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Medicine Amongst the Maoris, in Ancient and Modern Times

Tapu or Taboo

Tapu or Taboo.

Tapu, in the form of "taboo" is one of the few words which the English has derived from the Polynesian language. It has come to have a far wider and vaguer meaning than the word "tapu" ever conveyed to the Maori. To the English it conveys a prohibition. To quote Andrew Lang, "In anthropological language, taboo generally denotes something more than a prohibition. It commonly means a prohibition for which, to the civilised mind, there is no very obvious reason." With all due deference to the civilised mind, I must emphasise here, that to the Maori mind, there were very obvious reasons for not transgressing tapu. As it is these obvious reasons which lie page 21at the root of the Maori idea of disease, it is necessary to deal with tapu in detail. Also as so many ideas and customs of other races have been included, by anthropologists, under the term tapu, it is only fair to the Maoris to carefully distinguish between what they understood by "tapu" and what anthropologists a have included under "teboo."

Tapu means sacred, holy, sanctified, pertaining to the gods. This is the primary meaning of the word. Everything pertaining to the gods, the "tuahu" or altar places, the "waka" or receptacle in which a god appeared in an "aria" form, the "pataka tapu" or sacred storehouse in which the hair of the first slain in battle, or first fruits or other food, were placed for the atuas, the trees upon which offerings were hung and even the incantations used in the various ritual, were tapu. The sanctity or supernatural essence of the gods pvaded and remained inherent in these various objects. The connection between the tapu object and the atua or god from whom the altar, receptacle or storehouse obtained its tapu was never severed. Then the tohunga who was the medium of the god was tapu. The tapu flowed from the principal to the medium. The part of the body that was especially charged with tapu was the head. It has been truly said that tapu is contagious so that everything that touched the sacred head of a tohunga also became tapu. If he scratched his sacred head, he would, on lowering his hand, place it before his nostrils and inhale back the tapu lest his hand remain tapu and in turn render tapu everything he subsequently touched. If he raised a calabash of water to his lips it became tapu and could only be used by him. To protect others from suffering from the consequences of transgressing tapu it was an act of courtesy on his part to destroy the calabash. Europeans on first contact with the Maoris, were surprised when a chief of note, after drinking a cup of tea with them, gravely and politely shattered the cup to atoms. Hence it was usual for a chief or tohunga when drinking, to form the hands into a hollow page 22before the mouth, whilst an attendant poured water out of a calabash into the rough cup thus formed. The pillow or resting place of the head of a tapu chief was also tapu. Visiting tohungas or high chiefs known to be tapu were often requested ere leaving the village to remove the tapu from the spot where their heads had rested. Repeating the appropriate incantation and passing the hand over the spot in the act of scooping up, was sufficient to remove the source of danger. Or anyone of power subsequently occupying the same spot would offer up a propitiatory incantation to prevent the atuas who guarded the previous man's tapu from becoming angry. The tapu from high chiefs spread to such articles as the whalebone comb used to decorate the head. The tapu also spread up to the roof of a dwelling house. The spot where the chiefs had their hair out, termed a "purepurenga" was also tapu. The little rise or summit (taumata) in, or near a village where high chiefs habitually rested or sunned themselves, or the shelter (whakamaru) where he took refuge from the wind or sun, became impregnated with tapu. Since the body was tapu and imparted whilst alive, its tapu to certain places, so the dead body equally imparted its tapu. A river, lake, or stream where a chief was drowned or slain became tapu, so that his own tribe would not eat the fish, taken from such waters. The blood of a sacred chief made tapu every object that came in contact with it. This knowledge was made use of by the famous warrior TutatawhaNgatokowaru, captured in battle and doomed to be slain and eaten by his fees. He burst his bonds, slew the high chief of his captors with a concealed spear point and whilst the enemy rained fatal blows upon him, he smeared his own body with the blood of his victim. He thus partook of the tapu of the opposing high chief and his own dead body was protected from the indignity of being eaten by the enemy.

