters Maori. I +have vowed not to draw a drop of blood except in a characteristic +manner. But this story is tragedy, or I don't know what tragedy is; and +the more tragic because, in every particular, literally true: and so, +if you cannot find some pity for the poor Maori girl who "followed her +lord to spirit land," I shall make it my business not to fall in love +with any of you any more for I won't say how long. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Local Tapu.--The Taniwha.--The Battle on Motiti.--The Death + of Tiki Whenua.--Reflections.--Brutus, Marcus Antonius, and Tiki + Whenua.--Suicide. + + +A story-teller, like a poet or a pugilist, must be _born_, and not +_made_, and I begin to fancy I have not been born under a story-telling +planet, for by no effort that I can make can I hold on to the thread of +my story, and I am conscious the whole affair is fast becoming one +great parenthesis. If I could only get clear of this _tapu_ I would +"try back." I believe I ought to be just now completing the purchase of +my estate. I am sure I have been keeping house a long time before it is +built, which is I believe clear against the rules; so I must get rid of +this talk about the _tapu_ the best way I can, after which I will start +fair and try not to get before my story. + +Besides these different forms of the _tapu_ which I have mentioned, +there were endless others; but the temporary local _tapus_ were the +most tormenting to a pakeha: as well they might, seeing that even a +native could not steer clear of them always. A place not _tapu_ +yesterday might be most horribly _tapu_ to-day, and the consequences of +trespassing thereon proportionately troublesome. + +Thus, sailing along a coast or a river bank, the most inviting +landing-place would be almost to a certainty the freehold property of +the Taniwha, a terrific sea monster, who would to a certainty, if his +landed property was trespassed on, upset the canoe of the trespassers +and devour them all the very next time they put to sea. The place was +_tapu_, and let the weather be as bad as it might, it was better to +keep to sea at all risks than to land there. Even pakeha, though in +some cases invulnerable, could not escape the fangs of the terrible +Taniwha. "Was not little Jackey-_poto_, the sailor, drowned by the +Taniwha? He _would_ go on shore, in spite of every warning, to get some +water to mix with his _waipiro_; and was not his canoe found next day +floating about with his paddle and two empty case-bottles in it?--a +sure sign that the Taniwha had lifted him out bodily. And was not the +body of the said Jackey found some days after with the Taniwha's mark +on it,--one eye taken out?" + +These Taniwha would, however, sometimes attach themselves to a chief or +warrior, and in the shape of a huge sea monster, a bird, or a fish, +gambol round his canoe, and by their motions give presage of good or +evil fortune. + +When the Ngati Kuri sailed on their last and fated expedition to the +south, a huge Taniwha attached to the famous warrior, Tiki Whenua, +accompanied the expedition, playing about continually amongst the +canoes; often coming close to the canoe of Tiki Whenua, so that the +warrior could reach to pat him approvingly with his paddle, at which he +seemed much pleased; and when they came in sight of the island of +Tuhua, this Taniwha chief called up the legions of the deep! The sea +was blackened by an army of monsters, who, with uncouth and awful +floundering and wallowing, performed before the chief and his +companions a hideous _tu ngarahu_, and then disappeared. The Ngati +Kuri, elated, and accepting this as a presage of victory, landed on +Tuhua, stormed the pa, and massacred its defenders. + +But they had mistaken the meaning of the monster review of the Taniwha. +It was a leave-taking of his favourite warrior; for the Ngati Kuri were +fated to die to a man on the next land they trod. A hundred and fifty +men were they--the pick and prime of their tribe. All _rangatira_, all +warriors of name, few in number, but desperately resolute, they thought +it little to defeat the thousands of the south, and take the women and +children as a prey! Having feasted and rejoiced at Tuhua, they sail for +Motiti. This world was too small for them. They were impatient for +battle. They thought to make the name of Kuri strike against the skies; +but in the morning the sea is covered with war canoes. The thousands of +the south are upon them! Ngati Awa, with many an allied band, mad for +revenge, come on. Fight now, O Ngati Kuri!--not for _victory_, no, nor +for _life_. Think only now of _utu_!--for your time is come. That which +you have dealt to many, you shall now receive. Fight!--fight! Your +tribe shall be exterminated, but you must leave a name! Now came the +tug of war on "bare Motiti." From early morning till the sun had well +declined, that ruthless battle raged. Twice their own number had the +Ngati Kuri slain; and then Tiki Whenua, still living, saw around him +his dead and dying tribe. A handful of bleeding warriors still +resisted--a last and momentary struggle. He thought of the _utu_; it +was great. He thought of the ruined remnant of the tribe at home, and +then he remembered--horrid thought--that ere next day's setting sun, he +and all the warriors of his tribe would be baked and eaten. (Tiki, my +friend, thou art in trouble.) A cannon was close at hand--a nine-pound +carronade. They had brought it in the canoes. Hurriedly he filled it +half full of powder, seized a long firebrand, placed his breast to the +cannon's mouth, and fired it with his own hand. Tiki Whenua, +good-night! + +Now I wonder if Brutus had had such a thing as a nine-pounder about him +at Philippi, whether he would have thought of using it in this way. I +really don't think he would. I have never looked upon Brutus as +anything of an original genius; but Tiki Whenua most certainly was. I +don't think there is another instance of a man blowing himself from a +gun. Of course there are many examples of people blowing others from +cannon; but that is quite a different thing; any blockhead can do that. +But the _exit_ of Tiki Whenua has a smack of originality about it which +I like, and so I have mentioned it here. + +But all this is digression on digression: however, I suppose the reader +is getting used to it, and I cannot help it. Besides, I wanted to show +them how poor Tiki "took arms against a sea of troubles," and for the +want of a "bare bodkin" made shift with a carronade. I shall never +cease to lament those nice lads who met with that little accident (poor +fellows!) on Motiti. A fine, strapping, stalwart set of fellows, who +believed in force. We don't see many such men now-a-days. The present +generation of Maori are a stunted, tobacco-smoking, grog-drinking, +psalm-singing, special-pleading, shilling-hunting set of wretches: not +above one in a dozen of them would know how to cut up a man _secundum +artem_. 'Pshaw! I am ashamed of them. + +I am getting tired of this _tapu_, so will give only one or two more +instances of the local temporary _tapu_. In the autumn, when the great +crop of _kumera_ was gathered, all the paths leading to the village and +cultivated lands were made _tapu_, and any one coming along them would +have notice of this by finding a rope stretched across the road about +breast-high; when he saw this, his business must be very urgent indeed +or he would go back: indeed, it would have been taken as a very serious +affront, even in a near relation, supposing his ordinary residence was +not in the village, to disregard the hint given by the rope,--that for +the present there was "no thoroughfare." + +Now, the reason of this blockade of the roads was this. The report of +an unusually fine crop of _kumera_ had often cost its cultivators and +the whole tribe their lives. The news would spread about that Ngati +so-and-so, living at so-and-so, had housed so many thousands of baskets +of _kumera_. Exaggeration would multiply the truth by ten, the fertile +land would be coveted, and very probably its owners, or rather its +_holders_, would have to fight both for it and for their lives before +the year was out. For this reason strangers were not welcome at the +Maori harvest home. The _kumera_ were dug hurriedly by the whole +strength of the working hands, thrown in scattered heaps, and concealed +from the casual observation of strangers by being covered over with the +leaves of the plants: when all were dug, then all hands set to work, at +night, to fill the baskets and carry off the crop to the storehouse or +_rua_; and every effort was made to get all stored and out of sight +before daylight, lest any one should be able to form any idea of the +extent of the crop. When the digging of one field was completed another +would be done in the same manner, and so on till the whole crop was +housed in this stealthy manner. I have been at several of these +midnight labours, and have admired the immense amount of work one +family would do in a single night; working as it were for life and +death. In consequence of this mode of proceeding, even the families +inhabiting the same village did not know what sort of a crop their +neighbours had, and if a question was asked (to do which was thought +impertinent and very improper), the invariable answer was "Nothing at +all; barely got back the seed: hardly that; we shall be starved; we +shall have to eat fern root this year," &c. The last time I observed +this custom was about twenty-seven years ago, and even then it was +nearly discontinued and no longer general. + +Talking of bygone habits and customs of the natives, I remember I have +mentioned two cases of suicide. I shall, therefore, now take occasion +to state that no more marked alteration in the habits of the natives +has taken place than in the great decrease of cases of suicide. In the +first years of my residence in the country, it was of almost daily +occurrence. When a man died, it was almost a matter of course that his +wife, or wives, hung themselves. When the wife died, the man very +commonly shot himself. I have known young men, often on the most +trifling affront or vexation, shoot themselves; and I was acquainted +with a man who, having been for two days plagued with the toothache, +cut his throat with a very blunt razor, without a handle: which +certainly was a radical cure. I do not believe that one case of suicide +occurs now, for twenty when I first came into the country. Indeed, the +last case I have heard of in a populous district, occurred several +years ago. It was rather a remarkable one. A native owed another a few +shillings; the creditor kept continually asking for it; but the debtor, +somehow or other, never could raise the cash. At last being out of +patience, and not knowing anything of the Insolvent Court, he loaded +his gun, went to the creditor's house, and called him out. Out came the +creditor and his wife. The debtor then placed the gun to his own +breast, and saying, "Here is your payment," pulled the trigger with his +foot, and fell dead before them. I think the reason suicide has become +so comparatively unfrequent is, that the minds of the natives are now +filled and agitated by a flood of new ideas, new wants and ambitions, +which they knew not formerly, and which prevents them, from one single +loss or disappointment, feeling as if there was nothing more to live +for. