Chapter I: The Belief in Immortality Among the Maoris (1)

Sec. 1. _The Polynesians_

The Polynesians are the tall brown race of men who inhabit the widely scattered islands of the Pacific, from Hawaii on the north to New Zealand on the south, and from Tonga on the west to Easter Island on the east.[1] Down to the eighteenth century they remained practically unknown to Europe; the first navigator to bring back comparatively full and accurate information concerning them was our great English explorer, Captain James Cook. Thus at the date of their discovery the natives were quite unaffected by European influence: of our civilisation they knew nothing: of Christianity, though it had existed in the world for nearly eighteen hundred years, they had never heard: they were totally ignorant of the metals, and had made so little progress in the arts of life that in most of the islands pottery was unknown,[2] and even so simple an invention as that of bows and arrows for use in war had not been thought of.[3] Hence their condition was of great interest to students of the early history of man, since it presented to their observation the spectacle of a barbaric culture evolved from an immemorial past in complete independence of those material, intellectual, and moral forces which have moulded the character of modern European nations. The lateness of their discovery may also be reckoned a fortunate circumstance for us as well as for them, since it fell at a time when scientific curiosity was fully awakened among us, and when scientific methods were sufficiently understood to allow us to study with profit a state of society which differed so widely from our own, and which in an earlier and less enlightened age might have been contemplated only with aversion and disgust.

[1] Horatio Hale, _The United States Exploring Expedition,
Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), pp. 4 _sqq_.,
9 _sqq._; J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (London, 1900), pp. 500
_sqq._

[2] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_ (London, 1900), pp. 154, 501;
_British Museum, Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections_
(1910), p. 147.

[3] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_ (London, 1809), v. 416; W.
Mariner, _Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands_, Second
Edition (London, 1818), i. 67; W. Ellis, _Polynesian
Researches_, Second Edition (London, 1832-1836), i. 220; E.
Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,
Second Edition (London, 1856), p. 212; J. Deniker, _The Races of
Man_, p. 501. In Polynesia "the bow was not a serious weapon; it
was found in some islands, _e.g._ in Tahiti and Tonga, but was
principally used for killing rats or in shooting matches"
(_British Museum, Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections_,
p. 153). As to the limited use of bows and arrows in Polynesia,
see further E. Tregear, "The Polynesian Bow," _Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, vol. i. no. 1 (April 1892), pp. 56-59; W.
H. R. Rivers, _The History of Melanesian Society_ (Cambridge,
1914), ii. 446 _sqq._

The question of the origin of the Polynesian race is still unsettled, but the balance both of evidence and of probability seems to incline in favour of the view that the people are descended from one of the yellow Mongoloid races of South-Eastern Asia, who gradually spread eastward over the Indian Archipelago and intermingling to some extent with the black aboriginal inhabitants of the islands formed the lighter-tinted brown race which we call the Polynesian.[4] A strong argument in favour of this theory is drawn from the Polynesian language, which belongs essentially to the same family of speech as the Melanesian and Malay languages spoken by the peoples who occupy the islands that intervene between Polynesia and the south-eastern extremity of the Asiatic continent.[5] The black Melanesian race occupies the south-eastern portion of New Guinea and the chain of islands which stretches in a great curve round the north-eastern coasts of New Guinea and Australia. The brown Malays, with the kindred Indonesians and a small admixture of negritoes, inhabit the islands westward from New Guinea to the Malay Peninsula.[6] Of the two kindred languages, the Polynesian and the Melanesian, the older in point of structure appears unquestionably to be the Melanesian; for it is richer both in sounds and in grammatical forms than the Polynesian, which may accordingly be regarded as its later and simplified descendant.[7]

[4] Compare (Sir) E. B. Tylor, _Anthropology_ (London, 1881), p.
102; R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesian Languages_ (Oxford,
1885), pp. 33 _sqq._; S. Percy Smith, _Hawaiki, the Original
Home of the Maori_ (Christchurch, etc., New Zealand, 1910), pp.
85 _sqq._; A. C. Haddon, _The Wanderings of Peoples_ (Cambridge,
1919), pp. 34 _sqq._; A. H. Keane, _Man Past and Present_,
revised by A. Hingston-Quiggin and A. C. Haddon (Cambridge,
1920), p. 552.

[5] On the affinity of the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Malay
languages, see R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesian Languages_
(Oxford, 1885), pp. 10 _sqq._; S. H. Ray, "The Polynesian
Language in Melanesia," _Anthropos_, xiv.-xv. (1919-1920), pp.
46 _sqq._

[6] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_, pp. 482 _sqq._

[7] _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to
Torres Straits_, vol. iii. _Linguistics_, by Sydney H. Ray
(Cambridge, 1907), p. 528 (as to the relation of the Polynesian
to the Melanesian language). As to the poverty of the Polynesian
language in sounds and grammatical forms by comparison with the
Melanesian, see R. H. Codrington, _The Melanesian Languages_, p.
11.

