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The Aborigines of New Zealand: Two Lectures

The Religion and Superstitions of the New Zealanders

The Religion and Superstitions of the New Zealanders.

The knowledge of the true God was totally lost among them. Nor had they any tradition corresponding with the doctrine of the Trinity, like the Hindoo tradition of Brama and Vishna and Siva. They were not idolaters in the popular acceptation of the word. This appears to be the case with most of the other Islanders—they worship images, and have their gods' houses or sacred temples, where the gods reside and receive the homage of their worshippers. But this was never the case with the New Zealanders. Nevertheless they have gods many. Their mythology very much reminds one of classic Greece and Rome. They had a small number of gods of the first class, possessing various attributes. One, the creator of the Islands; another of man; another the god of war; another of thieves, and so forth. Then follows a multitude of inferior deities—gods of sea and and winds, tutelar divinities of towns, families, tribes, kumera; and malignant spirits, haunting woods, caves, and desert places, whose delight is to torment and annoy the human race.

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One of the principal gods is Ouenuku. He has his residence under the rainbow. He is regarded as a sort of presiding deity, that governs and controls all their affairs. The thunder is his voice. They seek his favour and guidance on going to war. If the rainbow, which is his sign, stands in front of them, or on their left side, it is an intimation of evil, and they instantly return home. Should it be seen on the right, then Ouenuku favours them, and they go forward, confident that they shall be victorious.

Mawe is another principal god. He fished the island from the sea. We generally see old maps of New Zealand with the northern island called “He mea hi no Mawe.” I have no doubt but the origin of this was, on Captain Cook asking the Natives the name of their country, they replied, He mea hi no Mawe; that is “It is a thing fished from the sea by Mawe. This was put down as the name of the country. Mawe is said to have had four sons. The father is named Mawe-i-mua. The sons, Mawe-i-roto; Mawe-i-taha; Mawe-tiki-tiki-o-te-rangi; and Mawe-potiki.

They have four Mawes in the Hawaiian mythology, with names very similar—Mawe-i-mua—hope—tiitii—and atalana.

Tiki is spoken of as the creator of man. He had a wife named Hinu-nui-te-po, by whom men were born to people the earth. The birth of her first-born was rendered remarkable by a little bird flying past and laughing at “Hine nui te po” at the birth. She was ashamed or offended, and strangled the child in the birth. This was the cause of death entering the world. But for the intrusion of this little bird there would have been no death and no night.

The Ngapuhi (the Northern tribes) have a curious tradition about Mawe and the first sunset. When Mawe saw darkness cover the earth, he immediately pursued the sun, and brought him back again in the morning, but had no power to keep him from running away again and causing night. He, however, tied a string to the sun, and fastened it to the moon, that as the former went down the other, being pulled after it by the superior power of the sun, may rise and give Mawe light during his absence. As the men of New Zealand offended him; and as he could not darken the sun to punish them, nor hide the moon for ever, he placed his hand between it and the earth, at stated seasons, that they may not enjoy the light it was intended to give. In this way the New Zealander accounts for day and night, and lunar changes.

Tu is the Mars of New Zealand—the god of war. To him they offered human sacrifices; the first prisoner taken in battle was sacred to Tu. His heart was taken out and roasted in a sacred oven, and then presented a great sacrifice to Tu. The body, too, was tapu. This was to propitiate the deity, make him favour them, and grant them success. Their war songs have constant reference to this god.

The following are specimens. The first is a sort of Dialogue-Song, in which a Chief, Hatupatu, just returned from battle after having slain his most powerful enemy, Karika, celebrates his achievement, exhibiting the tatooed head of his adversary, and comparing his own prowess with the lesser exploits of his brothers Hanui and Haroa. In the second part, his father replies in a strain of congratulation, setting forth especially the satisfaction which Tu, the god of war, had received.

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Hatupatu's Song of Triumph.
Your deeds are all eclipsed!
Hatupatu slew Karika;
By the tides of the sea
He displayed his prowess.
The doings of our day,
Let them be recorded!
Here is the face, tatooed on every side.
O the doings of our day!
Hanui, Haroa, where are your trophies?
Hatupatu's is here—'tis Karika!
By the tides of the sea
His prowess was distinguished.
O the doings of our day,
The doings of our day,
Let them be recorded!