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + The Tapa.--Instances of.--The Storming of Mokoia.--Pomare.--Hongi + Ika.--Tareha.--Honour amongst Thieves. + + +There was a kind of variation on the _tapu_, called _tapa_, of this +nature. For instance, if a chief said, "That axe is my head," the axe +became his to all intents and purposes; except, indeed, the owner of +the axe was able to break his "head," in which case, I have reason to +believe, the _tapa_ would fall to the ground. It was, however, in a +certain degree necessary to have some legal reason, or excuse, for +making the _tapa_; but to give some idea of what constituted the +circumstances under which a man could fairly _tapa_ anything, I must +needs quote a case in point. + +When the Ngapuhi attacked the tribe of Ngati Wakawe, at Rotorua, the +Ngati Wakawe retired to the island of Mokoia in the lake of Rotorua, +which they fortified; thinking that, as the Ngapuhi canoes could not +come nearer than Kaituna on the east coast, about thirty miles distant, +that they in their island position would be safe. But in this they were +fatally deceived, for the Ngapuhi dragged a whole fleet of war canoes +over land. When, however, the advanced division of the Ngapuhi arrived +at Rotorua, and encamped on the shore of the lake, the Ngati Wakawe +were not aware that the canoes of the enemy were coming, so every +morning they manned their large canoes, and leaving the island fort, +would come dashing along the shore deriding the Ngapuhi, and crying, +"_Ma wai koe e kawe mai ki Rangitiki?_"--"Who shall bring you, or how +shall you arrive, at Rangitiki?" Rangitiki was the name of one of their +hill forts. + +The canoes were fine large ornamented _totara_ canoes, very valuable, +capable of carrying from fifty to seventy men each, and much coveted by +the Ngapuhi. The Ngapuhi of course considered all these canoes as their +own already; but the different chiefs and leaders, anxious to secure +one or more of these fine canoes for themselves and people, and not +knowing who might be the first to lay hands on them in the confusion of +the storming of Mokoia, which would take place when their own canoes +arrived, each _tapa'd_ one or more for himself, or--as the native +expression is--_to_ himself. Up jumped Pomare, and standing on the lake +shore in front of the encampment of the division of which he was +leader, he shouts--pointing at the same time to a particular canoe at +the time carrying about sixty men--"That canoe is my back-bone." Then +Tareha, in bulk like a sea elephant, and sinking to the ankles in the +shore of the lake, with a hoarse croaking voice roars out, "That canoe! +my scull shall be the bailer to bail it out." This was a horribly +strong _tapa_. Then the soft voice of the famous Hongi Ika, surnamed +"The eater of men," of _Hongi kai tangata_, was heard, "Those two +canoes are my two thighs." And so the whole flotilla was appropriated +by the different chiefs. + +Now it followed from this, that in the storming and plunder of Mokoia, +when a warrior clapped his hand on a canoe and shouted, "This canoe is +mine," the seizure would not stand good, if it was one of the canoes +which were _tapa-tapa_; for it would be a frightful insult to Pomare to +claim to be the owner of his "back-bone," or to Tareha to go on board a +canoe which had been made sacred by the bare supposition that his +"scull" should be a vessel to bail it with. Of course the first man +laying his hand on any other canoe and claiming it secured it for +himself and tribe; always provided that the number of men there present +representing his tribe or _hapu_ were sufficient to back his claim and +render it dangerous to dispossess him. I have seen men shamefully +robbed, for want of sufficient support, of their honest lawful gains; +after all the trouble and risk they had gone to in killing the owners, +of their plunder. But dishonest people are to be found almost +everywhere; and I will say this, that my friends the Maoris seldom act +against law, and always try to be able to say that what they do is +"correct"--(_tika_). + +This _tapu_ is a bore, even to write about, and I fear the reader is +beginning to think it a bore to read about. It began long before the +time of Moses, and I think that steam navigation will be the death of +it; but lest it should kill my reader I will have done with it for the +present, and "try back," for I have left my story behind completely. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + "My Rangatira."--The respective Duties of the Pakeha and his + Rangatira.--Public Opinion.--A "Pakeha Kino."--Description of + my Rangatira.--His Exploits and Misadventures.--His Moral + Principles.--Decline in the Number of the Natives.--Proofs of + former large Population.--Ancient Forts.--Causes of Decrease. + + +When I purchased my land, the payment was made on the ground, and +immediately divided and subdivided amongst the different sellers. Some +of them who, according to their own representations formerly made to +me, were the sole and only owners of the land, received for their share +about the value of one shilling, and moreover, as I also observed, did +not appear at all disappointed. + +One old _rangatira_, before whom a considerable portion of the payment +had been laid as his share of the spoil, gave it a slight shove with +his foot, expressive of refusal, and said, "I will not accept any of +the payment; I will have the pakeha." I saw some of the magnates +present seemed greatly disappointed at this, for I dare say they had +expected to have the pakeha _as well_ as the payment. But the old +gentleman had regularly check-mated them by refusing to accept any +payment; and being also a person of great respectability, _i.e._, a +good fighting man, with twenty more at his back, he was allowed to have +his way: thereby, in the opinion of all the natives present, making a +far better thing of the land sale than any of them, though he had +received no part of the payment. + +I consequently was therefore a part, and by no means an inconsiderable +one, of the payment for my own land; but though now part and parcel of +the property of the old _rangatira_ aforementioned, a good deal of +liberty was allowed me. The fact of my having become his pakeha made +our respective relations and duties to each other about as follows-- + +Firstly.--At all times, places, and companies, my owner had the right +to call me "his pakeha." + +Secondly.--He had the general privilege of "pot-luck" whenever he chose +to honour my establishment with a visit: said pot-luck to be tumbled +out to him on the ground before the house; he being far too great a man +to eat out of plates or dishes, or any degenerate invention of that +nature; as, if he did, they would all become _tapu_ and of no use to +any one but himself: nor indeed to himself either, as he did not see +the use of them. + +Thirdly.--It was well understood that to avoid the unpleasant +appearance of paying "black mail," and to keep up general kindly +relations, my owner should from time to time make me small presents, +and that in return I should make him presents of five or six times the +value: all this to be done as if arising from mutual love and kindness, +and not the slightest allusion to be ever made to the relative value of +the gifts on either side. (An important article.) + +Fourthly.--It was to be a _sine qua non_ that I must purchase +everything the chief or his family had to sell, whether I wanted them +or not, and give the highest market price, or rather more. (Another +very important article.) + +Fifthly.--The chief's own particular pipe was never to be allowed to +become extinguished for want of the needful supply of tobacco. + +Sixthly.--All desirable jobs of work, and all advantages of all kinds, +to be offered first to the family of my _rangatira_, before letting any +one else have them; payment for same to be about 25 per cent. more than +to any one else, exclusive of a _douceur_ to the chief himself, because +he did not work. + +In return for these duties and customs, well and truly performed on my +part, the chief was understood to-- + +Firstly.--Stick up for me in a general way, and not let me be bullied +or imposed upon by any one but himself, so far as he was able to +prevent it. + +Secondly.--In case of me being plundered or maltreated by any powerful +marauder, it was the duty of my chief to come in hot haste, with all +his family, armed to the teeth, to my rescue--after all was over, and +when it was too late to be of any service. He was also bound on such +occasions to make a great noise, dance the war dance, and fire muskets +(I finding the powder), and to declare loudly what he would have done +had he only been in time. I, of course, on such occasions, for my own +dignity, and in consideration of the spirited conduct of my friends, +was bound to order two or three fat pigs to be killed, and lots of +potatoes to be served out to the "army;" who were always expected to be +starving, as a general rule. A distribution of tobacco, in the way of +largess, was also a necessity of the case. + +Thirdly.