But whereas the three peoples, the Polynesians, the Melanesians, and the Malays speak languages belonging to the same family, their physical types are so different that it seems impossible to look on the brown straight-haired Polynesians and Malays as pure descendants of the swarthy frizzly-haired Melanesians. Accordingly in the present state of our knowledge, or rather ignorance, the most reasonable hypothesis would appear to be that the Melanesians, who occupy a central position in the great ocean, between the Polynesians on the east and the Malays on the west, represent the original inhabitants of the islands, while the Polynesians and Malays represent successive swarms of emigrants, who hived off from the Asiatic continent, and making their way eastward over the islands partially displaced and partially blent with the aborigines, modifying their own physical type in the process and exchanging their original language for that of the islanders, which, through their inability to assimilate it, they acquired only in corrupt or degenerate forms.[8] Yet a serious difficulty meets us on this hypothesis. For both the Polynesians and the Malays, as we know them, stand at a decidedly higher level of culture, socially and intellectually, than the Melanesians, and it is hard to understand why with this advantage they should have fallen into a position of linguistic subordination to them, for as a rule it is the higher race which imposes its language on its inferiors, not the lower race which succeeds in foisting its speech on its superiors.

[8] This seems to be the hypothesis favoured by Dr. R. H.
Codrington, _The Melanesian Languages_, pp. 33 _sqq._ Compare J.
Deniker, _The Races of Man_, p. 505. On the other hand Sir E. B.
Tylor says (_Anthropology_, pp. 163 _sq._), "The parent language
of this family may have belonged to Asia, for in the Malay
region the grammar is more complex, and words are found like
_tasik_ = sea and _langit_ = sky, while in the distant islands
of New Zealand and Hawaii these have come down to _tai_ and
_lai_, as though the language became shrunk and formless as the
race migrated further from home, and sank into the barbaric life
of ocean islanders." Dr. W. H. R. Rivers suggests that the
Polynesian language "arose out of a pidgin Indonesian" (_The
History of Melanesian Society_, ii. 584).

But these are intricate questions which await future investigation. I cannot enter into them now, but must confine myself to my immediate subject, the beliefs of the Polynesians concerning the human soul and the life after death.

In spite of their diffusion over a multitude of islands separated from each other by hundreds and even thousands of miles of ocean, the Polynesians are on the whole a remarkably homogeneous race in physical type, language, and forms of society and religion. The differences of language between them are inconsiderable, amounting to little more than some well-marked dialectical variations: all dwell in settled homes and subsist partly by fishing partly by the fruits of the earth, tilling the soil and gathering coconuts and bread-fruit from the trees:[9] all are bold and expert mariners, making long voyages in large well-built canoes: all possess a copious and comparatively well developed mythology; and all at the time of their discovery enjoyed, or perhaps we should rather say suffered from, a singular institution, half social, half religious, which may be summed up in the single Polynesian word taboo. Hence it would no doubt be possible to give a general account of the belief in human immortality which would hold good in outline for all the different branches of the Polynesian race; but such an account would necessarily be somewhat meagre, inexact in detail, and liable to many exceptions. Accordingly I shall not attempt it, but shall describe the creed of each group of islanders separately. As the beliefs of the various islanders on this momentous topic are characterised by a general similarity, the method I have adopted will no doubt involve a certain sameness and repetition, but for the serious student of comparative religion I hope that these disadvantages may be more than outweighed by the greater accuracy and fulness of detail which this mode of treating the subject renders possible.

[9] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_, p. 501. On the apparent
homogeneity of the Polynesian race see W. H. R. Rivers, _The
History of Melanesian Society_ (Cambridge, 1914), ii. 280, who,
however, argues (ii. 280 _sqq._) that the race has been formed
by the fusion of two distinct peoples.

The principal groups of islands included in Polynesia are New Zealand, the Friendly or Tonga Islands, the Samoan or Navigators Islands, the Hervey or Cook Islands, the Society Islands, including Tahiti, the Marquesas Islands, and Hawaii or the Sandwich Islands.[10] All of them, except New Zealand, are within the tropics; and all of them, except Hawaii, lie to the south of the equator. I shall deal with them in the order I have mentioned, beginning with New Zealand.

