Traces of Phallic Worship

We encounter in Maori customs, beliefs, and usages some evidence that points to a former system of phallic worship, or something much resembling it. These survivals consist of a belief in innate powers possessed by the organs of generation, the reliance placed on such organs in ceremonial functions, phallic symbols, a remembrance of the phallic eel, and some other curious and interesting matters.

In dealing with the offspring of the Sky Parent and Earth Mother we found that Tane represents the male element and procreative power. In Tiki we have a straight-out personification of the membrum virile. In the grotesque pendant termed a tiki we have a fructifying symbol bearing the sacerdotal name for the male organ, and of its personified form. This singular pendant represents the human foetus, and was worn by women on account of its supposed powers in causing conception. One old example of this symbolic object seen in the South Island possessed an organ of most disproportionate size, one of the hands of the image being clasped round it. Carved wooden images endowed with this latter peculiarity were very common in New Zealand and Indonesia. Survivals of the very ancient phallic cult are found in many different lands.

One of the most interesting of these survivals, as found among the Maori folk, is the remembrance of the singular cult of the eel, as practised in India. In Ancient Asiatic myth the eel is connected with reproduction, and the symbol of Ira, the eel-god of India, is a linga with a lunar crescent on its head. This illustrates another very old belief of the Asiatic region, that the moon is closely connected with fertility, not only as regards man but also in the vege-page 350table table world. Ira, the Indian eel-god, was also known as Indra; his son was the snake-god; while, in Persia, Indra was the serpent. The phallic eel and phallic serpent were closely allied in southern Asia. The old Babylonian myth of Eve and the phallic serpent reappears in Polynesia and New Zealand. In Maori myth the eel takes the place of the phallic serpent as appears in the myth of Hina, Tuna, and Maui. Hina is spoken of as the wife of Maui. She is apparently the same as Hina-te-iwaiwa, the personified form of the moon; while Maui certainly represents light—probably the sun. Tuna interfered with Hina and excited her by tickling her with his tail, hence the tail of an eel is called tara-puremu and hiku-rekareka. This is a variant form of the myth of the first man, whose wife was a woman evolved from the reflection of the man in a pool of water (mimi in the original). This woman was excited by the eel in a similar manner, and so the first sin was committed. At the Island of Mangaia Tuna appears as the lover of Hina. At Fiji the eel is the form of incarnation of one of the gods. F. W. Christian, in The Caroline Islands, tells us of a deified conger-eel at a place in the Caroline Group, and also that "The Mortlock Islanders call the eel Tiki-tol, and use it for the equivalent of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden." Now, this is just the Maori myth; and, moreover, we have noted the local application of the term tiki: thus Tiki-tol closely resembles Tiki-toro, or Tiki-torohanga, one of the significant names of the personification previously mentioned.^*

In India Siva was not only the Destroyer but also a god of fertility, as shown by the moon crescent on his forehead and serpent girdle. He is still adored in the form of a great boulder painted red, which usually stands below a tree. "Offerings are made to this stone, and women visit it during the period of the moon's increase to pray for offspring"—so writes Mackenzie in his Indian Myth and Legend. These remarks recall the stones of Tane of the Hawaiian Isles, and of Tahiti. In vol. 1 of Fornander's Polynesian Race may be found a curious passage concerning certain sacred stones of the Hawaiian Isles. The author remarks: "What the Hawaiians called Pohaku-a-Kane [stones of Tane], upright stones of from one to six and eight feet in height, the smaller size portable and the larger fixed in the ground, and which formerly served as altars or places of offering at what may be called family worship, probably referred to the Lingam symbolism of the Siva cult in India, where similar stone pillars, considered as sacred, still abound…. In the Hawaiian group these stone pillars were sprinkled with water or anointed with coconut-oil, page 351and the upper part frequently covered with a black tapa or cloth, the colour of garments which priests wore on special occasions, and which was also the cloth in which the dead were wrapped. Singularly enough, the Greeks called Priapus the 'black-cloaked,' and the Phallus was covered with a black cloth, signifying the nutritive power of night."

Far away from Hawaii, at Fiji, we find similar phallic stones, of which illustrations are given in Fiji and the Fijians, by Williams (vol. 1, p. 220, edition of 1858). These stones are very suggestive in form, and one is shown with a garment tied round it. Offerings of food were made to these objects.

We find the story of Hina and the eel at Mangaia, in the Cook Group, where Tuna is said to have assumed the form of a handsome youth in order to gain the love of fair Hina. Another Maori name for the personified form of the eel is Puhi, a word that also means "wind." This reminds us of the feathered serpent of Mexico that was held to represent the fertilizing east wind.

