Smith. — On the Tohunga-Maori. 257 



acknowledged on all sides to be enormously superior to our- 

 selves, for instance ; and hence the history of the people was 

 retained with the greatest accuracy and with surprising detail. 

 This fact, however, is not sufficiently known to those who have 

 not had experience of it. It was with wonderment that I once 

 took down from an old Maori friend of mine 164 songs which 

 he knew by heart. It was only necessary to quote one of the 

 lines at any part, and he would sing the rest of the song quite 

 correctly, just as he had dictated it. Another Maori friend of 

 mine has written out 108 songs, whilst an old man of the Clre- 

 wera Tribe has actually dictated to Mr. Elsdon Best over 380 

 songs, karakias, &c. ; and he could generally tell the history 

 of them, and who was the composer. These are feats that 

 we, with our artificial memories, are incapable of. It was by 

 memories such as these that Polynesian history has been pre- 

 served. 



But in collecting their history care has to be exercised as 

 to the source from which it is obtained or it will not be 

 acknowledged by the tribes to whom it relates. Of this I 

 will give an illustration. Sir George Grey's " Polynesian 

 Mythology " is generally considered a standard work on the 

 traditions of the Maoris. Now, the major part of this book 

 deals with the Arawa traditions. These were written out by 

 Wiremu Maehe-Te-Eangikaheke, who was at that time about 

 thirty-five to forty years old. But Wiremu had never been 

 educated as a priest, and consequently many old men of the 

 Arawa Tribe will tell you that his work is a iJokanoa, or unau- 

 thorised proceeding, and not correct, inasmuch as it leaves out 

 much detail, and actions are frequently credited to the wrong 

 individuals. They have told me this themselves. This book 

 must be looked on, therefore, as an outline, the detail of which 

 is subject to correction. These remarks will not apply to 

 other parts of the work, for, as far as is known, they were 

 obtained from the proper authorities. 



There were rivalries and jealousies always existing between 

 the priests of different tribes, and the young people had con- 

 stantly impressed on them the necessity of adhering to the 

 teachings of their own priests as being the only orthodox his- 

 tory or ritual ; all other was wrong, and therefore dangerous. 

 Hence we find at the present day the traditions of different 

 tribes varying very much from others. I do not think this was 

 always so. There was a time in the history of the race when 

 the old beliefs and history were taught at great gatherings, 

 when chiefs and priests collected from the far-distant isles of 

 the Pacific to a central spot, and there the history was recited, 

 and a vast number of ceremonies performed the faint recollec- 

 tion alone of which remains. This was the period of the ori- 

 ginal toharekura, or house of learning, which, in its New Zea 

 17 



