Cotenso.—On the Maori Races of New Zealand. 385 
danger rioting around, to see the old grey-haired man arise in his puny 
little vessel, and in a few simple words command the heavy breakers 
and the demon-guardian of the pass to listen to his powerful charms. 
All such, in his opinion, is a picture of man struggling for his true posi- 
tion in nature, as lord and master of her powers and gifts; although, 
alas, as yet he has them not. The brief ceremony over, the inspired ‘crew 
paddle away heartily, nothing doubting. Their credulity as to sorcery and 
necromancy, in all their branches, causing sickness and death, was universal 
and very great. Hence hair, saliva, &e., of chiefs were carefully buried, lest 
such should get into the sorcerer’s hands. The heads of the chiefs were 
always tabooed (tapu); hence they could not pass or sit under food hung 
up, or carry food, as others, on their backs; neither would they eat a meal 
in a house, nor touch a calabash of water in drinking. No one could touch 
their head, nor, indeed, commonly speak of it- or allude to it; to do so 
offensively was one of their heaviest curses and grossest insults, only to be 
wiped out with blood. Al fruits, vegetables, &c., which grew at a prohibited 
spot (wahi tapu) were not to be eaten or gathered. A tabooed child was 
noton any aecount to be washed; and common cooking fire was not to be 
used for warming a house, or a company-in the open air, nor lighting a pipe, 
lest the taboo should be broken, and penalties, sickness, and death ensue. 
38. Religion, according to both the true and popular meaning of the 
word, they had none. Whatever religion be defined to be—virtue, as 
founded upon the reverence of God, and expectation of future rewards and 
punishments, or any system of divine faith and worship—they knew nothing 
of the kind. They had neither doctrine nor dogma, neither cultus nor 
system of worship. They knew not of any Being who could properly be 
called God. They had no idols. They reverenced not the sun, or moon, or 
glittering heavenly host, or any natural phenomena; rather, when they 
chose, they derided them. The three principal beings, or rather personifi- 
cations—Zw, Whiro, and Tawhirimatea (all alike malignant, and ever hated 
by the New Zealander as the sole cause to them of pain, misery, and death, 
in war, in peace, and in voyaging)—were certainly never loved, or reverenced, 
or worshipped. The New Zealander knew better than to worship them. 
Sometimes in some of their karakia (recitals) the name of one or other of 
these imaginary beings would be mentioned, but it was done more by way 
of exorcism—to order him off, to bind: him down, or to abuse him. T ey 
never once«thought of getting any aid or good from them; they rather hoped 
(through their “ priests”) to overcome them, or their malignaney, by the 
power of their muttered karakia (recitations) acting like charms. More- 
over, in their own traditions and legends, they are sometimes represented as 
being ancestors of, or related to, their own (mythieal) progenitors. 
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