Children of both sexes always wear the hair short like the men; but as the girls grow up, they allow the hair to grow, and permit it to flow over their shoulders on either side of the face. They do not part it, but bring it down over the forehead, and cut it in a straight line just above the eyebrows. When they marry, they allow the whole of the hair to grow, and part it in the middle. They do not plait or otherwise dress it, but merely allow it to hang loosely in its natural curls.
Hair-cutting is with the New Zealanders a long and tedious operation, and is conducted after the fashion which prevails in so many parts of the world. Not knowing the use of scissors, and being incapable of producing any cutting instrument with an edge keen enough to shave, they use a couple of shells for the operation, placing the edge of one under the hair that is to be cut, and scraping it with the edge of the other.
Although this plan is necessarily a very slow one, it is much more efficacious than might be imagined, and is able not only to cut the hair of the head, but to shave the stiff beards of the men. In performing the latter operation, the barber lays the edge of the lower shell upon the skin, and presses it well downward, so as to enable the upper shell to scrape off the hair close to the skin. Beard-shaving is necessarily a longer process than hair-cutting, because it is not possible to cut more than one or two hairs at a time, and each of them takes some little time in being rubbed asunder between the edges of the shells.
CHAPTER LXXXI.
NEW ZEALAND—Continued.
DOMESTIC LIFE.
CEREMONIES ATTENDANT ON BIRTH — PREVALENCE AND CAUSES OF INFANTICIDE — A CURIOUS INSTANCE OF SUPERSTITION — NAMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICATION — THE CEREMONY OF SPRINKLING — THE RECITATIONS — CHANGES OF NAME — MARRIAGE — COURTSHIP AND WIFE-SNATCHING — AMUSEMENTS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS — THE SWING, OR GIANT STRIDE — DRAUGHTS AND OTHER SEDENTARY GAMES — CHILDREN’S SPORTS — TOP-SPINNING, KITE-FLYING — AND CAT’S-CRADLE — SWIMMING AND DIVING — CURIOUS PETS: DOGS, PIGS, AND PARROTS — BALL-PLAYING — MUSIC AND SINGING — CHARACTER OF THE SONGS — MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS — THE FIFE, THE WAR TRUMPET, AND THE WAR BELL — CURIOUS MODE OF SALUTATION — THE “TANGI,” AND ITS LUDICROUS APPEARANCE — ITS WEARISOME EFFECT ON A FOREIGNER — UNCERTAIN TEMPER OF THE MAORIES — STRENGTH OF MEMORY, AND CURIOSITY.
We will now examine the domestic life of the New Zealander, and begin at the beginning, i. e. with his birth.
As is mostly the case in those nations which do not lead the artificial life of civilization, there is very little trouble or ceremony about the introduction of a new member of society. The mother does not trouble herself about medical attendants or nurses, but simply goes off into some retired place near a stream, and seldom takes with her even a companion of her own sex. When the baby is born, the mother bathes her child and then herself in the stream, ties the infant on her back, and in a short time resumes the business in which she was engaged. Until the child is named the mother is sacred, or “tapu,” and may not be touched by any one.
The New Zealand women are too often guilty of the crime of infanticide, as indeed might be imagined to be the case in a land where human life is held at so cheap a rate. Various causes combine to produce this result. If, for example, the child is deformed or seems sickly, it is sacrificed as an act of mercy toward itself, the Maories thinking that it is better for the scarcely conscious child to be destroyed at once than to die slowly under disease, or to live a despised life as a cripple.
Revenge, the leading characteristic of the Maori mind, has caused the death of many an infant, the mother being jealous of her husband, or being separated from him longer than she thinks to be necessary. Even a sudden quarrel will sometimes cause the woman, maddened by anger, to destroy her child in the hope of avenging herself upon her husband. Slave women often systematically destroy their children, from a desire to save them from the life of servitude to which they are born. In many cases the life of the child is sacrificed through superstitious terror.
A very curious example of such a case is given by Dr. Dieffenbach. A recently married wife of a young chief was sitting near a pah or village, on the fence of which an old priestess had hung her blanket. As is generally the case with New Zealand garments, the blanket was infested with vermin. The young woman saw one of these loathsome insects crawling on the blanket, caught it, and, according to the custom of the country, ate it. The old woman to whom the garment belonged flew into a violent passion, poured a volley of curses on the girl for meddling with the sacred garment of a priestess, and finished by prophesying that the delinquent would kill and eat the child which she was expecting.