CoLENSO. — On the Maori Baees of Neio Zealand. 385 



danger riotiug around, to see tlie 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, &c., 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. All fruits, vegetables, &c., which grew at a prohibited 

 spot (walii tapu) were not to be eaten or gathered. A tabooed child was 

 not on any account 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. Eeligion, 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 Grod, 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 Grod. 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 — Tit, JVhiro, and Taivliiriinatea (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. They 

 never once thought of getting any aid or good from them ; they rather hoped 

 (through their "priests") to overcome them, or their malignancy, 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 (mythical) progenitors. 

 49 



