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The Story of a Maori Chief

“Pai Marire”

Pai Marire

The sect known by the euphonious name Pai Marire (Good and Peaceful) was later called Hauhau, from the repeated use of the phrase, “Rire, Rire, Hau,” by the worshippers. It means nothing. The founder of the sect was a page 61 half-witted old man of Opunake, Taranaki, named Te Ua Haumene. At Pukemaire a tall pole or niu was erected in the centre of the pa. A few feet from the ground a staging was erected on which the conductor of the ceremony, called “Tiu” or “Jew,” stood. First he calls out to the people:

Po-po rini, hoia, Tiu.
(“Fa-fall in, soldiers, Jew.”)

When the people, men, women and children, have fallen in he recites the following, the audience meanwhile marching round the niu:

“Po-po rini, hoia, Tiu.
E-whe, era, teihana,
Ta te Munu, tana niu.
Ingiki, teihana.
Rauna hanati, hau mene,
Tiurai, Tiamana, teihana.
Mene pana, riki mene,
Nama wana, nama tu, teihana.
Puritene, wai, kei,
O pi teihana,
Kiu, wana, tu, teri, po teihana.
Rewa, piki rewa, rongo rewa,
Tone, piki tone, teihana.
Mautini, piki mautini, rongo mautini.
Etc., etc.

I give what I think is the translation of this utter rubbish. It is simply transliterations of foreign words, strung together.

“Fa-fall in, soldiers, Jew,
F. L. attention!
It's Munu's, his niu.
Ink, attention!
Round shanty, how many.
Jews, Germans, attention!
Many fun, little many.
Number one, number two, attention!
Britain, Y. K.
O. P. attention!
Q. one, two, three, fa(all), attention!
River, big river, long river,
Stone, big stone, attention!
Mountain, big mountain, long mountain.
Etc., etc.

page 62

The people were so worked up after going round the niu so many times that they became giddy and frenzied.

I have taken the trouble to quote and translate a portion of the so-called incantation to show its absolute absurdity, and yet I have been told more than once that my grandfather was disloyal to his own race by fighting for the pakeha. I could hardly imagine my grandfather spinning round the niu with hundreds of frenzied fanatics. He was for his period of time remarkably free from superstition. The only superstition that I can remember, if he ever had one, was the itching of his nose, to which I refer in an earlier chapter.

And yet I have listened to incantations and pateres of which I could not make head or tail. It always seems to me that the essential thing is the mysterious jumble of words. And for that matter it is possible thousands of religious prayers and hymns are, in truth, no better than the Hauhau anthem.