CHAPTER XXXII
THE MAORIS
THIS morning I stood and watched a crowd of Maori girls and boys swimming together in one of the steaming pools near my hotel at Rotorua. The pool was about twenty feet square, and in it were a dozen children as naked as the day they were born. Steam rose from the water, and in the rays of the morning sun the brown bodies shone through the mist. One of the bathers was a girl of fourteen. She was pouring water over herself with a bucket, when I threw a silver sixpence into the pool. With all the rest she dived for it, finally emerging with the coin in her mouth. As I walked on to other pools I saw here and there the heads of men and women floating, as it were, upon the water. They were Maoris, but whether they were taking this method of getting warm or merely having their morning baths I do not know.
I have been into many of the Maori houses. They are a sort of cross between an Indian hut and an English tenant cottage. About Rotorua many of them are built directly over the steaming earth, and have warm bathing pools behind them. In this part of New Zealand old Mother Earth is kind to her Maori daughters; she does their cooking for them. They never have to make a fire or put the kettle on. Each woman has a steam cooker of her own, always at the right temperature. This cooker is usually an old wooden box with the lid knocked out and slats nailed on the bottom, sunk into the earth over a steam hole. The food is dropped in, an old piece of carpet or cloth is thrown over the top of the box, and in due time the meal is cooked.
Cooking is done also in the boiling pools. Potatoes are pared and put into bags made of a network of flax, each holding a quarter or half peck. The bag is dropped into the pool and tied with a string to a stake outside. In a little while the potatoes are ready for eating. Meat may be prepared the same way or it may be put into a bucket and steamed. In fact, the Rotorua Maoris, who now celebrate Christmas in British fashion, cook their plum puddings in these petty volcanoes.
In some places all the villagers cook at one great vat, and in others, such as Whakarewarewa, all do their washing in the same hot pool, the water of which is soft and cleansing.
It is surprising how few Maoris one sees in travelling through New Zealand. According to the last census there are about fifty-two thousand of the aborigines living in the Dominion, most of them on the North Island. The race is more than holding its own, and has increased by about ten thousand persons in the last thirty years. Most of the Maoris are scattered over the country in villages situated on lands reserved for them. They are represented in Parliament by four members, and although subject to the laws of New Zealand, they are governed largely through their own chiefs. The better class dress in European clothes, both men and women affecting bright colours.
No one knows where the Maoris came from, although a number of scientists are convinced that they navigated to the New Zealand islands from Hawaii. Others believe that they originated in Tahiti or Tonga. They have light brown complexions and high cheek bones and their noses are more like those of the Anglo-Saxon than of the North American Indian. The men are of magnificent physique, being tall, broad-shouldered heavyweights, with strong necks, big hands, and big feet. They excel in games, especially in football and other contests where quickness of eye and hand is essential. Nearly all of the men speak English. They are orderly and well-behaved, and even when drunk do not cause as much trouble as do our Indians.
I rather like the Maori women. The older ones are not especially good looking, but they seem well disposed and pleasant. Some of the younger ones are beautiful and many have rosy complexions. They have luxuriant dark hair, heavy eyebrows, and liquid black eyes full of soul. Some of them are clean and nearly all are intelligent. Their beauty vanishes with years. Now and then one sees an old native woman with her chin and lips tattooed, after the ancient fashion. This was a sign of a wife’s submission to her husband. The young women of to-day do not thus mar their good looks.
The Maoris used to be experts in tattooing. In the past both men and women decorated not only their faces but most of their bodies in that way. Every great chief had his face covered with ornamental spirals and designs picturing his exploits in battle and was tattooed on the thighs and hips in patterns that often extended from his knees to his waist, giving him the appearance of having on a pair of neat-fitting trunks.
The women were tattooed chiefly on the lips and chin, with a sort of fish-hook curl at the corner of each eye. Some of them had their thighs and breasts decorated. The tattooing instrument was a small bone chisel, which was driven in with a mallet. The pain was so great that the work could be done only a little at a time, and a complete job often took years.
When the British first came to New Zealand cannibalism was quite general among the Maoris. The tribes warred with one another, and after a battle there was always a feast of human flesh, in which the women were not allowed to join. The greatest insult one Maori could offer another was to hint that the man’s father had been eaten; for this was considered a family disgrace.
I have before me a paper that tells just how one of these cannibal feasts was conducted. The corpse of one of those killed in the fight was sacrificed to the god of war and the rest of the dead were given over to the braves who had taken part in the battle. The cooking ovens were dug out of the earth and the human flesh was thrown in and kept there for about twenty-four hours. When it was roasted the chief had the first bite, then his sons, and then the whole army. The eating was accompanied with singing and dancing, and all gorged themselves to such an extent that many died after the banquet. When the feast was over the remains were packed up in baskets and sent around to the neighbouring tribes. Any tribe that accepted the offering was supposed to have made a treaty of friendship with the senders and to be ready to fight with them thereafter.
“This morning I stood and watched a crowd of Maori girls and boys swimming together and diving for pennies in one of the steaming pools near my hotel at Rotorua.”
The Maori haka used to precede battles and was intended to work the braves into a fury, for the fight. Nowadays the hakas are frequently staged for the benefit of tourists.
In spite of their cannibalism, the Maoris were more advanced in civilization than our American Indians. They had a social organization of their own, the people of each tribe being divided into classes consisting of priests, chiefs, a middle class, and slaves. They were warlike and it is doubtful whether the British could have gained a foothold on the islands without great loss of life had it not been for the dissensions among the various tribes.