--In case of my losing anything of consequence by theft--a +thing which, as a veracious pakeha, I am bound to say, seldom happened: +the natives in those days being, as I have already mentioned, a very +law observing people (of the law of _muru_), had, indeed, little +occasion to steal; the above-named law answering their purposes in a +general way much better, and helping them pretty certainly to any +little matter they coveted: yet, as there are exceptions to all rules, +theft would sometimes be committed--and then, as I was saying, it +became the bounden duty of my _rangatira_ to get the stolen article +back, if he was able, and keep it for himself for his trouble, unless I +gave him something of more value in lieu thereof. + +Under the above regulations, things went on pleasantly enough: the +chief being restrained, by public opinion and the danger of the pakeha +running away, from pushing his prerogative to the utmost limit; and the +pakeha, on the other hand, making the commonalty pay for the indirect +taxation he was subjected to; so that in general, after ten or fifteen +years' residence, he would not be much poorer than when he arrived: +unless, indeed, some unlucky accident happened, such as pakehas were +liable to sometimes in the good old times. + +Mentioning "public opinion" as a restraint on the chiefs' +acquisitiveness, I must explain that a chief possessing a pakeha was +much envied by his neighbours, who, in consequence, took every +opportunity of scandalizing him, and blaming him for any rough plucking +process he might subject the said pakeha to; and should he, by any +awkward handling of this sort, cause the pakeha at last to run for it, +the chief would never hear the end of it from his own family and +connections: pakehas being, in those glorious old times, considered to +be geese who laid golden eggs, and it was held to be the very extreme +of foolishness and bad policy either to kill them, or, by too rough +handling, to cause them to fly away. + +On the other hand, should the pakeha fail in a culpable manner in the +performance of his duties--though he would not, as a rule, be subjected +to any stated punishment--he would soon begin to find a most +unaccountable train of accidents and all sorts of unpleasant +occurrences happening; enough, in the aggregate, to drive Job himself +out of his wits: and, moreover, he would _get a bad name_, which, +though he removed, would follow him from one end of the island to the +other, and effectually prevent him having the slightest chance of doing +any good,--that is, holding his own in the country; as the natives, +wherever he went, would consider him a person out of whom the most was +to be made at once, since he was not to be depended on as a source of +permanent revenue. I have known several industrious, active, and sober +pakehas who never could do any good, and whose lives, for a long series +of years, were a mere train of mishaps, till at last they were reduced +to extreme poverty; merely from having, in their first dealings with +the natives, got a bad name, in consequence of not having been able to +understand clearly the beauty of the set of regulations I have just +mentioned, and from an inability to make them work smoothly. The bad +name I have mentioned was short and expressive: wherever they went, +there would be sure to be some one who would introduce them to their +new acquaintances as "a pakeha _pakeke_,"--a hard pakeha; "a pakeha +_taehae_"--a miser; or, to sum up all, "a pakeha _kino_." + +The chief who claimed me was a good specimen of the Maori _rangatira_. +He was a very old man, and had fought the French when Marion, the +French circumnavigator, was killed. He had killed a Frenchman himself, +and carried his thighs and legs many miles as a _bonne bouche_ for his +friends at home at the pa. This old gentleman was not head of his +tribe; but he was a man of good family, related to several high chiefs. +He was head of a strong family, or _hapu_, which mustered a +considerable number of fighting men; all his near relations. He had +been himself a most celebrated fighting man, and a war chief; and was +altogether a highly respectable person, and of great weight in the +councils of the tribe. I may say I was fortunate in having been +appropriated by this old patrician. + +He gave me very little trouble; did not press his rights and privileges +too forcibly on my notice; and, in fact behaved in all respects towards +me in so liberal and friendly a manner, that before long I began to +have a very sincere regard for him, and he to take a sort of paternal +interest in me; this was both gratifying to observe, and also extremely +comical sometimes, when he, out of real anxiety to see me a perfectly +accomplished _rangatira_, would lecture on good manners, etiquette, and +the use of the spear. He was, indeed, a model of a _rangatira_, and +well worth being described. + +He was a little man, with a high massive head, and remarkably high +square forehead, on which the tattooer had exhausted his art. Though, +as I have said, of a great age, he was still nimble and active: he had +evidently been one of those tough active men, who though small in +stature, are a match for any one. There was in my old friend's eyes a +sort of dull fiery appearance, which, when anything excited him, or +when he recounted some of those numerous battles, onslaughts, +massacres, or stormings, in which all the active part of his life had +been spent, actually seemed to blaze up and give forth real fire. His +breast was covered with spear wounds, and he also had two very severe +spear wounds on his head; but he boasted that no single man had ever +been able to touch him with the point of a spear. It was in grand +_melees_, where he would have sometimes six or eight antagonists, that +he had received these wounds. He was a great general, and I have heard +him criticise closely the order and conduct of every battle of +consequence which had been fought for fifty years before my arrival in +the country. On these occasions the old "martialist" would draw on the +sand the plan of the battle he was criticising and describing; and, in +the course of time I began to perceive that, before the introduction of +the musket, the art of war had been brought to great perfection by the +natives: when large numbers were engaged in a pitched battle, the order +of battle resembled, in a most striking manner, some of the most +approved orders of battle of the ancients. Since the introduction of +fire-arms the natives have entirely altered their tactics, and adopted +a system better adapted to the new weapon and the nature of the +country. + +My old friend had a great hatred for the musket. He said that in +battles fought with the musket there were never so many men killed as +when, in his young days, men fought hand to hand with the spear: then a +good warrior would kill six, eight, ten, or even twenty men in a single +fight. For when once the enemy broke and commenced to run, the +combatants being so close together, a fast runner would knock a dozen +on the head in a short time; and the great aim of these fast-running +warriors, of whom my old friend had been one, was to chase straight on +and never stop, only striking one blow at one man, so as to cripple +him, in order that those behind should be sure to overtake and finish +him. It was not uncommon for one man, strong and swift of foot, when +the enemy were fairly routed, to stab with a light spear ten or a dozen +men, in such a way as to ensure their being overtaken and killed. On +one occasion of this kind my old tutor had the misfortune to stab a +running man in the back: he did it of course scientifically, so as to +stop his running; and as he passed him by he perceived it was his +wife's brother, who was finished immediately by the men close behind. I +should have said that the man was a brother of one of my friend's four +wives; which being the case, I dare say he had a sufficient number of +brothers-in-law to afford to kill one now and then. + +A worse mishap, however, occurred to him on another occasion. He was +returning from a successful expedition from the south (in the course of +which, by-the-by, he and his men killed and cooked in Shortland-crescent, +several men of the enemy, and forced three others to jump over a cliff +which is, I think, now called Soldier's-point), when off the Mahurangi +a smoke was seen rising from amongst the trees near the beach. They at +once concluded that it came from the fires of people belonging to that +part of the country, and who they considered as game; they therefore +waited till night, concealing their canoes behind some rocks, and when +it became dark, landed; they then divided into two parties, took the +supposed enemy completely by surprise, and attacked, rushing upon them +from two opposite directions at once. My _rangatira_, dashing furiously +among them, and--as I can well suppose--those eyes of his flashing +fire, had the happiness of once again killing the first man, and being +authorized to shout "_Ki au te mataika!_" A few more blows, and the +parties recognize each other: they are friends!--men of the same tribe! +Who is the last _mataika_ slain by this famous warrior? Quick, bring a +flaming brand--here he lies dead! Ha! It is his father! + +Now an ancient knight of romance, under similar awkward circumstances, +would probably have retired from public life, sought out some forest +cave, where he would have hung up his armour, let his beard grow, +flogged himself twice a day "regular," and lived on "pulse"--which I +suppose means pea-soup--for the rest of his life. But my old +_rangatira_ and his companions had not a morsel of that sort of romance +about them. The killing of my friend's father was looked upon as a very +clever exploit in itself; though a very unlucky one. So after having +scolded one another for some time--one party telling the other they +were served right for not keeping a better look out, and the other +answering that they should have been sure who they were going to attack +before making the onset--they all held a _tangi_ or lamentation for the +old warrior who had just received his _mittimus_; and then killing a +prisoner, whom they had brought in the canoes for fresh provisions, +they had a good feast; after which they returned all together to their +own country, taking the body of their lamented relative along with +them. This happened many years before I came to the country, and when +my _rangatira_ was one of the most famous fighting-men in his tribe. + +This Maori _rangatira_ I am describing had passed his whole life, with +but little intermission, in scenes of battle, murder, and bloodthirsty +atrocities of the most terrific description; mixed with actions of the +most heroic courage, self-sacrifice, and chivalric daring, as leaves +one perfectly astounded to find them the deeds of one and the same +people: one day doing acts which, had they been performed in ancient +Greece, would have immortalized the actors, and the next committing +barbarities too horrible for relation, and almost