Then grounds, sand-hills, swamps, trees or caves used for the purposes of burial were tapu. There was the personal tapu of the tohungas and high chiefs buried there, in addit-page 23ion to this, when a spot was selected as a burial place, supernatural guardians were often appointed to protect the spot. Any wood, flax, stones or natural objects from these burial places were tapu.

Special houses dedicated to the teaching of the sacred knowledge were tapu. The site upon which they stood remained tapu always. Special evens used in connection with certain sacred ceremonies and the sites there of were tapu. Where bones had been scraped (waruhanga when a tupapaku) or other special localities having a definite relation to tapu practices became tapu.

Now in all these instances of tapu, the tapu came originally from the gods or the mediums of the gods, and were definitely impregnated with tapu. They were all tabue objects. The connection between the gods and the tapu places or objects was never lost and the gods, who watched over the various places or objects, were the definite gods from when the tapu was derived in the first instance. When a high chief left his pillow tapu, it was the god of that particular high chief who punished any desecration of his medium's resting place. The desecration of an altar of Te Makawa or the sunning place or hair-cutting place of his medium or kaupapa was punished by Te Makawe. The desecration of a burial place was punished by the special guardians set up to protect it. In all cases the connection between any particular tapu spot or object and the particular atua was definite. It was the atua who punished, not a vague poisonous tapu. The reason of punishment was that in desecrating tapu, man was insulting the gods. Any tapu object, place or person had to be treated with the respect due to the gods whose supernatural aura of tapu enveloped them.

Any disrespect or infringement of tapu constituted a "hara" or sin. I would again repeat that the hara or sin was punished by the particular god from whom the tapu was derived. It was a definite punishment for a definite reason by a particular god. If one desecrated an ancient page 24 altar of Puhi, it was Puhi who punished the transgressor, not the vague and undiscovered texins of a general tapu which is not obvious to the civilised mind. The abomination of abominations was cooked food. The gods seemed to consider it unclean. Ancient tradition says that the Horouta canoe come from the Pacific Islands to New Zealand with only raw food on board. The freight of sacred incantations and gods was so tapu that cooked food was not allowed on the canoe. Jovens states that to touch food with taboo hands was to defile the food. The Maori idea was exactly the opposite. To touch cooked food with tapu hands was to defile the tapu hands. Man did not become sick or choke because the food had become unclean and poisonous but because the god punished him for allowing the abomination of cooked food to come in contact with the hand, which being tapu, was impregnated with the god's supernatural essence. The atua offended entered the body of the offender and the train of symptoms set up was the "ngau" or bite of that particular god.

Man created the gods in his own image. The things obnoxious to man were also obnoxious to the gods whom he created. When a person hated an enemy very bitterly, he was not satisfied with merely killing him, but he ate him as well. It is considered by the Maoris that cannibalism started from this idea. No greater insult could be offered to a family than to boast that their ancestors had been eaten. If a chief's blood had stained a stream, the enemy who drank the water was regrded as having eaten the chief. The chief's mana had been belittled. In the case of eating greens from a tapu place, or using wood or stones from such a spot to cook food with, the idea was conveyed that the gods were eaten. This idea was amplified so that cooked food being brought into contact with tapu was a desecration. Just as any action, such as wilfully spitting, micturating or defaecating upon a chief's property was equivalent to an insult to his mana, so, similar procedure to tapu places or objects were a direct insult to the gods.

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Thus a hara or infringment of tapu consisted of

(a)Using wood, rubbish, stones or water from tapu places for the purpose of cooking food.
(b)Taking any tapu objects into a cooking house or any common place, or in fact, interfering or meddling with them in any illegitimate way.
(c)Defaecating, micturating, or spitting on any sacred [gap — reason: Text illegible] spot, or depositing cooked food there.
(d)Trespassing on any tapu spot, or handling any tapu object and not having the tapu removed from one's person by being made "noa" or common.

