Canoes Under Tapu

All canoes engaged in war expeditions were under tapu, and no food could be cooked or eaten in them. Tuta remarks on this subject, "No cooking was done on board a tapu canoe, but preserved foods [dried], ready for eating, and water, were often carried thereon. Of course, only some canoes were tapu—not all."

"They must not put cooked food into their war-canoes, eat or spit while afloat, or even have any fire in them, or smoke their pipes, which must certainly be a severe exercise to their faith."—(Life of Henry Williams.)

An old man of Ngapuhi, in describing a southern raid in which he took part, said: "As we travelled along the coast in our canoes, no cooked food was allowed to be carried thereon, nor was fire carried,page 216nor was any man allowed to partake of food on board." Polack writes: "No food may be eaten in a canoe, when paddling in the vicinity of a sacred spot." The Rev. R. Taylor, says, in Te Ika a Maui, "If a corpse was conveyed in a canoe, it was never afterwards used, but painted red and drawn on shore."

In describing native customs the Rev. Mr. Yate remarks: "The person who consults the oracle always carries the sticks with him to the battle: and should the expedition move by water he has a canoe, which is strictly tapu, and into which no food is allowed to be put."

The vessels by which the ancestors of the Maori came to New Zealand were rendered tapu by the ritual that had been performed over them, by the tapu objects brought in them, and by the tapu priestly adepts, conservers of tapu ritual, who came in them. Some brought certain objects representing gods. In the legend of Honoura, preserved at Tahiti, we read that "Oro and other gods of the highest order were never exposed to view: they were kept in numerous wrappings, encased in the bows of their canoes, and their priests represented them among the people."

When a canoe was specially made or used for the purpose of avenging a murder or defeat it was known as a waka mamae or waka takitaki mate. The following extract is from the Life of Henry Williams: "January 18, 1832. The natives very apprehensive that Tareha would return to the Bay of Islands, as he had not yet joined the main body, and was in a large canoe with no other persons, except three of his wives to pull her along. The canoe was tapu, having conveyed the body of Hengi, the principal chief killed at Korora-reka, to his former place, and was now to be taken to the place where his sons were killed, for the purpose of being broken up and burnt, and was consequently termed waka mamae. There are very many things, such as garments, war instruments, paddles, &c., amongst the different tribes now going up, which are on their way for the purpose of being, I think I may say, offered up to the manes of the dead… The canoe was a waka tapu; but its more specific designation, when employed on an errand of revenge, was waka mamae. A canoe so called would sometimes be built to keep in memory a grief and the duty of revenge."

The following passage from the same work illustrates the use of a somewhat similar expression: "Moka fired a number of rounds from his great guns here, termed paura mamae, which he expended because this was the place where he received his wound."

Again, under date 4th January, 1836, in The Life of Henry Wil-liams occurs the following: "Ngapuhi announced: they did not hurry, but all came after waiting two hours, and fired off between page 217 two and three hundred cartridges (paura mamae) for Kati and Toha. Rewa afterwards burnt a fowling-piece for the same cause. They then assembled round Toha and had a long tangi [wailing]."

Waka takitaki mate.—When Te Umu-ariki, a chief of the Tuhoe Tribe, was slain at Turihaua, on the east coast, his tribesmen assembled at Te Waimana in order to make a war-canoe to convey an avenging party to square the account. The vessel was finished, page 218named the "Totara o Huiarau," and taken to Whakatane, where Paora Kingi, a leading chief of Tuhoe, said, "We have now finished our canoe, and all is ready to set forth on the errand of revenge. We will let it end here. No more blood shall flow, and I will go and make peace with our enemies"—which he did.

Mr. White, has preserved a tradition, related by an old native of the Ngapuhi Tribe in 1839, that some of the canoes that came hither from Hawaiki were so extremely tapu that they were provided with tenders (waka haumi) to carry the necessary food-supplies.

We have already seen that at the death of a person of rank his canoe might be destroyed and one-half of it set up by sinking the wide end in the earth, as a cenotaph or mortuary memorial. (fig. 108, p. 217.) Such a monument would be adorned with painted or carved designs. Old Wellington settlers will remember such a cenotaph, erected to the memory of the Ngati-Awa chief Te Wharepouri, that formerly stood on the hillside above Wallace's Inn at Nga Uranga, below the fort. This canoe was named "Te Wheke a Muturangi." It had been captured in the fight known as Whaka-pae-tai, that occurred at Waiorua, Kapiti Island, when local tribes attacked the invaders from the north early in the eighteenth century. (See Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 10, page 162.)

Coffins for containing bodies of the dead were occasionally made from two pieces of a canoe, and some of the coffins made for containing bones of the dead after exhumation were shaped like a page 219canoe. In Cruise's Ten Months' Residence in New Zealand, pub-lished in 1823, we note the following: "We … entered the burying-ground. In the centre of the enclosure stood a kind of stage, roofed over like a house, and on it were laid several small canoes. In one were the remains of a child, rolled up in a mat, but they were not quite decayed; and in another was a heap of bones, with a skull placed upon the top of it." (See fig. 109, p. 218.)

In describing a wahi tapu, or sacred place, seen by him in the Kawhia district, Angas says: "A little canoe, with sail and paddles, was also placed there to serve as a ferry-boat for the spirit to enter in safety into the eternal abodes." It is very doubtful if such was the object; such was not a Maori custom and illustrated no Maori belief. It was probably a toy belonging to the dead child.

Mr. John White, in describing the contents of a burial-cave examined by him in the north, remarks that in the cave "was built a small house of the swamp-reed, ornamented with flax of variegated colours, in which were the bones of ariki of the tribe. At the doorway of the house, which measured altogether not more than about five feet by three, were the bones of a child, and near them a small canoe, his plaything, had been taken with him to his long rest." Frail toy canoes were also made of bulrush-leaves by, or for, children.

In his remarks on "Ceremonies for the Dead" Shortland states that during such rites "A carved chest, ornamented with feathers, is made, also a carved canoe, a small one resembling a large canoe, which is painted with kokowai [red ochre]. The carved chest is called whare rangi." He explains that the garments in which the corpse was arrayed were placed in the carved chest, which is preserved by the family and descendants as a sacred relic. He omits to state that the so-called carved box was elevated on the top of a high post, and also to say what was done with the little canoe.

Shortland has another item pertaining to miniature canoes: "Meanwhile Kahu was on the beach … busied about sending off a canoe with food for the atua (gods) at Hawaiki, and for Hou-mai-tahiti, food both cooked and uncooked. This canoe was made of raupo (a species of bulrush). There was no one on the canoe, only stones to represent men."

Archdeacon Walsh gives an account of a curious ceremony formerly performed at Mokoia, the island in Lake Rotorua, the day before the planting of the sweet-potato crop commenced. The priestly adept made a little canoe-shaped vessel of dry bulrush-leaves, put a few of the tubers in it, presented or placed it before the stone image representing the god of the tuber, and then set it adrift page 220on the lake. This was done for the purpose of securing a good crop, as the offering was supposed to find its way to Hawaiki, the far-distant fatherland, and to the gods of that land—the land whereat the kumara originated.