incredible. + +The effect of a life of this kind was observable plainly enough, in my +friend. He was utterly devoid of what weak mortals call "compassion." +He seemed to have no more feeling for the pain, tortures, or death of +others than a stone. Should one of his family be dying or wounded, he +merely felt it as the loss of one fighting man. As for the death of a +woman, or any non-combatant, he did not feel it at all; though the +person might have suffered horrid tortures: indeed I have seen him +scolding severely a fine young man, his near relative, when actually +expiring, for being such a fool as to blow himself up by accident, and +deprive his family of a fighting man. The last words the dying man +heard were these:--"It serves you right. There you are, looking very +like a burnt stick! It serves you right--a burnt stick! Serves you +right!" It really _was_ vexatious. A fine stout young fellow to be +wasted in that way. + +As for fear, I saw one or two instances to prove he knew very little +about it: indeed, to be killed in battle seemed to him a natural death. +He was always grumbling that the young men thought of nothing but +trading; and whenever he proposed to them to take him where he might +have a final battle (_he riri wakamutunga_), where he might escape +dying of old age, they always kept saying, "Wait till we get more +muskets," or "more gunpowder," or more something or another: "as if men +could not be killed without muskets!" He was not cruel either; he was +only unfeeling. He had been guilty, it is true, in his time, of what we +should call terrific atrocities to his prisoners; which he calmly and +calculatingly perpetrated as _utu_, or retaliation for similar +barbarities committed by them or their tribe. + +And here I must retract the word guilty, which I see I have written +inadvertently; for--according to the morals and principles of the +people of whom he was one, and of the time to which he belonged, and +the training he had received--so far from being guilty, he did a +praiseworthy, glorious, and public-spirited action when he opened the +jugular vein of a bound captive and sucked huge draughts of his blood. + +To say the truth, he was a very nice old man, and I liked him very +much. It would not, however, be advisable to put him in a passion; not +much good would be likely to arise from it: as, indeed, I could show by +one or two very striking instances which came under my notice; though, +to say the truth, he was not easily put out of temper. He had one great +moral rule,--it was, indeed, his rule of life: he held that every man +had a right to do everything and anything he chose, provided he was +able and willing to stand the consequences; though he thought some men +fools for trying to do things which they could not carry out +pleasantly, and which ended in getting them baked. + +I once hinted to him that, should every one reduce these principles to +practice, he himself might find it awkward; particularly as he had so +many mortal enemies. To which he replied, with a look which seemed to +pity my ignorance, that every one _did_ practise this rule to the best +of their abilities, but that some were not so able as others; and that +as for his enemies, he should take care they never surprised _him_: a +surprise being, indeed, the only thing he seemed to have any fear at +all of. In truth, he had occasion to look out sharp. He never was known +to sleep more than three or four nights in the same place, and often, +when there were ill omens, he would not sleep in a house at all, or two +nights following in one place, for a month together. I never saw him +without both spear and tomahawk, and ready to defend himself at a +second's notice: a state of preparation perfectly necessary, for though +in his own country and surrounded by his tribe, his death would have +been such a triumph for hundreds, not of distant enemies, but of people +within a day's journey, that none could tell at what moment some stout +young fellow in search of _utu_ and a "_ingoa toa_" (a warlike +reputation) might rush upon him, determined to have his head or leave +his own. + +The old buck himself had, indeed, performed several exploits of this +nature; the last of which occurred just at the time I came into the +country, but before I had the advantage of his acquaintance. His tribe +were at war with some people at the distance of about a day's journey. +One of their villages was on the border of a dense forest. My +_rangatira_, then a very old man, started off alone, and without saying +a word to any one, took his way through the forest, which extended the +whole way between his village and the enemy, crept like a lizard into +the enemy's village, and then, shouting his war cry, dashed amongst a +number of people he saw sitting together on the ground, and who little +expected such a salute. In a minute he had run three men and one woman +through the body, received five dangerous spear-wounds himself, and +escaped to the forest; and finally he got safe home to his own country +and people. Truly my old _rangatira_ was a man of a thousand,--a model +_rangatira_. This exploit, if possible, added to his reputation, and +every one said his _mana_ would never decline. The enemy had been panic +stricken, thinking a whole tribe were upon them, and fled like a flock +of sheep: except the three men who were killed. They all attacked my +old chief at once, and were all disposed of in less than a minute, +after, as I have said, giving him five desperate wounds. The woman was +just "stuck," as a matter of course, as she came in his way. + +The natives are unanimous in affirming that they were much more +numerous in former times than they are now, and I am convinced that +such was the case, for the following reasons. The old hill forts are +many of them so large that an amount of labour must have been expended +in trenching, terracing, and fencing them--and all without iron tools, +which increased the difficulty a hundred-fold--that must have required +a vastly greater population to accomplish than can be now found in the +surrounding districts. These forts were also of such an extent that, +taking into consideration the system of attack and defence used +necessarily in those times, they would have been utterly untenable +unless held by at least ten times the number of men the whole +surrounding districts, for two or three days' journey, can produce. And +yet, when we remember that in those times of constant war--being the +two centuries preceding the arrival of the Europeans--the natives +always, as a rule, slept in these hill forts with closed gates, bridges +over trenches removed, and ladders of terraces drawn up, we must come +to the conclusion that the inhabitants of the fort, though so numerous, +were merely the population of the country in the close vicinity. + +Now from the top of one of these pointed, trenched, and terraced hills, +I have counted twenty others, all of equally large dimensions, and all +within a distance, in every direction, of fifteen to twenty miles; and +native tradition affirms that each of these hills was the stronghold of +a separate _hapu_ or clan, bearing its distinctive name. There is also +the most unmistakable evidence that vast tracts of country, which have +lain wild time out of mind, were once fully cultivated. The ditches for +draining the land are still traceable, and large pits are to be seen in +hundreds, on the tops of the dry hills, all over the northern part of +the North Island, in which the _kumera_ were once stored; and these +pits are, in the greatest number, found in the centre of great open +tracts of uncultivated country, where a rat in the present day would +hardly find subsistence. The old drains, and the peculiar growth of the +timber, mark clearly the extent of these ancient cultivations. It is +also very observable that large tracts of very inferior land have been +in cultivation; which would lead to the inference that either the +population was pretty nearly proportioned to the extent of available +land, or that the tracts of inferior land were cultivated merely +because they were not too far removed from the fort: for the shape of +the hill, and its capability of defence and facility of fortification, +was of more consequence than the fertility of the surrounding country. + +These _kumera_ pits, being dug generally in the stiff clay on the hill +tops, have, in most cases, retained their shape perfectly; and many +seem as fresh and new as if they had been dug but a few years. They are +oblong in shape, with the sides regularly sloped. Many collections of +these provision stores have outlived Maori tradition, and the natives +can only conjecture to whom they belonged. Out of the centre of one of +them which I have seen, there is now growing a kauri tree one hundred +and twenty feet high, and out of another a large totara. The outline of +these pits is as perfect as the day they were dug, and the sides have +not fallen in in the slightest degree; from which perhaps they have +been preserved by the absence of frost, as well as by a beautiful +coating of moss, by which they are everywhere covered. The pit in which +the kauri grew, had been partially filled up by the scaling off of the +bark of the tree; which, falling off in patches, as it is constantly +doing, had raised a mound of decaying bark round the root of the tree. + +Another evidence of a very large number of people having once inhabited +these hill forts is the number of houses they contained. Every native +house, it appears, in former times, as in the present, had a fire-place +composed of four flat stones or flags sunk on their edges into the +ground, so as to form an oblong case or trunk, in which at night a fire +to heat the house was made. Now, in two of the largest hill forts I +have examined (though for ages no vestige of a house had been seen) +there remained the fire-places--the four stones projecting like an +oblong box slightly over the ground; and their position and number +denoted clearly that, large as the circumference of the huge volcanic +hill was which formed the fortress, the number of families inhabiting +it necessitated the strictest economy of room. The houses had been +arranged in streets, or double rows, with a path between them; except +in places where there had been only room on a terrace for a single row. +The distances between the fire-places proved that the houses in the +rows must have been as close together as it was possible to build them; +and every spot, from the foot to the