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Maori Religion and Mythology Part 1

[argument and introduction]

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Contents

Myth and religion inseparable. Maori mode of narrative must be followed. Mentality of barbaric and civilized man. Mental alertness of native children. Mental discipline should accompany the acquisition of knowledge. Shortland's misleading statement as to the Maori and abstract thought. Buller condemns the Maori as a savage. Colenso recognised desirable qualities. Remarks by Thomson and Marshall. Effects of communism. Power of superstition. Reverence paid to a watch. Three phases of Maori religion. Four classes of gods. No system of public worship. Animism. Personification. Two elements of religion. Evidence of Cook, of Banks, of Du Clesmeur and Crozet, of Roux and P. de l'Horne. Dr. Savage's quaint observations. Remarks by Nicholas, Earle, Cruise. Yate's ignorance of the Maori. Evidence of Crawford, Taylor, and Dieffenbach. "The Maori knew nothing; he has no songs, no history, no traditions," says Tyrone Power. Rev. Taylor's just remarks. Maning's mistaken view. Grey's dictum. Restrained comments of "W. B." Colenso strays from the path. Evidence of Wohlers. Wilson sees the truth. Gudgeon sees two phases of Maori religion. Grant Allen on religion and myth.

IN order to give a connected account of native beliefs it will be necessary to refer to and explain both creeds and myths as we proceed, much as such matters were, in former days, taught to the people, or to pupils in the school of learning. To separate myth from religion would call for a certain amount of repetition, and would assuredly tend to confuse the reader. For example, without an explanation of cosmogonic and anthropogenic myths he could not grasp the meaning of many phases and functions of Maori religion, of ritual and ceremonial. This mode of procedure will also obviate the necessity of formulating rigid definitions of religion and myth, and of fixing a boundary between them. We have already seen that these are no easy tasks, inasmuch as the point of view differs widely among even the highest authorities.

In studying the religion and myths of a barbaric folk such as the Maori people of these isles it is by no means an easy task to do so in a sympathetic manner. Our own point of view differs so widely from that of neolithic man that we must ever experience considerable difficulty in understanding his views with regard to the supernormal. Behind this fact lies the cause of all such difficulties and differ-page 34ences—namely, the gulf that lies between the mentality of the Maori and that of our own folk. It is not a case of differing degrees of intelligence, for the Maori is a remarkably intelligent person; but of difference in outlook on life, on matters normal and supernormal, especially the latter. With regard to ordinary affairs of life no one is more shrewd than your Maori; but when any transaction or activity impinges on his superstition, it is then that you see revealed the peculiar mentality of the neolith, the undisciplined mind of barbaric man. Other such evidence is seen in the peculiar play of his emotions.

We are told that Maori children show quite remarkable intelligence and aptitude at school until, at a certain period of development, their aptitude or application seems to decline. In Keane's Ethnology we are informed that, in the case of negro children, the growth of the brain is arrested by the premature closing of the cranial sutures and lateral pressure of the frontal bone. It is possible that such is also the case with the Maori, who seems often to lack incentive with regard to the acquisition of knowledge as he approaches manhood. However, though most natives often seem to lack application and incentive nowadays with regard to acquiring either European teachings or a knowledge of their own history, yet it would appear that such a condition is at least partially due to the great change wrought by the advent of the white man. The great change brought about by intrusive Europeans seems to have unsettled Maori life and mentality in a very serious manner. In this connection the Rev. R. Taylor wrote as follows: "The rising generation is indifferent to the traditions of the past, the mind being now occupied with so many fresh subjects of interest which European intercourse is introducing."

William Brown, an observer of Maori life in the "forties" of last century, wrote: "The shortest intercourse with them is quite sufficient to satisfy any one that he is dealing with minds in no degree inferior to his own, and that knowledge only is wanting to enable them to become formidable rivals in mental superiority."

