64 



KNOWLEDGE. 



February, 1911. 



within the ix.uitly churchyard, the bod>'. in accor- 

 dance with .Maori custom, v.ii exhumed. Following 

 the practice of their anc.:'::'; the Maoris \\ould 

 remove the flesh from K-^--^t rangatira's bones 



with pieces of sharp - 'j3i:.;--n, and the Inmes would 

 be painted dark ree ried together with ropes of 

 grass, and deposits ; : : .i secret cave somewhere 

 among the neighl-r ;i.' : iiountains. 



At the large a/. _ ■:\'^-:: principal nati\e settlement nf 

 Mataatua, in tV i I'-iwera, is a much car\-ed temjile. 

 or praying her,:; .hich was built by the Hauhaus 

 to the men-' :;;■ - t their great warrior, priest, and 

 prophet, Te I u. Until recentl\- it was altogether 

 tapu : ii : .. ::. some reason not clearh- understood 

 by tl; v.riter, tapu seems to ha\e been partially 

 removed. But \isitors. liefore entering, pakehas not 

 excoiUed, are compelled to lea\-e outside such 

 mi; .dane articles as purses, tobacco, knives and 

 n aches. The presence of food within the building 

 ^^ould still be considered a desecration. This temple, 

 or wharetapu. is considered by authorities to be 

 probably the most interesting sj)ecimen of Maori 

 decorative architecture in New Zealand. Surmount- 

 ing the entrance to the temple, which is alwa\s 

 spoken of by the Maoris as " Te Whai-a-te-Motu."" 

 is a carved head or " teko-teko," dark red in colour, 

 its large, shell-made eyes aglitter. This represents 

 the warrior-chief. Te Unu-ariki, who. more than a 

 hundred years ago. was the most prominent bra\-e in 

 Tuhoeland. Below the " teko-teko," carved and 

 painted, appears a monster, half-dog, half-crocodile. 

 This effigy is that of Tangaroa, the enchanted dog 

 of Taneatua, a chief who, six hundred vears ago, 

 reached the Ba}- of Plent\- in the famous canoe. 

 Mataatua. The dog, according to Maori belief, was 

 left by Taneatua at a small lake among the Urewera 

 mountains, where it can still be seen as a " tipua," 

 or demon. Within the temple are inanv carved 

 images of entirely fabulous creatures, and numerous 

 extremely grotesque statues of the tribes' ancestral 

 heroes. 



Ancient Egypt is recalled by a visit to an old, 

 well-preserved, highly-decorated Maori settlement. 

 In the painted and sculptured scenes depicted on 

 Egyptian tombs the kings stand out boldlv in the 

 foreground, and their tall figures tower abo\-e all 

 else. So it is in Maoriland. The greatness of the 

 chief is represented by his colossal size. Rudeh- 

 drawn and glaringly coloured canoes are favourite 

 subjects with the Maori artist. Every canoe must 

 have its chief, and he is shown usualh- four times 

 taller than the others. Egyptian-like ideas, as well 

 as Grecian, still prevail as to the close connection 

 between gods and men, as between men and trees, 

 and certain lowly animals. Tane, the god of the 

 forests, yearly sheds his blood when the rata blooms 

 tinge the sombre woods and tree-covered hills with 

 glowing crimson. For misdeeds, and b\- the evil 

 agency of tohungas. men and women have been 

 transformed into rocks, into trees, and into 

 lizards. The Maoris claim to have descended from 

 different objects, animate and inanimate. HiL;h- 



born individuals, that is chiefs or rangatiras, favour 

 the genealogy that gives them the tuatara lizards for 

 ancestors. And that belief is b\' no means extinct 

 at the present time. Not man}- months ago. in the 

 New Zealand Native Land Court, a Maori title to 

 lands was in question. The appellant, who founded 

 his hereditary claim cm remote anticjuitx-. proceeded 

 to recite his list of distinguished forefathers. There 

 was Te So-and-So, the original holder of the land, 

 whose son was Te So-and-So. whose son was Te 



So-and-So "Hcjld on." called the judge. as the list 



was being rolled out —he knew the Maori wavs — 

 "These names you have been giving us. are they the 

 names of men?" "Oh no," replied the Maori, "not 

 come to men \"et. The names I give \'ou are of 

 tuataras." "I thought so." responded the judge, 

 " better ski[) the lizards and come to the men." 



" Muru" IS another Maori law descended from 

 remote antiquity. It means an act of re\-enge. or 

 of justice, carried i>ut b\- those \\ he) deem them- 

 selves wronged, against the wrongdoer, real or 

 imaginary. A man or woman commits what is 

 considered an offence against an individual, a family, 

 or a tribe, ^\hereu^)on all a\ailable members of that 

 tribe, who iiia\' be joined hx friends, swoop down 

 upon the offender, and carry off all his or her 

 possessions : everything is taken that can be trans- 

 ported or is capable of walking. A frequent cause 

 of muru was. and is, domestic infelicity. That the 

 muru-ing part\' was frequently of considerable 

 dimensions is seen trdiii its name — taiia muru, which 

 signifies "a hostile, plundering expedition." A fev\- 

 months ago. on the b!ay of I'lenty. the present writer 

 witnessed a jjrocess of muru-ing. A young man, 

 recenth' married and well off, as the average Maori 

 would consider, disappeared, and with him the 

 unmarried daughter of a neighbour. The delinquent 

 left behind him, not ever\'thing. l)Ut sufficient to 

 satisfy the inevitable taua muru. Had he removed 

 all his propert\' the friends of his discarded wife 

 \\ould have been justified — in their own eyes — in 

 raiding his relati\es. Two da\'S after the elopement 

 the taua muru arri\'ed at the home which was about 

 to be broken uj). The forsaken wife was there, by 

 no means broken-hearted. Indeed it was a nois\', 

 jubilant. jo\ial company of marauders. The greater 

 piart of a long morning was occupied in collecting the 

 plunder — naiueh'. bags of maize, quantities of 

 kumeras (sweet potatoesi. rewi (potatoes), and corn; 

 horses, dogs, pigs and poultry, household furniture 

 and utensils. It was a happy procession which 

 wended its way towards the west that evening ; 

 eyer\- member of the company, from the oldest to 

 the youngest, had secured a more or less \aluable 

 souvenir of the day's interesting proceedings. The 

 writer has been informed of a remarkable cause of 

 muru-ing which came to light two years ago, also on 

 the Ba\- of Plenty. A young child, for health 

 reasons, was brought from Tuhoeland to be nursed 

 b\- relatives on the coast. The child died, and its 

 father and his friends unflinchingly harried the 

 liospi table ct)ast- folks." 



