468 RELIGION. CANNIBALISM. 



were generally treated with both kindness and respect. On 

 the whole, it must be admitted that the position of the women 

 among the New Zealanders was far from unsatisfactory. The 

 Maories were perpetually at war during life, and hoped to 

 continue so after death. Heaven they regarded as a place 

 where there would be continual feasts of fish and sweet 

 potatoes ; where they would be always fighting, and always 

 victorious. Whether they can be said to have had a religion, 

 or not, depends upon the meaning we attach to the word. 

 They believe in the survival of the soul, but not in the 

 resurrection of the body, an article of faith which, as Mr. 

 Marsden tells us, the missionaries could not induce them to 

 accept. They had no idea of an Almighty Deity. Speaking 

 to Mr. Taylor, Te Heuheu, chief of Taupo, ridiculed the idea. 

 " Is there," he asked, " one maker of all things amongst you 

 Europeans ? Is not one a carpenter, another a blacksmith, 

 another a ship-builder, and another a house-builder ? So it 

 was in the beginning ; one God made this, another that : Tane 

 made trees, Ku mountains, Tangaroa fish, and so forth. Your 

 religion is of to-day, ours from remote antiquity. Do not 

 think, then, to destroy our ancient faith with your fresh-born 

 religion."* 



Their principal deity was known as the Atoua, who was 

 a cruel cannibal like themselves. When any one was ill, 

 Atoua was supposed to be devouring his inside, and they 

 endeavoured to frighten him away by curses and threats.-f- 

 This we may regard as a kind of negative worship ; but oil 

 other occasions they certainly offered human and other sacri- 

 fices, in the vain hope of appeasing his wrath. They did not 

 worship idols, but many of the priests seem to have really 

 thought that they had been in actual communication with the 

 Atoua; and some of the early missionaries were inclined to 

 believe that Satan might have been permitted to practise 



* Dieffenbach, I.e. p, 13, t Missionary Register, Nov. 1819. 