The sites of several of the altars still remain. The altar of Rongomat on the shores of Lake Taupo consists of a large natural block of stone. Near Lake Rotorua is the altar set up by Tua-Rotorua, the original possessor of the lake. It was subsequently used by Ihenga, the son of Tama-te-kapua captain of the Arawa canoe, one of the famous fleet of 1350. The line of stones set upright by ancient priests still stands as a memorial of the past. Other altars were made by setting a carved post, bound round with fibre and representing the god, upright in the ground. Though the carved figures have vanished, the places where they stood remain holy ground. When it is remembered how numerous these sacred or tapu places were and that the tapu never lost its power unless removed by special ceremony, it will be readily seen how easy it was to vommit a 'hara'. Wood and stones taken from forgotten spots, children playing about and hosts of other opportunities, were furnished for bringing down the anger of the gods. A man infringing his own tapu on high occasions by handling food, &c., ere being made 'noa', was punished by his own family gods. A tohunga calling up supernatural assistance in some project and making an error of even one word in the tapu incantations was punished by the very powers he was invoking.

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-voking.

The punishment for infringing tapu might take place immediately after the offence or weeks or even months after. The punishment might take the form of sudden death by accident or in the field of battle. Te Whiwhiro whose aria was a whirlwind is said to appear as a whirlwind, seize the transgressor, whirl him, about and toss him foaming at the mouth, to the ground. Te Makawe cast the offender into a boiling spring and Kawan upset his canoe at sea and drowned him. Then, there was the punishment by disease which was the characteristic ngau or bite of the offnded god.

Witchcraft, as we shall see, consisted of caling up demons to punish the person who had incurred the wrath of a wizard or of a person who could induce a wizard to use his black art. Thus the cause of all sickness, disease, almost all deaths by accident, and a certain proportion of those in battle, was the anger of the gods. The anger of the gods in all disease except those due to witchcraft, was brought about by transgressing against tapu in some form or other.

Now a word as to its origin and what things were, and were not, tapu.

In all races there is a slumbering weight of fear for what is not understood. The more primitive the race, the greater the fear. The phenomena of nature, understood by the civilised races, convey to the primitive mind the idea of supernatural power. But because they were invisible and not understood, they were feared. As Hobbs says "feare of things invisible is the naturall seede of religion". The nature myths and ancient gods sprung into existence. They were feared. They had to be implicitly obeyed and honoured, not because they were gods of love, but to avoid their anger. In the fear of the gods and of everything pertaining to them, tapu had its origin. As Jevons says it sprung from "an innate tendency of the human mind". It was spon-page 27taneous and natural. But when he says it 1"cannot have been derived from experience, that it is prior to, and even contradictory to experience", he lays himself open to the just criticism of Andrew Lang. What constitutes experience in primitive society? The savage with an inherent fear of the unknown, does not select his data with the logical precision of a student of mental science. With primitive man, and even with a considerable proportion of civilised man, 2"sequence in time is mistaken for what we commonly style cause and effect". A person became ill or met with an accident. It was discovered on enquiry that he had trespassed on some spot devoted to the service of the gods. One was the cause of the other. The cause was discovered retrospectively. This was experience enough to minds which were blassed in a certain direction. To a distorted view, contradictions are soon forgotten or readily explained. Pools or waters, with alleged curative properties, must have had much contradictory evidence against them, but these contradictory experiences did not affect the civilised mind. Where fear was so deeply ingrained, suggestion assisted coincidence, People, when informed of trespassing tapu, actually became ill through fear and suggestion. The case recorded by 3 Manning of the slave eating the chief's food with the perfect satisfaction and happiness of ignorance, and then dying with violent pains and convulsions on being informed of the enormity he had committed, is typical of many. The Maoris themselves say that if a parson trespassed on a tapu place without knowing, no harm would happen to him, but if he were told that the place was tapu, then he would become ill. What is this but a practical admission by themselves of the power of suggestion? The underlying fear of the supernatural powers and their essence or quality, 'tapu', was inherent in the mind. The sequence of events is easily followed.