[10] Horatio Hale, _United States Exploring Expedition,
Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), pp. 4 _sqq._

Sec. 2. _The Maoris of New Zealand_

The Maoris of New Zealand are not aborigines of the islands which they inhabit: they possess long and apparently in the main trustworthy traditions of their migration to New Zealand many generations ago. The circumstances which led to the migration, the names of the canoes in which it was accomplished, the names and genealogies of the chiefs who conducted it, are all recorded, having been handed on by word of mouth from generation to generation, till they were finally written down from the lips of the natives by English enquirers.[11] The place from which the Maoris came is unanimously designated as Hawaiki, an island or group of islands lying far to the north or north-east of New Zealand. Among English scholars there is some difference of opinion whether Hawaiki is to be identified with Hawaii, that is, the Sandwich Islands, or with Savaii, one of the Samoan or Navigators Islands, since Hawaii and Savaii are both dialectical variations of the New Zealander's pronunciation of Hawaiki.[12] Though Hawaii is more than twice as far as Savaii from New Zealand, being separated from it by almost the whole breadth of the tropics and a great stretch of ocean besides, some good authorities have inclined to regard it as the original home of the Maoris, but the balance of opinion appears now to preponderate in favour of the view that Savaii was the centre from which the Polynesians dispersed all over the Pacific.[13] However, the question is one that hardly admits of a positive answer.

[11] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_ (London, 1843),
ii. 85 _sqq._; Horatio Hale, _United States Exploring
Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia, 1846), pp.
146 _sqq._; Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_ (London,
1855), pp. 123 _sqq._, 136 _sqq._, 162 _sqq._, 202 _sqq._; E.
Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_,
Second Edition (London, 1856), pp. 1 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika
A Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_, Second Edition
(London, 1870), pp. 26, 27, 289 _sqq._; John White, _The Ancient
History of the Maori, his Mythology and Traditions_ (London,
1887-1889), ii. 176 _sqq._; Elsdon Best, "The Peopling of New
Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) pp. 73-76. The number of
generations which have elapsed since the migration to New
Zealand is variously estimated. Writing about the middle of the
nineteenth century Shortland reckoned the number at about
eighteen; Mr. Elsdon Best, writing in 1914, variously calculated
it at about twenty-eight or twenty-nine (on p. 73) and from
eighteen to twenty-eight (on p. 74).

[12] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, p. 33.

[13] H. Hale, _Ethnography and Philology of the U.S. Exploring
Expedition_, pp. 119 _sq._; E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New
Zealand_ (London, 1843), ii. 85 _sqq._; E. Shortland,
_Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 33
_sqq._; A. S. Thomson, _The Story of New Zealand_ (London,
1859), i. 57 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 26; E.
Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_ (Wellington,
N.Z., 1891), pp. 56 _sqq._, _s.v._ "Hawaiki"; A. C. Haddon, _The
Wanderings of Peoples_ (Cambridge, 1919), p. 36. Of these
writers, Dieffenbach, Shortland, and Taylor decide in favour of
Hawaii; Thomson, Hale, and Haddon prefer Savaii; Tregear seems
to leave the question open, pointing out that "the inhabitants
of those islands themselves believe in another Hawaiki, neither
in Samoa nor Hawaii."

The Maoris are not a pure-blooded Polynesian race. Among them even at the present day two distinct racial types may be distinguished, one of them the comparatively fair Polynesian type with straight nose and good features, the other the swarthy, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, frizzly-haired Melanesian type. They have a tradition that on their arrival in New Zealand they found the country in the possession of a dark-skinned folk of repulsive appearance, tall, spare, and spindle-shanked, with flat faces, overhanging brows, and noses of which little but the upturned nostrils could in some cases be discerned. These savages wore little clothing and built no good houses, nothing but rude shelters against the inclemency of the weather. They were ignorant and treacherous, and the Maoris regarded them with dislike and contempt; but their women looked with favour on the handsome Maori men, and a mixture of the two races was the result. This tradition both explains and is confirmed by the two different racial types which still exist side by side or blent together among the Maoris. It seems, therefore, highly probable that before the advent of the Maoris the North Island of New Zealand was occupied by a people of inferior culture belonging to the Melanesian stock, who may themselves have had a strain of Polynesian blood in their veins and some Polynesian words in their language. This at least is suggested by some features in the Maori traditions about them. For these savages told the Maoris that they were the descendants of the crews of three fishing canoes which had been driven to sea from their own land in past times, and that their original home was a much warmer country than New Zealand. All these various indications may perhaps be reconciled by supposing that the dark predecessors of the Maoris in New Zealand were a Melanesian people, who had accidentally drifted from Fiji, the inhabitants of which have long been in contact with their Polynesian neighbours on the east, the Tongans.[14] They received from the Maoris the name of Maruiwi,[15] and were perhaps of the same stock as the Moriori of the Chatham Islands; for two skulls of the Moriori type have been found in an old deposit at Wanganui, near the south end of the North Island of New Zealand.[16]