To return for a brief space to the subject of sacred stones such as those of Fiji and Hawaii already mentioned: The stone of Tane, who is essentially the Fertilizer of Maori myth, and the linga-shaped stones depicted in William's volume on Fiji, were quite possibly viewed as fertilizing agents, though we have no information as to native beliefs concerning them. We have in New Zealand, however, a tapu stone that was held to possess fertilizing-powers. This stone, or rock, is situated at Kawhia, and it is known by the name of Uenuku-tuwhatu. To this stone went women who were desirous of bearing children, though we have no details as to ceremonial matters connected with such visits.

Another interesting fertilizing agent formerly resorted to by native women of the district is a hinau tree (Elaeocarpus dentatus) on a forest-clad hill at Ohaua-te-rangi, far up the Whakatane River, in the Bay of Plenty district. This tree acquired its mana, or power to cause conception in women, in a peculiar manner. Local tradition tells us that about twenty generations ago a chief named Irakewa deposited on that tree the iho (umbilical cord) of an infant child, whose name was Kataka. That tree has therefore ever since been known as Te Iho-o-Kataka (The Iho of Kataka). Taneatua, the father of the child Kataka, in after-years happened to visit the above tree during his wanderings, and was about to pluck some of the berries, when, to his amazement, he heard a voice saying "Kana ahau e kainga, notemea ko te iho ahau o Kataka" ("Suffer me not to be eaten, for I am the iho of Kataka"). Taneatua not only refrained from eating the fruit of that tree, page 352but also deposited thereat the iho of another of his children. He thrust it into a crevice in the bark of the tree, repeating as he did so the following words: "Ka whakairihia ahau, ka whakato tamariki ahau" ("I am suspended; I will cause children to be conceived"). So it was that this tree came to be viewed as a fructifying agent, and, down the changing generations, the iho of children were occasionally placed there, instead of depositing them at some place on the boundaries of tribal lands. The eastern side of the tree is called its male side, and the western its female side.

When a woman wished to take advantage of the virtues of this magic tree she proceeded to it with her husband and a tohunga (priestly expert). She was commanded to clasp the trunk of the tree in her arms, the east or west side according to the sex she desired the child to be. Meanwhile the priest was reciting the all-important charm that seems to have been necessary in order to render the ceremony effective. When I obtained these notes from the natives in 1895, several old persons were pointed out to me as having been born through the agency of the famous hinau tree. Among them were Tamarau Waiari and Te Ai-ra-te-hinau. The name of the latter person denotes his origin, that he owes his being to the Iho-o-Kataka. Another account of the above proceedings introduces ceremonial copulation, the husband obtaining a twig or piece of bark from the male (or female) side of the tree, and placing it under his wife's body. This would act as a medium between the two agents that produced the child, in native belief.

In Mrs. Philpot's work on The Sacred Tree we are told that in parts of Asia certain trees were regarded as the material representations of the mysterious feminine reproductive power; also that "The sacred cedar of Gilgit, on the north-west frontier of India, was held to have the power of causing women to bear children."

I have alluded to a case of ceremonial copulation; but this was not the only matter in connection with which such an act was performed. It was occasionally practised by the commander of an armed force prior to attacking an enemy, and in such cases it seems to have had a divinatory significance. Some interesting data concerning this practice has appeared in Dr. Frazer's Psyche's Task.

In the account of his first voyage Cook mentions having witnessed at Tahiti what was probably an instance of ceremonial copulation, the act being performed before a great number of the natives.

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We have now another and very curious aspect to consider—namely, the inherent powers, protective and otherwise, possessed by the generative organs in Maori belief. This belief illustrates a very singular phase of native mentality, a phase that seems to be also in evidence among certain folk in India. The Maori believed that the male organ possesses remarkable protective qualities; that it imparts mana (power, force, efficacy) to charms repeated in order to render harmless the arts of black magic. It must be over twenty years ago that I received from an aged native friend, one Hamiora Pio, of Te Teko, a curious and entertaining epistle in which he urged me to rely on the phallus as a means of preserving life and welfare. He also wrote out and sent to me for my use a potent charm to be uttered whenever I have reason to believe that some person is endeavouring to slay or injure me by means of magic. He made a special point of explaining the correct course of action I must pursue. I was to be sure to clasp the organ in my hand while repeating the charm. This reminds me of an incident related to me by another old native long years ago. He had, in his youth, known his own mother to rely on a similar action in order to avert or escape an impending calamity. The following remarks were made to me by the old fellow who sent me the charm: "Friend! It seems to me that the ora [welfare, healthful condition] of the white man is due to the fact that they ever keep the koutu mimi in their houses, in their very sleeping-chamber. For that vessel represents the tawhito, and so it serves as a protection against makutu [black magic]." The term tawhito is an archaic mystical expression denoting the organs of generation. This word carries the meaning of "primeval, source, origin, original, ancient" in the Polynesian language; in some cases it must be rendered as "beginning." Another very singular expression applied to the male organ is that of tangata matua.