1 Jevon's History of Religion

2 Andrew Lang's Magic and Religion

3 Mannings 'Old New Zealand.'

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Coincidence or sequence in time were regarded as cause and effect. If a person went to a tapu spot, without knowing it was tapu, nothing happened. Fear was not awakened. If he were subsequently informed the spot was tapu, he became ill. Fear was aroused. Suggestion had full play. If he knowingly transgressed tapu, he knew the consequences that would take place. He resigned himself to suggestion and the gods punished him. If he became ill naturally, cross-examination by the to-hungas soon produced from amongst the innumerable sources of tapu, one that he had transgressed. Had he not become ill, the infringment would never have been discovered. So to the blassed judgment, experiences were countless, and went hand in hand with the inherent tendency of the human mind to establish tapu firmly and irresistably. Its origin was religious.

We have shown that tohungas and high chiefs were tapu. It was natural that the altar of the gods with the earth, wood, and stones on the immediate spot, should be impregnated with tapu, and that the tohunga or medium of the gods who consulted them at the altar should partake also of the tapu. But the priests almost without exception were members of the leading families. They were high chiefs by birth. As in the Roman system, it was the function of the head of the family to perform the duties to the household gods, so in the Maori family, which spread out into the hapu or fratrate, the duty and privilege of communicating with the family or tribal gods devolved upon the senior by birth. Thus the first born or 'ariki' had special sacerdotal or ecclesiastical power conferred up on him by primogeniture in addition to his ordinary temporal power as a chief. In certain ceremonies of a tapu nature, such as at the exhumation and ascraping of the bones of the dead, there was a tapu oven of food set apart and of this only the first born could partake. But though the first born had always superior power by right ofpage 29primogeniture, he did not in the evolution of system retain a monopoly of priestly function. Others, always of high rank, were admitted to the priesthood and as such were imbued with tapu. Then, as all cadets of good houses, were instructed in certain necessary religious rites whereby they invoked the assistance of the supernatural powers to obtain success in hunting, battle, and the many occupations of life, the domain of tapu was still further widened so that it became an attribute of the aristocracy as well as of the priesthood. In this way, the chief's personal tapu was evolved. It is here that the "1statescraft cunningly devised in the interests of the nobility and the priests", which Jevons abandons, and Andrew Lang affirms, becomes apparent. The chiefs and priests had to keep up their mana, power, authority, prestige. Wealth in provisions, fine garments and greenstone, shown by holding great meetings and making judicious presents to other tribes and chiefs, contributed to one's mana. Prowess in the field of battle was another means. To maintain one's mana, one had to be feared. Here the attempt to make an artificial use of tapu was made. The man who was tapu was feared because he had supernatural "controls" to use a spiritualistic phrase. The ract that a person was tapu had to be kept before the people. It is natural that the tapu of a chief should spread to his pillow, to his hair, perhaps to his head ornaments, and to his hair-cutting and sunning places. Anyone tampering with these, was afflicted by the gods. But just as amongst the Jews, artificial observances grew up around the law of Moses, so, many artificial observances grew up around the main religious principles of tapu. Amongst the Aupouri tribe it is said that their high chiefs were so tapu that it was not advisable for flies to alight upon their sacred heads lest they should afterwards alight upon food, and so in turn

1 Jevon's History of Religion

page 30making that tapu. It was not right to hang garments up above a chief's pillow, or to pass cooked food over his head. The single window in the meeting house beneath which distinguished visitors slept, also partook of their tapu and thus cooked food could not be handed in through the window. Rain water from the roof of a meeting house could not be drunk or used for cooking purposes. Similarly the thatch or wood from such a house could not be used for cooking-fires. These examples derive their tapu from the chiefs or tohungas. But personal tapu had its limitations.