Reply of his Father.
Whence have you come
Great travellers from Tu?
Have you come from the land—
Have you come from the sea—
Great travellers from Tu?
Ye have come from seeking vengeance;
From seeking satisfaction;—
From reaping revenge ye are come,
Great travellers from Tu.
Tu has received! Tu is enriched!
Tu is appeased with
A great atonement
Of this great day that we see!
He has received; he is enriched, and appeased;
He turns to us with a smile—
Ye travellers, great travellers from Tu.

The next is a Lament in which reference is made to Tu. It was sung on the death of a chief, whose body, it is stated, was actually (in the manner alluded to) cut into pieces, that parts of it might be sent to those who had been his enemies, to assure them of his having been actually slain; and his bones made into arrows with which to shoot birds. The allusions in the last verses are to the vengeance which the tribes were preparing to inflict upon the foes by whose hands he had fallen.

Lament of te Riutoto for Te Hiakai.
There dawns the day, it mounts aloft,
To remind me of the years in which he lived.
Oh! Hia, whose fame spread along the heavens!
The moon has lost her horn, 'tis broken.
My heart wert thou;
Thou wert beautiful as the Piki Kotuku.*
Thou didst swim to the south as a whale,
And to Tu thou wert carried by the winds.
To take the front of battle was thy wont.

* A large white crane.

page 16 Hadst thou but retired to the rear!
Oh! why did not that arm uplifted
Light upon the foe.
As in the battle front thou wert so fearless,
And led thy columns on to carry all their wrath.
Did they cut thee in pieces, that thine
Enemies might see their foe?
That Taupo, that Rotorua* might see thee too?
Did they make arrows of thy bones
With which to take the birds
That eat the Miro on the mountains of Titi?
Oh, Father, come back to our canoe!
It rolls, and there is none to steer it.
But soon the earth will quake;
The waters of the Waikato will flow out;
My joy is, that again the lightnings of heaven
Have rested upon Hakari
An omen of vengeance for thy death.

There is another class of gods which are only deified men; their own friends in fact, whom they suppose are all deified at death. These gods are supposed to sit on the tops of their houses, and to whistle to them, or they appear in the form of a lizard or an insect. I have seen an old chief sitting and looking with great earnestness at a beetle creeping over his garment, muttering to it. On asking a bystander the meaning of it, I received for reply, He atua nona—“It is a god of his.” I have sometimes thought these ideas may have originated in the ancient doctrine of Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls. They evidently have the idea that souls pass from one body to another.

This idea is suggested, too, by their fears of a god called a Taniwha. He is a sort of amphibious being, and can live either on land or in the water. His principle habitation, however, is the water, where he is seen in the form of an eel, or a shark, or some other fish. On the land he assumes the form of a large lizard, such as they say was very numerous, as long and thick as a man's leg;—the species is not yet extinct, but seldom seen. They say if a mother strangles her child, and throws it into the water, it becomes a Taniwha. Of this demon they are in great dread. He does all the mischief. If a canoe is upset it is a Taniwha seeking for victims. If any serious wound be received, it is the bite of the Taniwha.

Their gods are not regarded as beings possessed of any moral attributes, rendering them objects to be adored and loved: on the contrary, they were objects of constant dread; soon offended; punishing the most trivial offences, especially against the law of tapu; and hence the only motives by which they were influenced in their religious homage or service were, with very few exceptions, superstitious fear, revenge towards their enemies, a desire to avert the dreadful consequences of the anger of their gods, and to secure their sanction and aid in the commission of the greatest crimes.

* The enemies to whom portions of the body were sent.

A pine, the fruit of which is the favourite food of the wood-pigeon.

A mountain.

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By their rude mythology, the earth was filled with demons, and the sea too. The sentiment of Milton,

“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep,”

was familiar to their minds. They saw themselves surrounded by invisible beings, and saw in common occurrences of every day the movements of mighty spirits; and heard in the ocean's roar, the tempest's blast, the evening's breeze—the voices of the gods. The mountain's summit, the lonely dell, the desolate rock, the deep forest, were all regarded as the abode or resort of these invisible beings.

What a deliverance must the Gospel have brought to them! From what bondage must it have saved them! What tormenting fears must it have banished from their minds! What a contrast there exists between the gods of the heathen and the God of the Bible! But for the Bible and its revelations they must have remained in this bondage.

I have seen it stated that they worshipped the sun and the moon; but I believe this is a mistake—I never heard of such worship among the New Zealanders.