The ceremony described above of warding off the shafts of black magic is known as kai ure, and the following is the shortest charm employed in it that I have met with:—

Kai ure!
Kuruki whakataha te mate
Tau e patu ai ko taku ure.

A peculiar custom practised in former times had the effect of curing a man of an attack of hauhauaitu, which may be described as a nervous condition caused apparently by some infringement of a law of tapu. The cure was effected by the sufferers crawling between the legs of the ariki of his clan—that is, the eldest-born of the most prominent family. In the rite termed hirihiri taua, performed prior page 354to the entry of warriors into a fight, men would sometimes thus pass between the legs of a priest in order to ward off such distressing afflictions. In some cases a person so afflicted was cured by getting the first-born female of a family of rank to step over him as he lay on the ground. There seems to be a belief that the mana of the organ, its innate power, has a preservative and curative effect. C. O. Davis tells us that a man who had slain a person to serve as a human sacrifice would pass between the slain man's legs in order to avert the wrath of his (the dead person's) god. (Compare a quaint ceremony of British New Guinea as described in Frazer's work Psyche's Task, p. 126, 2nd edition, 1913.)

But the innate powers of the organs under discussion are also harmful to man, and such harmful influences usually seem to emanate from the female organ. In Maori myth and belief the female sex is assigned an inferior position generally, and is spoken of as being connected with evil, misfortune, and death. The female organ is associated with misfortune and death, and so the expression whare o aitua is applied to it. It is also, apparently, sometimes applied to the earth, because all things on earth, animal and vegetable life, are subject to death; and, moreover, the earth is personified as a female. The expression whare o te ora, applied to the heavens, denotes the abode of life, welfare; the offspring of the primal parents who remained in the heavens—Rehua, Ruatau, Tama-i-waho, and others, as also the whanau marama, or heavenly bodies—these never perish, but endure for ever.

An old native once said to me, "With regard to the tawhito of Hine-nui-te-po, that was the atua (supernatural power) that destroyed man." This was a reference to the death of Maui in his memorable conflict with the great Hine. This quaint belief in the innate destructive power of the female sex or organs has long been held by certain peoples of far India. The Sakta, a Hindu sect, worship the active female principle of one or other of the forms of the consort of Siva, of which Kali is one. In his Peoples of India J. D. Anderson remarks of this sect: "This cult arose in eastern Bengal or Assam about the fifth century A.D…. This sect is probably due to the recrudescence of very ancient aboriginal cults. It is associated with blood-offerings and libidinous rites." Kali personifies the female power of generation, and Sakti seems to be the destructive energy pertaining to the female sex. Max Muller, in his Anthropological Religion, states that Sakti represents all powers of Nature, all her physical and spiritual forces. The female element is usually represented as being passive, quiescent, receptive; but this Sakti seems to be or represent the active powers of Nature, or of Siva. It is page 355puzzling to note that Siva the Destroyer represents the fructifying principle, the generating power of Nature. The same contradictory aspect is encountered in the Maori belief in the harmful and destructive powers of the female organ.

Another singular usage has now to be scanned, and this was one known to the Maori as ngau paepae. This word paepae has many applications, but in this case it denotes the horizontal beam of a latrine, on which persons sat, or rather squatted, with both feet on the beam. The above phrase can be rendered as "beam biting," which describes a very extraordinary act performed by persons at the latrine during certain ceremonial performances of yore. A latrine is known as a paepae hamuti; but another term, turuma, seems to be a kind of honorific term for it, if such a definition be permissible. Tutaka, an old native of much knowledge, remarked to me, "The paepae is the tangata matua; it is the hauora of man; it is the destroyer of man; it is the saviour of man." Here it was meant that that place acts as a parent to man—that is, as a protective power; it preserves the hauora—virility and welfare of man It will be remembered that Tutaka applied the same expression to the male organ.