hill-top, not required and +specially planned for defensive purposes, had been built on in this +regular manner. Even the small flat top, sixty yards long by forty +wide,--the citadel,--on which the greatest care and labour had been +bestowed to render it difficult of access, had been as full of houses +as it could hold; leaving only a small space all round the precipitous +bank for the defenders to stand on. + +These little fire-places, and the scarped and terraced conical hills, +are the only mark the Maori of ancient times have left of their +existence. And I have reasons for believing that this country has been +inhabited from a more remote period by far than is generally supposed. +These reasons I found upon the dialect of the Maori language spoken by +the Maori of New Zealand, as well as on many other circumstances. + +We may easily imagine that a hill of this kind, covered from bottom to +top with houses thatched and built of reeds, rushes, and raupo, would +be a mere mass of combustible matter; and such indeed was the case. +When an enemy attacked one of these places, a common practice was to +shower into the place, from slings, red-hot stones, which, sinking into +the dry thatch of the houses, would cause a general conflagration. +Should this once occur the place was sure to be taken. This mode of +attack was consequently much feared; all hands not engaged at the outer +defences, and all women and non-combatants, being employed guarding +against this danger, by pouring water out of calabashes on every smoke +that appeared. The natives also practised both mining and escalade in +attacking a hill fort. + +The natives attribute their decrease in numbers, before the arrival of +the Europeans, to war and sickness; disease possibly arising from the +destruction of food and the forced neglect of cultivation caused by the +constant and furious wars which devastated the country for a long +period before the arrival of the Europeans: and to such an extent that +the natives at last believed a constant state of warfare to be the +natural condition of life, and their sentiments, feelings, and maxims +became gradually formed on this belief. Nothing was so valuable or +respectable as strength and courage, and to acquire property by war and +plunder was more honourable and also more desirable than by labour. +Cannibalism was glorious. In a word, the island was a pandemonium. + + A rugged wight, the worst of brutes, was man; + On his own wretched kind he ruthless prey'd. + The strongest then the weakest overran, + In every country mighty robbers sway'd, + And guile and ruffian force was all their trade. + +Since the arrival of the Europeans the decrease of the natives has also +been rapid. In that part of the country where I have had means of +accurate observation, they have decreased in number since my arrival +rather more than one-third. I have, however, observed that this +decrease has for the last ten years been very considerably checked; +though I do not believe this improvement is general through the +country, or even permanent where I have observed it. + +The first grand cause of the decrease of the natives since the arrival +of the Europeans is the musket. The nature of the ancient Maori weapons +prompted them to seek out vantage ground, and to take up positions on +precipitous hill-tops, and make those high, dry, airy situations their +regular fixed residences. Their ordinary course of life, when not +engaged in warfare, was regular, and not necessarily unhealthy; their +labour, though constant in one shape or other, and compelled by +necessity, was not too heavy. In the morning, but not early, they +descended from the hill pa to the cultivations in the low ground; they +went in a body, armed like men going to battle, the spear or club in +one hand, and the agricultural instrument in the other. The women +followed. Long before night (it was counted unlucky to work till dark) +they returned to the hill in a reversed order; the women, slaves, and +lads, bearing fuel and water for the night, in front: these also bore +probably heavy loads of _kumera_ or other provisions. In the time of +year when the crops, being planted and growing, did not call for their +attention, the whole tribe would remove to some fortified hill, at the +side of some river, or on the coast, where they would pass months in +fishing and making nets, clubs, spears, and implements of various +descriptions; the women, in all spare time, making mats for clothing, +or baskets to carry the crop of _kumera_ in, when fit to dig. There was +very little idleness; and to be called "lazy" was a great reproach. It +is to be observed that for several months the crops could be left thus +unguarded with perfect safety, for the Maori, as a general rule, never +destroyed growing crops, or attacked their owners in a regular manner +until the crops were nearly at full perfection, so that they might +afford subsistence to the invaders; and consequently the end of the +summer all over the country was a time of universal preparation for +battle, either offensive or defensive, the crops then being near +maturity. + +Now when the natives became generally armed with the musket they at +once abandoned the hills, and, to save themselves the great labour and +inconvenience occasioned by the necessity of continually carrying +provisions, fuel, and water to these precipitous hill-castles--which +would be also, as a matter of necessity, at some inconvenient distance +from at least some part of the extensive cultivations--descended to the +low lands, and there, in the centre of the cultivations, erected a new +kind of fortification adapted to the capabilities of the new weapon. +_This_ was their destruction. For they built their oven-like houses in +mere swamps, where the water, even in summer, sprang with the pressure +of the foot, and where in winter the houses were often completely +flooded. There, lying on the spongy soil, on beds of rushes which +rotted under them--in little low dens of houses, or kennels, heated +like ovens at night and dripping with damp in the day--full of noxious +exhalations from the damp soil, and impossible to ventilate--they were +cut off by disease in a manner absolutely frightful. No advice would +they take: they could not _see_ the enemy which killed them, and +therefore could not believe the Europeans who pointed out the cause of +their destruction. + +This change of residence was universal, and everywhere followed by the +same consequences, more or less marked: the strongest men were cut off +and but few children were reared. And even now, after the dreadful +experience they have had, and all the continual remonstrances of their +pakeha friends, they take but very little more precaution in choosing +sites for their houses than at first; and when a native village or a +native house happens to be in a dry healthy situation, it is often more +the effect of accident than design. + +Twenty years ago a _hapu_, in number just forty persons, removed their +_kainga_ from a dry healthy position to the edge of a _raupo_ swamp. I +happened to be at the place a short time after the removal, and with me +there was a medical gentleman who was travelling through the country. +In creeping into one of the houses (the chief's) through the low door, +I was obliged to put both my hands to the ground; they both sank into +the swampy soil, making holes which immediately filled with water. The +chief and his family were lying on the ground on rushes, and a fire was +burning, which made the little den, not in the highest place more than +five feet high, feel like an oven. I called the attention of my friend +to the state of this place called a "house." He merely said, "_men_ +cannot live here." Eight years from that day the whole _hapu_ were +extinct; but, as I remember, two persons were shot for bewitching them +and causing their deaths. + +Many other causes combined at the same time to work the destruction of +the natives. Besides the change of residence from the high and healthy +hill forts to the low grounds, there were the hardship, over-labour, +exposure, and half-starvation, to which they submitted themselves--firstly, +to procure these very muskets which enabled them to make the fatal +change of residence and afterwards to procure the highly and justly +valued iron implements of the Europeans. When we reflect that a ton of +cleaned flax was the price paid for two muskets, and at an earlier date +for one musket, we can see at once the amount of exertion necessary to +obtain it. But supposing a man to get a musket for half a ton of flax, +another half-ton would be required for ammunition; and in consequence, +as every man in a native _hapu_ of, say a hundred men, was absolutely +forced on pain of death to procure a musket and ammunition at any cost, +and at the earliest possible moment (for, if they did not procure them, +extermination was their doom by the hands of those of their country-men +who had), the effect was that this small _hapu_, or clan, had to +manufacture, spurred by the penalty of death, in the shortest possible +time, one hundred tons of flax, scraped by hand with a shell, bit by +bit, morsel by morsel, half-a-quarter of an ounce at a time. + +Now as the natives, when undisturbed and labouring regularly at their +cultivations, were never far removed from necessity or scarcity of +food, we may easily imagine the distress and hardship caused by this +enormous imposition of extra labour. They were obliged to neglect their +crops in a very serious degree, and for many months in the year were in +a half-starving condition; working hard all the time in the flax +swamps. The insufficient food, over-exertion, and unwholesome locality, +killed them fast. As for the young children, they almost all died; and +this state of things continued for many years: for it was long after +being supplied with arms and ammunition before the natives could +purchase, by similar exertion, the various agricultural implements, and +other iron tools so necessary to them; and it must always be +remembered, if we wish to understand the difficulties and over-labour +the natives were subjected to, that while undergoing this immense extra +toil, they were at the same time obliged to maintain themselves by +cultivating the ground with sharpened sticks, not being able to afford +to purchase iron implements in any useful quantity, till first the +great, pressing, paramount want of muskets and gunpowder had been +supplied. Thus continual excitement, over-work, and insufficient food, +exposure, and unhealthy places of residence, together with a general +breaking up of old habits of life, thinned their numbers: European +diseases also assisted, but not to any very serious extent. + +In the part of the country in which I have had means of observing with +exactitude, the natives have decreased in numbers over one-third since +I first saw them. That this rapid decrease has been checked in some +districts, I am sure, and the cause is not a mystery. The influx of +Europeans has caused a competition in trading, which enables them to +get the highest value for the produce of their labour, and at the same +time has opened to them a hundred new lines of industry, and afforded +them other opportunities of becoming possessed of property. They have +not at all improved these advantages as they might have done; but are, +nevertheless, as it were in spite of themselves, on the whole, +richer--_i.e._, better clothed, fed, and in some degree lodged, than in +past years; and I see the plough now running where I once saw the rude +pointed stick poking the ground. I do not, however, believe that this +improvement exists in more than one or two districts in any remarkable +degree, nor do I think it will be permanent where it does exist; +insomuch as I have said that the improvement is not the result of +providence, economy, or industry, but of a train of temporary +circumstances favourable to the natives: and which, if unimproved, as +they most probably will be, will end in no permanent good result. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Trading in the Old Times.--The Native Difficulty.--Virtue its own + Reward.--Rule, Britannia.--Death of my Chief.--His Dying Speech. + --Rescue.--How the World goes round. + + +From the years 1822 to 1826, the vessels trading for flax had, when at +anchor, boarding nettings up to the tops; all the crew were armed, and, +as a standing rule, not more than five natives, on any pretence, +allowed on board at one time. Trading for flax in those days was to be +undertaken by a man who had his wits about him; and an old flax trader +of those days, with his 150 ton schooner "out of Sydney," cruising all +round the coast of New Zealand, picking up his five tons at one port, +ten at another, twenty at another, and so on, had questions, commercial, +diplomatic, and military, to solve every day, that would drive all +the "native department," with the minister at their head, clean out of +their senses. + +Talk to me of the "native difficulty"--pooh! I think it was in 1822 +that an old friend of mine bought, at Kawhia, a woman who was just +going to be baked. He gave a cartridge-box full of cartridges for her; +which was a great deal more than she was really worth: but humanity +does not stick at trifles. He took her back to her friends at Taranaki, +whence she had been taken, and her friends there gave him at once two +tons of flax and eighteen pigs, and asked him to remain a few days +longer till they should collect a still larger present in return for +his kindness; but, as he found out their intention was to take the +schooner, and knock himself and crew on the head, he made off in the +night. Yet he maintains, to this day, that "virtue is its own reward:" +"at least 'tis so at Taranaki." Virtue, however, must have been on a +visit to some other country (she _does_ go out sometimes), when I saw +and heard a British subject, a slave to some natives on the West Coast, +begging hard for somebody to buy him. The price asked was one musket; +but the only person on board the vessel possessing those articles, +preferred to invest in a different commodity. The consequence was, that +the above-mentioned unit of the great British nation lived, and ("Rule, +Britannia" to the contrary notwithstanding) died a slave: but whether +he was buried, deponent sayeth not. + +My old _rangatira_ at last began to show signs that his time to leave +this world of care was approaching. He had arrived at a great age, and +a rapid and general breaking up of his strength became plainly +observable. He often grumbled that men should grow old, and oftener +that no great war broke out in which he might make a final display, and +die with _eclat_. The last two years of his life were spent almost +entirely at my house; which, however, he never entered. He would sit +whole days on a fallen puriri near the house, with his spear sticking +up beside him, and speaking to no one, but sometimes humming in a low +droning tone some old ditty which no one knew the meaning of but +himself, and at night he would disappear to some of the numerous nests, +or little sheds, he had around the place. In summer, he would roll +himself in his blanket and sleep anywhere; but no one could tell +exactly where. + +In the hot days of summer, when his blood, I suppose, got a little +warm, he would sometimes become talkative, and recount the exploits of +his youth. As he warmed to the subject, he would seize his spear and go +through all the incidents of some famous combat, repeating every +thrust, blow, and parry, as they actually occurred, and going through +as much exertion as if he was really and truly fighting for his life. +He used to go through these pantomimic labours as a duty whenever he +had an assemblage of the young men of the tribe around him; to whom, as +well as to myself, he was most anxious to communicate that which he +considered the most valuable of all knowledge, a correct idea of the +uses of the spear, a weapon he really used in a most graceful and +scientific manner; but he would ignore the fact that "Young New +Zealand" had laid down the weapon for ever, and already matured a new +system of warfare adapted to their new weapons, and only listened to +his lectures out of respect to himself, and not for his science. + +At last this old lion was taken seriously ill, and removed permanently +to the village; and one evening a smart, handsome lad, of about twelve +years of age, came to tell me that his _tupuna_ was dying, and had said +he would "go" to-morrow, and had sent for me to see him before he died. +The boy also added that the tribe were _ka poto_, or assembled, to the +last man, around the dying chief. I must here mention that, though this +old _rangatira_ was not the head of his tribe, he had been for about +half a century the recognized war chief of almost all the sections, or +_hapu_, of a very numerous and warlike _iwi_, or tribe, who had now +assembled from all their distant villages and pas to see him die. I +could not, of course, neglect the invitation, so at daylight next +morning I started on foot for the native village. On my arrival about +mid-day, I found it crowded by a great assemblage of natives. I was +saluted by the usual _haere mai!_ and a volley of musketry. I at once +perceived that, out of respect to my old owner, the whole tribe from +far and near, hundreds of whom I had never seen, considered it +necessary to make much of me,--at least for that day,--and I found +myself consequently at once in the position of a "personage." "Here +comes the pakeha!--_his_ pakeha!--make way for the pakeha!--kill those +dogs that are barking at the pakeha!" Bang! bang! Here a double barrel +nearly blew my cap off, by way of salute: I did for a moment think my +head was off. However, being quite _au fait_ in Maori etiquette by this +time, thanks to the instructions and example of my old friend, I fixed +my eyes with a vacant expression, looking only straight before me, +recognized nobody, and took notice of nothing; not even the muskets +fired under my nose or close to my back at every step, and each, from +having four or five charges of powder, making a report like a cannon. +On I stalked, looking neither to the right or the left, with my spear +walking-staff in my hand, to where I saw a great crowd, and where I of +course knew the dying man was. I walked straight on, not even +pretending to see the crowd: as was "correct" under the circumstances; +I being supposed to be entranced by the one absorbing thought of seeing +"mataora," or once more in life my _rangatira_. + +The crowd divided as I came up, and closed again behind me as I stood +in the front rank before the old chief, motionless; and, as in duty +bound, trying to look the image of mute despair: which I flatter myself +I did, to the satisfaction of all parties. The old man I saw at once +was at his last hour. He had dwindled to a mere skeleton. No food of +any kind had been prepared for or offered to him for three days: as he +was dying it was of course considered unnecessary. At his right side +lay his spear, tomahawk, and musket. (I never saw him with the musket +in his hand all the time I knew him.) Over him was hanging his +greenstone _mere_, and at his left side, close, and touching him, sat a +stout, athletic savage, with a countenance disgustingly expressive of +cunning and ferocity; and who, as he stealthily marked me from the +corner of his eye, I recognized as one of those limbs of Satan, a Maori +_tohunga_. The old man was propped up in a reclining position, his face +towards the assembled tribe, who were all there waiting to catch his +last words. I stood before him and I thought I perceived he recognized +me. Still all was silence, and for a full half hour we all stood there, +waiting patiently for the closing scene. Once or twice the _tohunga_ +said to him in a very loud voice, "The tribe are assembled, you won't +die silent?" + +At last, after about half an hour, he became restless, his eyes rolled +from side to side, and he tried to speak; but failed. The circle of men +closed nearer, and there was evidence of anxiety and expectation +amongst them; but a dead silence was maintained. Then suddenly, without +any apparent effort, and in a manner which startled me, the old man +spoke clearly out, in the ringing metallic tone of voice for which he +had been formerly so remarkable, particularly when excited. He spoke. +"Hide my bones quickly where the enemy may not find them: hide them at +once." He spoke again--"Oh my tribe, be brave! be brave that you may +live. Listen to the words of my pakeha; he will unfold the designs of +his tribe." This was in allusion to a very general belief amongst the +natives at the time, that the Europeans designed sooner or later to +exterminate them and take the country; a thing the old fellow had +cross-questioned me about a thousand times: and the only way I could +find to ease his mind was to tell him that if ever I heard any such +proposal I would let him know, protesting at the same time that no such +intention existed. This notion of the natives has since that time done +much harm, and will do more, for it is not yet quite given up. + +He continued--"I give my _mere_ to my pakeha,"--"my two old wives will +hang themselves,"--(here a howl of assent from the two old women in the +rear rank)--"I am going; be brave after I am gone." Here he began to +rave; he fancied himself in some desperate battle, for he began to call +to celebrated comrades who had been dead forty or fifty years. I +remember every word--"Charge!" shouted he--"Charge! _Wata_, charge! +_Tara_, charge! charge!" Then after a short pause--"Rescue! rescue! to +my rescue! _ahau! ahau! rescue!