In his Southern Districts of New Zealand Shortland draws attention to some of the peculiarities of Maori character, which, he remarks, are "very important for the European colonist to understand," because they show us that natives have many motives for action quite different from ours. These motives it is necessary to understand before we can refer a native's actions to their right source. The same writer tells us that the Maori has a very limited notion of the abstract, hence the powers of nature were regarded by him as concrete objects, and were personified. He omits to note the far-reaching concepts of spiritual and intellectual potentiae of man evolved by the Maori, each of which had its own name. The Maori had two sets of names page 35for natural phenomena, the ordinary vernacular names and the names of their personified forms. The Maori may have viewed the powers of nature as concrete in one meaning of that term, as opposed to abstract, but there is nothing to show that he viewed them as entities. He personified them in obedience to his mythopoetic nature, as he personified the ocean, earth, sky, as also misfortune, sickness, death, &c. Ere this paper is completed I believe that readers will admit that the evidence proves the Maori to have had a much more extensive conception of the abstract than he has been credited with by European writers.

The Rev. James Buller, an early missionary, draws a deplorable picture of the native character in his Forty Years in New Zealand. He says: "Their moral side was a dark picture; it was relieved by only the faintest gleams of light; selfishness, in some form or other, was the base-line of it… Their conversation was sensual, their ideas filthy, and their language obscene. Chastity was rare, if known at all. They were given to sorcery, witchcraft, murder." He concludes by referring to Romans i, 28-32, and heaping that cheerful store of vituperation upon the hapless Maori. It is the old story of a cold, narrow, unsympathetic viewpoint that sees nothing good outside one's own backyard. The data given in the following pages will show that the foregoing indictment is decidedly too strong; good points can be found in the native character if we choose to note them, but a certain type of mind declines to look for such, or to recognize them when in plain view.

Colenso remarks concerning the Maori, "Their intellectual and moral faculties, as a race, were of a high order, however stunted, warped, or debased they may have been through custom, habit, or their strong or unrestrained animal propensities." He gives a list of Maori virtues and a much longer list of their evil qualities.

Thomson maintains that many of the ills of native life were the result of neglect to cultivate reason and judgment—in which, doubtless, he is correct; but the task of reason in overcoming superstition and innate evil propensities is a long and hard one. He says: "Every quality and acquirement which constitutes a well-regulated mind is wanting, and they are deficient in habits of steady and continuous attention, of association and mental industry… They have the minds of children and the passions of men… They are deficient in that sort of moral courage which causes men to execute the commands of reason and conscience."

Dr. Marshall and other writers comment on the instability of the native character, and it is clear to those who know the Maori that most of the weaknesses of his character are due to some page 36phase of irresponsibility, and emphasize the universal need for training and discipline in all departments of human activity. Dr. Marshall also looked upon the fact of there being no word for "gratitude" in the Maori tongue as "a circumstance strikingly illustrative of the moral debasement of a people, and of the state of utter degradation to which their minds must have been reduced." Many writers have made similar remarks, quite overlooking an ordinary use of the word mihi, as also other ways employed by natives in order to express such feelings. Again, these writers did not understand the nature and effects of communistic habits and customs, and their singular effects on conventional decorum and social intercourse. Marshall's statement is untrue and unjust.

When examining the social, mental, and moral characteristics of the Maori, one finally comes to the conclusion that their thoughts and actions were much influenced by two of their racial customs—viz., their communism and the eternal suspicion of all extra-tribal persons, influences, and institutions. These peculiar views, natural to a people of their culture stage and social usages, often seriously affected their sense of justice and fair dealing. Communism, while beneficial to the family group, clan, or tribe, does not make for true altruism; its bounds are too rigid.

The Maori lived in a state of communalism in which mental or intellectual individuality had but a poor chance to make its mark, and conventionalism kept the people under the influence of the tribal religion and superstitions. Even though a people be freed from such a thraldom, yet it is long ere they learn to think and act for themselves—that is, to embrace individualism.

Several writers have assured us that the Maori was in the habit of acquiring certain qualities, such as courage, for example, by the simple process of consuming the bodies of such slain enemies as had possessed those qualities. I have never heard any native make such an assertion, and could never obtain a corroboration of such statements, hence they are viewed by me as being doubtful.