When a man was about to set forth on a journey, the local priest would conduct him to the latrine and there certain ritual matter was repeated over him, and he was told to bite the beam. Some say that a person merely went through the motion, pretended to bite it, as it were. Such a ceremony had the effect of rendering harmless any attempts to injure the traveller by means of witchcraft on the part of the people among whom he was about to travel. For ever the Maori lived in dread of the arts of the wizard. Persons suffering from illness, or from any troubles and disabilities caused by slighting the gods (the two conditions being closely allied in the Maori mind) also performed the ngau paepae rite. Its performance apparently appeased the ill feeling of the gods where an offence had been given, and in other cases it enlisted their services. A sick person would be conducted by the priest to the place at sunset, and as they stood in front of the beam he would say "E ngau to waha ki te paepae"—thus commanding the person to bite the beam. As he did so the priest recited a charm, of which the following is a specimen:—

Ka kai koe ki tua	He atua kahu koe
Ka kai koe ki te paepae e takoto nei	Haere i tua, haere i waho
Koia nga tapu, koia nga popoa	Haere i te rangi nui e tu nei
Koia nga whare, koia nga urunga	Mahihi ora ki te whai ao, ki te ao marama
Koia nga tapu nei	Korou ora.

This seems to have completed the proceedings.

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Persons performing these peculiar ceremonies always stood in front of the bar or beam. In figurative language that beam was styled the barrier between life and death. The space behind it was called the kouka; should one be consigned thither by magic arts, then death claimed his own. Should the wairua (soul) of a person pass over to the kouka, then the realm of darkness alone was its destination, and its physical basis knew death.

This rite was also performed over persons who had trespassed on a sacred place, or committed some other offence against the gods. The following charm was recited by the priest on such occasions:—

Ngaua i te pae, ngaua i te wehi	Whakapa koe ki te ruahine
Ngaua i te upoko o te atua	Kia whakaorangia koe e tahito nuku
Ngaua i a Rangi e tu nei	E tahito rangi, e tahito pamamao
Ngaua i a Papa e takoto nei	Ki Tawhiti i Hawaiki.

Now, why should ceremonies that may be termed religious functions be performed at such a place? What is it that renders such a place a desirable tuahu? Tapu in the sense of "unclean" it might be, but there is some unexplained cause for the extraordinary use made by the Maori of a latrine. Inquiry has brought from natives several explanations, none of which do I place any reliance on. Some tell us that this beam-biting act was an ordeal to test the nerve or determination of the subject; but the Maori appears to have forgotten its real origin and meaning, as in certain other cases. He is liable to fall back on conjecture, in which he is ably assisted by Europeans. An account of the rite given in vol. 27 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, p. 84, does not throw any light on the origin of so strange a performance. In vol. 23 of the same Journal, at pp. 132 and 146, we see that the ngau paepae did was performed in connection with the teachings of the whare maire. At p. 206 of the latter volume is an account of the hauling of a vessel to the turuma or latrine of a village, where a rite was performed over it prior to its being launched for the long two-thousand-mile voyage to New Zealand. The vessel was made tapu by that ceremony, and placed under the care of the gods. The explanation given in a footnote as to the reason why the vessel was hauled to such a place is not convincing or satisfactory; the real meaning and origin of the act is unknown to us. Other ceremonial functions were performed at such places. In vol. 12 of the above Journal, at p. 203, is an account of a singular rite termed umu hiki being performed at a latrine.

The generative power and reproduction must ever have been deemed mysterious by primitive, savage, and barbaric man. As page 357Westropp has shown in his work on survivals of phallic worship, to uncultured man nature is not simply lifeless matter. Thus he attributes to what we view as inanimate matter the powers of generation and reproduction, active and passive functions. Moreover, he attributed such powers to cosmic forces or conditions, as is noted in Maori and Polynesian cosmogonies. The functions of human nature were extended to physical nature, hence the vivification of natural phenomena so prominent in Maori lore. These concepts of the Maori produced the mythopoetic native lore in which his mind revelled. The phallic cult, of which we detect survivals in Maori belief and usage, sprang from ignorance and wonder.

In an account given by Shortland of the death of the chief Tuhoro we see that the latter commanded his son to attend him, and, when the breath left his body, the son was to bite his forehead and tawhito, in order that he might inherit his knowledge and mana. Shortland translates the word tawhito as "perineum," but the old men of that district told me that it denotes the organs of reproduction. In other cases a son was told to bite the big toe of his father's foot, that he might inherit his priestly powers. In yet others the act performed was known as whakaha. The performer placed his mouth close to the crown of the head of the dead or dying person, and inhaled; it was not an expulsion of breath, as explained to me. This act was also performed sometimes in order to restore a person suffering under a magic spell. Again, we are told that when a priest was called in to attend a sick person he would in some cases bite the patient's head in order to deprive him of his mana, and so bring him the more completely under his own influence. Yet another act performed with the same object was the ngau taringa, or "ear-biting"; and an interesting account of this may be found in vol. 29 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, p. 204. All these extraordinary acts remind us of an old Roman custom, the inhaling of the last breath of a dying kinsman.