Maori marriage customs were much like those of savages in other parts of the world. Sometimes girls were carried off by force, and then the friends of the groom and the friends of the bride would fight each other. Both polygamy and divorce were allowed and the chiefs usually had several wives. The Maori gods were demons who were feared rather than reverenced or worshipped.
The men were fishers and fighters, and the women cooked the food, wove baskets, brought the firewood, and made the clothing. The men were not hunters, for there was no big game in the islands. They snared the wild pigeons and other birds. When Captain Cook came along in 1769 he left the natives the first pigs they had ever seen.
In the days of tribal warfare the natives often barricaded themselves within an enclosure called a pa, the term now used for their settlements. As day after day they pursued their policy of “watchful waiting” for their enemies, the men occupied themselves with wood carving, in which they became most expert. To-day one sometimes sees the doorways of their houses beautifully and accurately carved as in the olden times. They had no patterns but made up their designs as they went along.
The women used to make most elaborate and beautiful feather cloaks, plaiting the soft, downy plumage of the kiwi into woven flax. These cloaks were handed down from mother to daughter. Few are made nowadays, but they are sometimes worn on special occasions and in the poi dances.
For the poi dance the girls are dressed in kiwi-feather cloaks or in loose embroidered draperies of gay colours. Their long, wavy dark hair is confined only by ribbons about their foreheads. Usually their feet are bare. The dance gets its name from the two small balls of flax fibre with which each girl is provided. These are attached to strings and, as the girls go through various movements, representing such things as swimming, the flight of butterflies, the soaring of birds, or the rowing of a canoe, the poi balls are swung in perfect time. The music is a soft crooning, which is delightful, as the Maoris all have beautiful speaking and singing voices.
The men’s dance, the haka, is quite different. In olden times this usually preceded a battle and was intended not only to work the braves into a state of fury but also to put them in good condition for the fight. It calls into play practically every muscle of the body. It is always possible for tourists to see some kind of a haka, but only on great occasions, and for distinguished visitors, like the Prince of Wales, for example, is it witnessed in its true glory. Then Maoris, who in ordinary life may be doctors, lawyers, grocers, and landlords, put patches of black paint on their faces, array themselves in knee skirts of flax fibre, and arm themselves with feather-tufted spears. With their bodies bare to the waist and with bare feet and legs, they leap and stamp, stick out their tongues, and make faces such as the old natives believed would frighten their enemies, give sharp barking shouts, slap their knees, and swing their spears in perfect time to the music of a band.
In their primitive state the Maoris were, of course, superstitious and traces of their ancient beliefs are still to be found. For instance, near the native fort at Rotorua is a kind of bird box set on top of a pole. This was a spirit house, and when danger was near, the spirit who lived in it was supposed to shout out a warning to the people. Within the memory of old native women the Maoris used to put food in the box for the spirit.
Like other South Sea Islanders the Maoris believed in the tapu, by which certain things were forbidden. For example, a chief, his family, and his belongings were tapu. A chief who touched his own head must put his fingers to his nose and snuff up the sacred contagion from his head or else he would suffer the consequences of tapu. One might make a tree tapu by giving it a chop with an axe. Certain animals, places, and foods were forbidden. There are cases on record where natives in perfect health died in great agony after finding they had made a mistake and eaten some food that was tapu. Charms were worn to ward off evil. The most common was a piece of green stone carved into a grotesque figure with rolling eyes and tongue lolling out. This is the tiki, or green charm, which is still often worn by the native women on chains about their necks.
It gives one an idea of how recently the Maoris were savages, feared by the pioneers, to hear the story of the first white man born in the Wellington District, who is still alive. He remembers how one night when he was three or four years of age the Maoris came upon the hut that his parents had set up in the bush. The older people were obliged to run for their lives, but the child was too heavy to carry and could not walk well. If they tried to take him, all might be captured and killed. So he was thrust far up the chimney and told that whatever happened he must make no sound. There he spent the rest of the night, without a cry, while the Maoris searched the house and took away whatever struck their fancies. In the morning, after the natives had left, his parents returned and took him down from his perch, half dead with fright and exhaustion.
Yet the grandchildren of those uncivilized Maoris are to-day occupying important positions in the Dominion, acting as members of Parliament and making good in various professions. They had their own battalion in the Anzac forces in the World War and were conspicuous for bravery. Many of them married French girls. The cultured Maori is received in any society. The outstanding orator of New Zealand is Sir James Carroll, the son of an Irishman and a full-blooded Maori woman. He has served in the highest position his country can bestow, for he has been acting Prime Minister of the Dominion.
In New Zealand, while intermarriage with the Maoris is not exactly favoured, neither is it actually frowned upon, and the number of half castes is increasing. Still, one hears gossip about mixed marriages. There is the case of a wealthy New Zealand girl who announced her intention of marrying a native. Her mother was opposed and took her daughter on a trip around the world. But the girl returned and married her Maori. Her children are rather dark, yet they go everywhere. Another case I have heard of is that of an Englishman of good family who married a native and took her to England. Their children were educated on the Continent and did not realize the status of their mother until their father died and she returned with them to New Zealand. Then she went back to her Maori relations. The oldest daughter was engaged to an officer in the British army, but broke her engagement when she found out about the roots of her family tree.
The Maoris now own about five million acres of land in the Dominion, by far the larger part of it in the North Island. They are fairly good farmers, though inclined to be indolent. Sometimes a native will sell some of his land, take the cash, and live high while it lasts. The less educated man who comes into money usually gets himself a high-powered car and a loud checked suit; he buys his wife an expensive fur coat and makes all the display possible. The natives are protected by the government through special land boards, which will not allow a Maori to part with all his land.