_" The last cry for "rescue" was in such +a piercing tone of anguish and utter desperation, that involuntarily I +advanced a foot and hand, as if starting to his assistance; a movement, +as I found afterwards, not unnoticed by the superstitious tribe. At the +same instant that he gave the last despairing and most agonizing cry +for "rescue," I saw his eyes actually blaze, his square jaw locked, he +set his teeth, and rose nearly to a sitting position, and then fell +back dying. He only murmured--"How sweet is man's flesh," and then the +gasping breath and upturned eye announced the last moment. + +The _tohunga_ now, bending close to the dying man's ear, roared out, +"_Kia kotahi ki te ao! Kia kotahi ki te ao! Kia kotahi ki te po!_" The +poor savage was now, as I believe, past hearing, and gasping his last +"_Kia kotahi ki te ao!_"--shouted the devil priest again in his ear, +and shaking his shoulder roughly with his hand--"_Kia kotahi ki te +ao!--Kia kotahi ki te po!_" Then giving a significant look to the +surrounding hundreds of natives, a roar of musketry burst forth. _Kia +kotahi ki te ao!_ Thus in a din like pandemonium, guns firing, women +screaming, and the accursed _tohunga_ shouting in his ear, died "Lizard +Skin," as good a fighting man as ever worshipped force or trusted in +the spear. His death on the whole was thought happy; for his last words +were full of good omen:--"How sweet is man's flesh." + +Next morning the body had disappeared. This was contrary to ordinary +custom, but in accordance with the request of the old warrior. No one, +even of his own tribe, knows where his body is concealed, but the two +men who carried it off in the night. All I know is that it lies in a +cave, with the spear and tomahawk beside it. + +The two old wives were hanging by the neck from a scaffold at a short +distance, which had been made to place potatoes on out of the reach of +rats. The shrivelled old creatures were quite dead. I was for a moment +forgetful of the "correct" thing, and called to an old chief, who was +near, to cut them down. He said, in answer to my hurried call, +"By-and-by; it is too soon yet: _they might recover_." "Oh," said I, at +once recalled to my sense of propriety, "I thought they had been +hanging all night," and thus escaped the great risk of being thought a +mere meddling pakeha. I now perceived the old chief was employed making +a stretcher, or _kauhoa_, to carry the bodies on. At a short distance +also were five old creatures of women sitting in a row, crying, with +their eyes fixed on the hanging objects, and everything was evidently +going on _selon les regles_. I walked on. "_E tika ana_," said I, to +myself. "It's all right, I dare say." + +The two young wives had also made a desperate attempt in the night to +hang themselves, but had been prevented by two young men, who, by some +unaccountable accident, had come upon them just as they were stringing +themselves up; and who, seeing that they were not actually "ordered for +execution," by great exertion, and with the assistance of several +female relations, whom they called to their assistance, prevented them +from killing themselves out of respect for their old lord. Perhaps it +was to revenge themselves for this meddling interference that these two +young women married the two young men before the year was out; in +consequence of which, and as a matter of course, the husbands were +robbed by the tribe of everything they had in the world (which was not +much), except their arms. They also had to fight some half-dozen duels +each with spears; in which, however, no one was killed, and no more +blood drawn than could be well spared. All this they went through with +commendable resignation; and so, due respect having been paid to the +memory of the old chief, and the appropriators of his widows duly +punished according to law, farther proceedings were stayed, and +everything went on comfortably. And so the world goes round. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Mana.--Young New Zealand.--The Law of England.--"Pop goes the + Weasel."--Right if we have Might.--God save the Queen.--Good + Advice. + + +In the afternoon I went home musing on what I had heard and seen. +"Surely," thought I, "if one half of the world does not know how the +other half live, neither do they know how they die." + +Some days after this a deputation arrived to deliver up my old friend's +_mere_. It was a weapon of great _mana_, and was delivered with some +little ceremony. I perceive now that I have written this word _mana_ +several times, and think I may as well explain what it means. This is +the more necessary, as the word has been bandied about a good deal of +late years, and meanings have been often attached to it by Europeans +which are incorrect, but which the natives sometimes accept because it +suits their purpose. This same word _mana_ has several different +meanings; the difference between these diverse meanings is sometimes +very great, and sometimes only a mere shade of meaning, though one very +necessary to observe; and it is, therefore, quite impossible to find +any one single word in English, or in any other language that I have +any acquaintance with, which will give the full and precise meaning of +_mana_. Moreover, though I myself do know all the meanings and +different shades of meaning, properly belonging to the word, I find a +great difficulty in explaining them; but as I have begun, the thing +must be done. It will also be a tough word disposed of to my hand, when +I come to write my Maori dictionary, in a hundred volumes; which, if I +begin soon, I hope to have finished before the Maori is a dead +language. + +Now then for _mana_. _Virtus_, _prestige_, authority, good fortune, +influence, sanctity, luck, are all words which, under certain +conditions, give something near the meaning of _mana_, though not one +of them gives it exactly: but before I have done, the reader shall have +a reasonable notion (for a pakeha) of what it is. + +_Mana_ sometimes means a more than natural virtue or power attaching to +some person or thing, different from and independent of the ordinary +natural conditions of either, and capable of either increase or +diminution, both from known and unknown causes. The _mana_ of a priest +or _tohunga_ is proved by the truth of his predictions, as well as the +success of his incantations; _which same incantations, performed by +another person of inferior mana, would have no effect_. Consequently, +this description of _mana_ is a virtue, or more than natural or +ordinary condition attaching to the priest himself; and which he may +become possessed of and also lose without any volition of his own. When + + Apollo from his shrine, + No longer could divine, + The hollow steep of Delphos sadly leaving,-- + +_then_ the oracle had lost its _mana_. + +Then there is the doctors' _mana_. The Maori doctors in the old times +did not deal much in "simples," but they administered large doses of +_mana_. Now when most of a doctor's patients recovered, his _mana_ was +supposed to be in full feather; but if, as will happen sometimes to the +best practitioners, a number of patients should slip through his +fingers _seriatim_, then his _mana_ was suspected to be getting weak, +and he would not be liable to be "knocked up" so frequently as +formerly. + +_Mana_ in another sense is the accompaniment of power, but not the +power itself: nor is it even in this sense exactly "authority," +according to the strict meaning of that word, though it comes very near +it. This is the chiefs _mana_. Let him lose the power, and the _mana_ +is gone. But mind you do not translate _mana_ as power; that won't do: +they are two different things entirely. Of this nature also is the +_mana_ of a tribe; but this is not considered to be the supernatural +kind of _mana_. + +Then comes the _mana_ of a warrior. Uninterrupted success in war proves +it. It has a _slight_ touch of the supernatural, but not much. Good +fortune comes near the meaning, but is just a little too weak. The +warrior's _mana_ is just a little something more than bare good +fortune; a severe defeat would shake it terribly; two or three in +succession would show that it was gone: but before leaving him, some +supernaturally ominous occurrence might be expected to take place, such +as are said to have happened before the deaths of Julius Caesar, Marcus +Antonius, or Brutus. Let not any one smile at my comparing, even in the +most distant way, the old Maori warriors with these illustrious Romans; +for if they do, I shall answer that some of the old Maori _Toa_ were +thought as much of in _their_ world, as any Greek or Roman of old was +in his: and, moreover, it is my private opinion, that if the best of +them could only have met my friend "Lizard Skin," in his best days, and +would have taken off his armour and fought fair, that the aforesaid +"Lizard Skin" would have tickled him to his heart's content with the +point of his spear. + +A fortress often assailed but never taken has a _mana_, and one of a +high description too. The name of the fortress becomes a _pepeha_, a +war boast or motto, and a war cry of encouragement or defiance; like +the _slogan_ of the ancient Highlanders in Scotland. + +A spear, a club, or a _mere_, may have a _mana_; which in most cases +means that it is a lucky weapon which good fortune attends, if the +bearer minds what he is about: but some weapons of the old times had a +stronger _mana_ than this, like the _mana_ of the enchanted weapons we +read of in old romances or fairy tales. Let any one who likes give an +English word for this kind of _mana_. I have done with it. + +I had once a tame pig, which, before heavy rain, would always cut +extraordinary capers and squeak like mad. Every pakeha said he was +"weather-wise;" but all the Maori said it was a "_poaka whai mana_," a +pig possessed of _mana_; _for it had more than natural powers_, and +could foretell rain. + +If ever this talk about the good old times be printed and published, +and every one should buy it, and read it, and quote it, and believe +every word in it--as they ought, seeing that every word is true--then +it will be a _puka puka whai mana_, a book of _mana_; and I shall have +a high opinion of the good sense and good taste of the New Zealand +public. + +When the law of England is the law of New Zealand, and the Queen's writ +will run, then both the Queen and the law will have great _mana_: but I +don't think either will ever happen, and so neither will have any +_mana_ of consequence. + +If the reader has not some faint notion of _mana_ by this time, I can't +help it: I can't do any better for him. I must confess I have not +pleased myself. Any European language can be translated easily enough +into any other; but to translate Maori into English is much harder to +do than is supposed by those who do it every day with ease; but who do +not know their own language, or any other but Maori, perfectly. + +I am always blowing up "Young New Zealand," and calling them "reading, +riting, rethmatiking" vagabonds, who will never equal their fathers; +but I mean it all for their good--(poor things!)