Though in some cases, arikis of high connection with many leading lines, were so tapu that the ground they trod upon, and everything they touched, became tapu, in the case of the majority personal tapu was not so highly charged with sanctity. Such men would have been too dangerous to the community. As it was, instances are given of such men being kept in houses raised from the ground as they were too tapu to walk about. Line-Matioro, the great East Coast Chieftainess, was carried about on a litter on account of her great tapu. Te Haramiti the blind tohunga, of the Ngapuhis when captured at the battle of Motiti, was pummelled to death as his blood was too sacred to be shed. But the ordinary tapu was not so virulent as this. The fact that a chief was tapu might have a protective influence over his property, but his ordinary property was not tapu, It was more the fear of the chief's mana (power) backed as it was to a certain extont by the fact that he was tapu, that prevented his property from being stolen. If the ornamental whalebone comb of a tapu chief was used by another, he would probably be attacked by the chief's atuas. The comb was tapu from resting on the tapu head. But if some ordinary property, such as a spear or fish-hooks were taken, punishment did not follow naturally at the hands of the gods, because the property was not tapu. The thief, page 31 if known, would be punished directly by the owner who must assert his mana. Or the owner of the stolen property would resort to witchcraft, especially in cases where he did not know who the thief was. In this case the gods punished but it was at the instigation of the chief. In the case of tapu the gods punished on their own initiative for it was their duty to protect their own tapu. This distinction is shown in the story of the great tohunga Turaukawa of the Ngatiruanui tribe. He was a man of intense tapu. His fish-hooks were stolen by his grand-child. The old man questioned the grandchild who denied the theft. Turaukawa thinking the culprit belonged to some other family, repeated the dread spells of witchcraft. The monsters of the deep in response upset the grandchild's canoe at sea, and he was drowned. Had the fish-hooks been tapu, there would have been no necessity to resort to witchcraft. But to the ordinary person, the mana of Turaukawa, derived from his rank, birth and tapu, would have been sufficient to protect his property. But the grandchild presumed upon his relationship. Even then he would have been spared had he confessed his crime.

When a tribe decided upon setting up a chief to have extreme power over them, he was made extra tapu. "Ka whakatutuaungia hei tangata mo te iwi." He was made tapu to be the man of the tribe. The power, authority and prestige of the tribe was centred in him. Any insult to him was an attempt to belittle the tribal mana and promptly punished by the people. We see here how an extra degree of tapu was used to assist his mana.

The artificial use of tapu is seen in the custom of "taunaha" or "bespeaking property". When the Arawa canoe, in the 14th. century, was approaching land off Maketu, various chiefs selected likely looking spots on page 32the mainland for their own property. Thus two chiefs named two valleys, the abdomens of their sons, whilst Tamat Kapua the captain of the canoe named a certain point "Te Kuruaitanga-o-te-ihu-o-Tama-te-kopua", (the bridge of the nose of Tamatekapua"). By naming these places as parts of their bodies, the idea was conveyed that the land partook of their personal tapu, The same procedure was often followed with regard to canoes or other desirable property ere yet they had been captured. It was putting in a strong prior claim to prohibit others from interfering. Should any person be rash enough to claim the bridge of the nose or the abdomen of a powerful chief, reprisal followed swift and sure. But this was not true tapu. It was not the gods who punished on their own initiative. It was the chief who punished directly, with spear or club, for his mana was in danger. He had sought to intimidate by endeavouring to convey the primary fear of tapu in association with the supernatural.

In the case of women in child-birth, the Maori idea of tapu can be followed. There was shedding of blood with the fear of setting up "atua kahukahu." At child-birth there were many ceremonies to promote easy delivery. The husband usually repeated sacred incantations and recited the genealogical table of the child's ancestors. Without the woman belonging actually to the gods, she was tapu from the nature of the ceremonies where the ancients were invoked to be favourable. When the child was born it was also of necessity tapu. It had emerged from the unknown world, it had blood upon it, and sacred incantations had been repeated over it. The mother became 'noa' after undergoing a certain ceremony and bathing in a stream. The child became 'noa' after it had been taken to the stream and baptised on the eighth day or so. Even a new house was tapu and could not be used until page 33 it was made 'noa' by special ceremony.