There is one point that cannot be too strongly stressed, and that is the grip that superstition had, and still has, on the native mind. This fact comes home to those who have to deal with natives, and is" the cause of many exasperating situations. The strong belief in witchcraft led the hapless native into countless troubles and his imagination lent the force of truth to such beliefs, hence their faith in impossible powers and attributes have destroyed vast numbers of people. The Maori has the dread of darkness known page 37to all culture stages in some form, though intensified among uncultured folk. The principal cause of this fear is the dread of supernatural beings, such as spirits of the dead that, as ghosts, are believed to be hovering about. Natives may also show great dread of some harmless object simply because they do not understand its nature. Nicholas tells us of the amazement caused among some natives in the far north when he shot two birds before their eyes, and of the terror inspired by the dread instrument of death: "I showed my shot-bag to one of the old men, but the sight of it terrified him so much that he durst not venture to take a second glance at it; and, turning away his head in the greatest trepidation from this magazine of death, I am persuaded he entertained worse notions of it than ever were imagined of Pandora's box." The writer found that the same natives were highly entertained with his watch, which did not excite their fears: "Every one was impatient to have a peep at it, but the ticking was so wonderful to their conceptions that they believed it to be nothing less than the language of a god; and the watch itself, being looked upon as the atua [supernatural being], was regarded by the whole of them with profound reverence."

Owing probably to their long retention of the communal mode of life, and the enmity that has existed between different tribes, the Maori character is deeply endowed with suspicion, and this feeling is manifested in many and sometimes very peculiar ways. When the Government presented the Tuhoe Tribe with some Angora goats, the local wiseheads of Ruatoki pondered over the matter until they came to the conclusion that this new breed of animal possessed some divinatory instinct by which they were enabled to detect the presence of gold in the earth. Doubtless the Government would, ere long, send its emissaries to note places where animals browsed; they would then seize such lands and search for the treasures concealed therein.

It seems quite possible that the communal habits and lack of privacy so marked in Maori life would have considerable effect in retarding advancement, inasmuch as they would impede the development of personality, and prevent introspective thought to a serious extent.

Brown, a writer already quoted, remarks that "Superstition, in one or other of its varied forms, is the basis of the social fabric of the New-Zealander; and when this is eradicated from his mind he is left entirely to the guidance of his own feelings, the restraining influence on such a class of minds being as nothing in the balance…. The same class of minds under their primitive superstitions would page 38have been infinitely more trustworthy and better members of society, because they would then have been effectually restrained by their own laws." Again, the same writer remarks elsewhere in his work: "We are well aware that ages have been spent in unfolding and perfecting every moral influence derived from, as well as independent of, religious impressions; and yet, with all this amount of civilization, no nation could exist without the power of the civil law. No such power, however, exists among the New-Zealanders."

The firm belief held by the Maori that all offences against the gods—that is to say, all infringements of the laws of tapu, &c.—were punished in this world, not in the spirit-world, had a highly important effect upon his actions and behaviour; indeed, the far-reaching influences of the belief are surprising. Thus it was that, when a native was taken ill, he and his friends would at once conclude that the gods were punishing him for some hara. This belief would not only ensure the death of the invalid in many cases, but it would also tend to prevent any research in the science of medicine. The working of these singular beliefs will be further explained when we come to describe the ritual of magic, and other matters.

It may be said that there are three phases of Maori religion. The highest form thereof is represented by the exclusive cult of Io, such being the name of the Supreme Being. It will be shown that this cult affected the bulk of the people to but a slight extent; it was in the hands of the first order of the priesthood, whose priests jealously retained the performance of its ritual in their own hands. Thus this highest aspect or development of Maori religion was an affair confined to a few persons with regard to its practices. The bulk of the people knew nought of it. In the second phase of Maori religion, in which departmental gods were concerned, the bond may be said to have been one between the community and the gods, the ritual bearing a more communistic aspect. In the third phase, in which family gods, deified ancestors, were appealed to, the bond was often between the individual and the god.

The superior type of these forms, the cult of Io, possessed a considerable and very remarkable ritual pitched upon a comparatively high plane of thought, but which was unknown to the mass of the people. This ritual was employed only in connection with matters of importance, and never in any activity pertaining to evil things. The gods of the departmental type were appealed to in matters connected with war, agriculture, fishing, and other industries. Gods of the third order were utilized as war-gods, as powers to protect the people, their lands, homes, &c., and also as destructive agents in the arts of black magic. Those of the fourth order were utilized page 39principally as protectors of their descendants in divers ways. This type of being became malignant towards their descendants only through neglect and misdemeanour, as when some law of tapu was broken. At the same time such beings might be employed to harass other folk than their descendants; thus they were benignant beings towards their descendants. but might be very much the reverse toward other folk. In the case of minor troubles or afflictions these family gods, or familiars, were relied upon; in more serious affairs tribal and departmental gods were appealed to; in matters of supreme importance the highest form of ritual, that of the cult of Io, was practised.