--like a father +scolding his children. But one _does_ get vexed sometimes. Their +grandfathers, if they had "no backs," had at least good legs; but the +grandsons can't walk a day's journey to save their lives: _they_ must +_ride_. The other day I saw a young Maori chap on a good horse; he wore +a black hat and polished Wellingtons, his hat was cocked knowingly to +one side, and he was jogging along with one hand jingling the money in +his pocket; and may I never see another war dance, if the hardened +villain was not whistling "Pop goes the weasel!" What will all this end +in? + +My only hope is in a handy way (to give them their due) which they have +with a _tupara_; and this is why I don't think the law will have much +_mana_ here in my time: I mean the _pakeha_ law; for, to say the worst +of them, they are not yet so far demoralized as to stand any nonsense +of that kind; which is a comfort to think of. I am a loyal subject to +Queen Victoria, but I am also a member of a Maori tribe; and I hope I +may never see this country so enslaved and tamed that a single rascally +policeman, with nothing but a bit of paper in his hand, can come and +take a _rangatira_ away from the middle of his _hapu_, and have him +hanged for something of no consequence at all, except that it is +against the law. What would old "Lizard Skin" say to it? His grandson +certainly is now a magistrate, and if anything is stolen from a pakeha, +he will get it back, _if he can_, and won't stick to it, because he +gets a salary in lieu thereof; but he has told me certain matters in +confidence, and which I therefore cannot disclose. I can only hint +there was something said about "the Law," and "driving the pakeha into +the sea." + +I must not trust myself to write on these matters. I get so confused, +that I feel just as if I was two different persons at the same time. +Sometimes I find myself thinking on the Maori side, and then just +afterwards wondering if "we" can lick the Maori, and set the law upon +its legs; which is the only way to do it. I therefore hope the reader +will make allowance for any little apparent inconsistency in my ideas, +as I really cannot help it. + +I belong to both parties, and I don't care a straw which wins; but I am +sure we shall have fighting. Men _must_ fight; or else what are they +made for? Twenty years ago, when I heard military men talking of +"marching through New Zealand with fifty men," I was called a fool +because I said they could not do it with five hundred. Now I am also +thought foolish by civilians, because I say we can conquer New Zealand +with our present available means, if we set the right way about it +(which we won't). So hurrah again for the Maori! We shall drive the +pakeha into the sea, and send the Law after them! If we can do it, we +are right; and if the pakeha beat us, _they_ will be right too. God +save the Queen! + +So now, my Maori tribe, and also my pakeha countrymen, I shall conclude +this book with good advice; and be sure you take notice: it is given to +both parties. It is a sentence from the last speech of old "Lizard +Skin." It is to you both. "Be brave, that you may live." + + +VERBUM SAPIENTI. + + + + +GLOSSARY. + + +_A pakeha tutua_--A mean, _poor_ European.--p. 18. + +_Bare Motiti_--The Island of Motiti is often called "_Motiti wahie +kore_," as descriptive of the want of timber, or bareness of the +island. A more fiercely contested battle, perhaps, was never fought +than that on Motiti, in which the Ngati Kuri were destroyed.--p. 153. + +_E aha te pai?_--What is the good (or use) of him? Said in +contempt.--p. 18. + +_Haere mai! &c._--Sufficiently explained as the native call of welcome. +It is literally an invitation to advance.--p. 14. + +_Hahunga_--A _hahunga_ was a funeral ceremony, at which the natives +usually assembled in great numbers, and during which "baked meats" were +disposed of with far less economy than Hamlet gives us to suppose was +observed "in Denmark."--p. 13. + +_Jacky-poto_--Short Jack; or stumpy Jack.--p. 152. + +_Kainga_--A native town, or village: their principal headquarters.--p. +13. + +_Kia kotahi ki te ao! Kia kotahi ki te po!_--A close translation would +not give the meaning to the English reader. By these words the dying +person is conjured to cling to life, but as they are never spoken until +the person to whom they are addressed is actually expiring, they seemed +to me to contain a horrid mockery, though to the native they no doubt +appear the promptings of an affectionate and anxious solicitude. They +are also supposed to contain a certain mystical meaning.--p. 200. + +_Ki au te mataika_--I have the _mataika_. The first man killed in a +battle was called the _mataika_. To kill the _mataika_. To kill the +_mataika_, or first man, was counted a very high honour, and the most +extraordinary exertions were made to obtain it. The writer once saw a +young warrior, when rushing with his tribe against the enemy, rendered +almost frantic by perceiving that another section of the tribe would, +in spite of all his efforts, be engaged first, and gain the honour of +killing the _mataika_. In this emergency he, as he rushed on, cut down +with a furious blow of his tomahawk, a sapling which stood in his way, +and gave the cry which claims the _mataika_. After the battle the +circumstances of this question in Maori chivalry having been fully +considered by the elder warriors, it was decided that the sapling tree +should, in this case, be held to be the true _mataika_, and that the +young man who cut it down should always claim, without question, to +have killed, or, as the natives say, "caught," the _mataika_ of that +battle.--p. 174. + +_Mana_--As the meaning of this word is explained in the course of the +narrative, it is only necessary to say that in the sense in which it is +used here, it means dominion or authority.--p. 3. + +_Mere ponamu_--A native weapon made of a rare green stone, and much +valued by the natives.--p. 24. + +_Na! Na! mate rawa!_--This is the battle cry by which a warrior +proclaims, exultingly and tauntingly, the death of one of the +enemy.--p. 58. + +_No hea_--Literally, from whence? Often used as a negative answer to an +inquiry, in which case the words mean that the thing inquired for is +not, or in fact is nowhere.--p. 2. + +_Pakeha_--An Englishman; a foreigner.--p. 3. + +_Rangatira_--A chief, a gentleman, a warrior. _Rangatira pakeha_--A +foreigner who is a gentleman (not a _tutua_, or nobody, as described +above), a _rich_ foreigner.--p. 20. + +_Tangi_--A dirge, or song of lamentation for the dead. It was the +custom for the mourners, when singing the _tangi_, to cut themselves +severely on the face, breast, and arms, with sharp flints and shells, +in token of their grief. This custom is still practised, though in a +mitigated form. In past times, the mourners cut themselves dreadfully, +and covered themselves with blood from head to feet. See a description +of a _tangi_ further on.--p. 3. + +_Taniwha_--A sea monster: more fully described further on.--p. 30. + +_Taonga_--Goods; property.--p. 20. + +_Taua_--A war party; or war expedition.--p. 42. + +_Tena koutou_; _or Tenara ko koutou_--The Maori form of salutation, +equivalent to our "How do you do?"--p. 54. + +_Tino tangata_--A "good man," in the language of the prize-ring; a +warrior; or literally, a very, or perfect man.--p. 30. + +_Toa_--A warrior of pre-eminent courage; a hero.--p. 179. + +_Torere_--An unfathomable cave, or pit, in the rocky mountains, where +the bones of the dead, after remaining a certain time in the first +burying place, are removed to and thrown in, and so finally disposed +of.--p. 72. + +_Tu ngarahu_--This is a muster, or review, made to ascertain the +numbers and condition of a native force; generally made before the +starting of an expedition. It is, also, often held as a military +spectacle, or exhibition, of the force of a tribe when they happen to +be visited by strangers of importance: the war dance is gone through on +these occasions, and speeches declaratory of war, or welcome, as the +case may be, made to the visitors. The "review of the Taniwha," +witnessed by the Ngati Kuri, was possibly a herd of sea-lions, or +sea-elephants; animals scarcely ever seen on the coast of that part of +New Zealand, and, therefore, from their strange and hideous appearance, +at once set down as an army of Taniwha. One man only was, at the defeat +of the Ngati Kuri, on Motiti, rescued to tell the tale.--p. 153. + +_Tupara_--A double gun; an article, in the old times, valued by the +natives above all other earthly riches.--p. 12. + +_Tutua_--A low, worthless, and, above all, a _poor_, fellow--a +"nobody."--p. 18. + +_Utu_--Revenge, or satisfaction; also payment.--p. 26. + + +THE END. + +London: SMITH, ELDER and Co., Little Green Arbour Court, Old Bailey, +E.C. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Old New Zealand:, by +'A Pakeha Maori' [Frederick Edwa [Maning] + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD NEW ZEALAND: *** + +***** This file should be named 33342.txt or 33342.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/3/4/33342/ + +Produced by StevenGibbs and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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