If a girl had been bethrothed as a child to a boy chief by the parents on both sides, she was tapu to this extent, that no-one could have sexual intercourse with her but her betrothed husband after marriage. If anyone did so punishment followed. But this was not true tapu. It was not the gods who punished but the enraged parents with their relatives. The mana of the parents, who made the betrothal, had been belittled. In a similar way, the daughter of high chief who had been specially enjoined to remain a virgin or "puhi", did not share in the degree of license allowed to the single of both sexes. Her fame spread as a "puhi" and her hand was eagerly dought. It remained for her parents to make some matrimonial alliance of distinction. Should, however, some one break through this tapu of a social nature, he was punished again by the tribe who had to uphold the mana of their chief. The gods were silent for true tapu was not involved. It has been stated that amongst the Maoris the single women are 'noa' and the married ones 'tapu'. This is a mistake. The married women were prohibited from sexual intercourse with anyone but their own husbands but this was not called tapu. The law was very strict, for adultery was punished by a "taua wahine", a war-party composed of the imjured husband and his tribesmen. Adultery was a 'hara' but it was a social sin, and punishment was administered with a blow from a weapon by the husband and confiscation of property by the war-party. It was not 'tapu' and the supernatural guardians of tapu never stirred.

We are here on the fringes or borders of tapu. States-craft in the hands of the nobility and priests had at this stage evolved the principle of mana. Mana implied the recognised authority constituted by birth, by the voice of the chiefs and by inherent ability. page 34In 'hara' where women were concerned, it was the mana of the parent or the husband that had been transgressed. The punishment that followed was at the hands of the tribe. Though tapu is loosely used in connection with betrothals and puhis in the sense of "thou shalt not touch what has been prohibited, it was recognised by the Maoris as an artificial tapu. When we go further afield with prohibitions, the term tapu is dropped altogether,

As a result of experience, it was recognised that food supplies had to be protected. States-craft was requisitioned. When a fishing ground was in danger of being fished out, a shell-fish ground of being depleted, or a forest of losing its birds, close seasons were declared. The chief issued an ultimatum against fishing or hunting in those Particular grounds and marked his authority by setting up a pole. On the sea-shore a piece of sea-weed, or a shell-fish was mounted on the pole; inland the branch of a particular tree or shrub, or even a human head. When, in the fulness of time, the grounds had recovered, the pole was knocked down by the chief, and the season opened. This was done sometimes when it was known that an extra supply of food was required for some great meeting at a future date. But this prohibition was not tapu, and it did not carry a supernatural significance. It was termed a "rahui", (close season) and the principle which upheld it was the mana of the chief who declared the rahui. Should anyone transgress it, he broke a social law and was punished by the chief and the tribe.

In the many instances of "1lawful days" and observances associated with other races which carried prohibitions not obvious to the civilised mind, I may say that they are equally not obvious to the Maori mind as instances of tapu. To turn back from a rain-

1 Magic and Religion (Andrew Lang)

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across the path was Huk necessary, not because the spot where the rainbow appeared was tapu, but because it was an ill omen. In a similar manner an English-woman prefers to step out into the street rather than pass beneath a ladder, not because the pavement beneath the ladder is taboo, but because walking beneath a ladder is supposed to bring bad luck. Thirteen at a table amongst Europeans, and an uneven number of rafters in a house amongst Maoris, are looked upon with disfavour. The two races avoid such a table or such a house because some one will die. Though evidently the European would call the table taboo, the Maori would never term the house tapu.

Jevons disposes of taboo as a religious observance by saying "1everything sacred is taboo, but everything taboo is not sacred". I have attempted to show that what the anthropologist means by taboo is different from what the Maori understands by tapu. Much of what has been regarded amongst other races as taboo, in the case of the Maori, come under prohibitions applied to "taunaha, puhi, rahui" and mere ill-omens. To adapt Jevons' statement to Maori "everything sacred is tapu, but everything taboo is not tapu". In other words everything tapu conveys or in the case of psuedo-tapu, seeks to convey, a sacred significance. I draw a distinction between taboo and tapu. In true tapu the punishment comes from the gods. In psuedo tapu the attempt is made to act upon the prevailing fear of the supernatural. Maori tapu, therefore, is a religious observance. The social aspect developed later. Tapu had a spontaneous origin in the fear of the supernatural, but was moulded by "2experience or what is believed to be experience; and the belief is fortified by suggestion which produces death or disease when the tapu is broken".

1 Jevans History of Religion

2 Andrew Lang's Magics and Religion.