The Maori had dealings with his gods for two purposes, on two occasions—when he wanted something, and when he feared something; in the one case he craved the desired object or quality, in the second he craved protection. In employing an atua to slay an enemy his aim was still self-protection. Hence we see that he invoked his gods only when he wanted something—which, after all, is a very human characteristic, and apparently common to all peoples. He had evolved a belief in certain powers, and simply approached those powers for such benefits as he could obtain from them.

There was no regular system of public worship among the Maori, no regular attendance at any sacerdotal function. The nearest approach to such a thing was when, occasionally, the people attended some important function marked by certain ritual performances, such as those instituted at the opening of a new (superior) house, or new fort, &c., such rites being for the purpose of removing the tapu from those places.

In Primitive Ritual and Belief we find the following statement: "From the sociological point of view perhaps the most important distinction in primitive ritual is that between private and public rites. The former are of an individual and sacramental nature, whereas the latter refer to the well-being of the community at large."

The Maori had no regular sacred day or days, and the only approach to such were the days upon which any important ceremony was performed, such as the tohi rite over a child of rank, the exhumation of bones of the dead, the lifting of tapu from a new house, and the destruction of pests in a kumara plantation. These functions, as also many others, were accompanied by ritual performances and followed by a ceremonial feast. The lack of anything in the way of temples, and of regularly recurring sacred days, or religious performances, tended to prevent any form of public worship or prayer. Indeed, what we understand by the term "worship" did not pertain to Maori religion as practised or followed by the majority of the page 40people. The peculiar psychological concept of a god that no person had cause to fear, and of ritual utterances directed to such being as a means of improving human life and conditions, was apparently being evolved in the cult of Io.

Hale has remarked that Polynesians have a constant, profound, absorbing sense of the ever-present activity of Divine agency. This might well be; and we shall see that it is supported by evidence in these isles, where the Maori mind was deeply imbued with animism and animatism. He not only looked upon or treated natural phenomena as supernatural beings, or gods, but also, in common with other races, elevated the dead man to that dignity. We shall also note traces of phallicism and a peculiar mental attitude towards sex in nature. Star-worship was undoubtedly practised, while the personified form of the sun served as a departmental god. In this connection it is well to remark that I often object to the use of the terms "god" and "worship" as applied to native beliefs and practices, but it is often impossible to avoid using them, and a full explanation may serve to explain the native attitude towards such things. The explaining of certain Maori concepts is, however, by no means a simple task.

Ethnographers have given us many dissertations on the universal tendency to anthropomorphism, and some have apparently held that the belief in anthropomorphic deities is the mark of an inferior stage of culture. But this tendency is also most marked in the highest culture planes, as we all know. The Maori personified almost all things in nature, and endows these supernatural beings with human powers and passions. His Supreme Being is conceived in human form, and that being possesses the faculty of human speech, as does Jehovah, who speaks to Moses. The fact is that the average intellect among us cannot, or does not, grasp the conception of a god in other than human form. Only those of superior mentality given to introspective and abstract thought ever seize the concept of a purely abstract deity, a formless Power. All the rest of us, the vast bulk of the people, require something more tangible; we must have it, if we have to evolve it ourselves.

Above all, bear in mind that, crude as the native religion may have been, yet ever the Maori lived up to it. His belief in his gods was firm, the effects of that belief were far-reaching. It lay behind his marvellous powers as a navigator of wide seas; it was the cohesive power in his social organization, for it usurped the place of civil law.

Broadly speaking, there are usually two aspects of a racial or national religion, two grades of mentality are illustrated in belief and practice, in the attitudes of the people towards the supernormal. page 41Moreover, the latter aspect of a religion among such a folk as the Maori one may become acquainted with after some years of residence among the people, but concerning the former it is extremely difficult to obtain any particulars. Very few persons ever succeed in getting any explanation of it. In his Making of Religion Mr. Andrew Laing makes the following apt remarks: "There are two currents, the religious and the mythical, flowing together through religion. The former current, religious, even among very low savages, is pure from the magical ghost-propitiating habit. The latter current, mythological, is full of magic, mummery, and scandalous legend… Anthropology has mainly kept her eyes fixed on the impure stream… The worse side of religion is the less sacred, and therefore the more conspicuous. Both elements are found co-existing in almost all races."