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Maori Religion and Mythology Part 2

[argument and introduction]

Aitua Omens ever present. Waimarie Omens pertaining to right and left sides, to birds, to dogs, to lizards, to fish. Moral delinquencies result in calamity. Dreams. The ominous takiri. Unlucky to see certain things. Odd numbers unlucky. Spirit voices call for trouble. Omens connected with sleep. Cooked food highly dangerous. Omens derived from natural phenomena. The "home greeting wind". Puhore or unlucky signs. Harmful influence of female sex. Continence imperative at certain times. Ceremonial coition. Signs pertaining to birth, to weaving, to sickness, to sneezing. Hori's discourses on teeth of Maori. Olla podrida.

It may well be thought by readers that this sub-section is a superfluous addition to the present volume, so many omens and superstitions having been alluded to and described in the foregoing chapters. So numerous however are the omens and superstitious beliefs of people in the culture stage of the Maori, and so important was the effect of such beliefs on the life of the people, that I feel justified in here inserting further particulars concerning innumerable beliefs, signs and practices that come under the head of Aitua. This word aitua denotes "misfortune" also "omen" and, as an adjective "of ill omen, unlucky!" The word usually seems to be used to denote an evil omen only, the words marie and waimarie being employed for "lucky" and "good luck". This as a general thing, but when a person is said to have performed some single divinatory rite "kia kitea tona page 595aitud", this must be rendered as "to ascertain his fate", or something similar.

Misfortune and ominous signs form so important an element in Maori life that they are personified in one Aitua, and, moreover, in one version of Maori cosmogonic myths, this Aitua is said to have been the offspring of the primal parents Rangi and Papa, the Sky Father and Earth Mother (see Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 16, p. Ill) "A Maori Cosmogony". We are told that the offspring or descendants of Aitua are represented by misfortune and death, and Maori orators are heard to allude to "this important personage Aitua". Aitua is evidently allied to aitu, denoting "calamity misfortune, etc."

Persons who live in contact with the Maori people soon observe that there are innumerable signs that call for caution, and possibly the cessation of some activity, or a change of method. Ominous occurrences are as leaves in the vale of Vallombrosa, or as sand grains on the far reaching strand of the One ahuahu a Manaia. We do not, however, hear much of good or lucky signs, which are seldom mentioned, this doubtless on the same principle that influenced the Maori to be circumspect in his placation of his atua, gods or demons, the more malignant demons demanding the most frequent attention. After all this seems to be a sensible course to pursue.

The Maori folk seem to have read omens, signs, portents, in almost everything that occurred, and of this fact a good deal of proof has already been given. The appearance and movement of the heavenly bodies, the appearance of lightning, the sound of thunder, and many other manifestations of natural phenomena, the movements and cries of birds and other creatures, sounds heard in the forest, involuntary movements of a persons limbs, dreams, the seeing of certain objects, all these and countless other things were ominous and so were carefully noted. The most trivial incident might be taken as being a highly important portent, as foretelling the result of some tribal undertaking or a divinatory rite. As for superstition, when a people believe that a human skull set up in a field will ensure a bountiful crop of potatoes, and that to hear a lizard chattering is a matter of dreadful import—well, anything may happen.

Marie and waimarie are terms employed to denote good luck and, as an adjective, lucky, while tohu means a sign, which, if an ominous one, might be a tohu ora or a good sign, or a tohu mate, one of ill omen.

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