[14] Elsdon Best, "The Peopling of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv.
(1914) pp. 73-76. The Melanesian strain in the Maoris was
recognised by previous writers. See J. S. Polack, _Manners and
Customs of the New Zealanders_ (London, 1840), i. 6, "The nation
consists of two aboriginal and distinct races, differing, at an
earlier period, as much from each other as both are similarly
removed in similitude from Europeans. A series of intermarriages
for centuries has not even yet obliterated the marked difference
that originally stamped the descendant of the now amalgamated
races. The first may be known by a dark-brown complexion, well
formed and prominent features, erect muscular proportions, and
lank hair, with a boldness in the gait of a warrior, wholly
differing from that of the second and inferior race, who have a
complexion brown-black, hair inclining to the wool, like the
Eastern African, stature short, and skin exceeding soft." The
writer rightly connects the latter people with the stock which
we now call Melanesian. Compare also R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_,
pp. 13 _sqq._, who says (p. 13), "The Melanesian preceded the
Polynesian.... The remains of this race are to be seen in every
part of New Zealand, especially among the Nga-ti-ka-hunu, to
which the derisive name of Pokerekahu--Black Kumara--is applied.
The Maori traditions preserve both the names of the canoes which
brought them to New Zealand, as well as of the chiefs who
commanded them; several of these records make mention of their
having found this black race in occupation of the country on
their arrival." The blending of two distinct races, a
light-brown and a dark race, among the Maoris is clearly
recognised by E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii.
8-11. The dark race, he says (pp. 9 _sq._), "has undoubtedly a
different origin. This is proved by their less regularly shaped
cranium, which is rather more compressed from the sides, by
their full and large features, prominent cheek-bones, full lips,
small ears, curly and coarse, although not woolly, hair, a much
deeper colour of the skin, and a short and rather
ill-proportioned figure. This race, which is mixed in insensible
gradations with the former, is far less numerous; it does not
predominate in any one part of the island, nor does it occupy
any particular station in a tribe, and there is no difference
made between the two races amongst themselves; but I must
observe that I never met any man of consequence belonging to
this race, and that, although free men, they occupy the lower
grades; from this we may perhaps infer the relation in which
they stood to the earliest native immigrants into the country,
although their traditions and legends are silent on the
subject."

[15] Elsdon Best, "The Peopling of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv.
(1914) pp. 73 _sq._

[16] (Sir) Arthur Keith, "Moriori in New Zealand," _Man_, xiii.
(1913) pp. 171 _sq._

At the time of their discovery the Maoris had attained to a fair level of barbaric culture. They lived in comfortable houses ornamented with carved work and with scrolls painted in red and white on the posts and beams. Their villages were fortified with earthworks, palisades, and trenches, and surrounded by large gardens planted with sweet potatoes, taro, and melons.[17] "They excel in tillage," says Captain Cook, as might naturally be expected, where the person that sows is to eat the produce, and where there is so little besides that can be eaten: when we first came to Tegadoo, a district between Poverty Bay and East Cape, their crops were just covered, and not yet begun to sprout; the mould was as smooth as in a garden, and every root had its small hillock, ranged in a regular quincunx, by lines, which with the pegs were still remaining in the field.[18] They understood the arts of irrigating their gardens[19] and of manuring them so as to render the soil light and porous and therefore better suited for the growth of the sweet potato, their favourite food. For this purpose they used sand, and in the Waikatoo district, where the root was formerly much cultivated, deep excavations, like the gravel pits of England, may still be seen, from which the natives extracted sand to fertilise their gardens.[20] Moreover, they cultivated various species of native flax and used the fibre for the manufacture of garments, first scraping it and drying it in the sun, then steeping it in water, and afterwards beating it with wooden mallets. Thus prepared the flax was dyed black or reddish brown and woven into cloth with broad borders of neat and varied patterns. The stronger and coarser fibres were made into string, lines, and cordage of all sorts.[21] The Maoris also built large and magnificently adorned canoes,[22] in which they made long voyages; for example, they invaded and conquered the Chatham Islands, which lie to the eastward across the open sea about five hundred miles distant from the nearest coast of New Zealand.[23] In hunting they had little opportunity to shine, for the simple reason that in their country there were no beasts to hunt except rats;[24] even birds they could not shoot, because they had no bows and arrows to shoot them with,[25] but they made some amends by catching them in ingeniously constructed snares.[26] They caught fish both with nets, some of which were of enormous size, and with hooks made of bone or shell.[27] They displayed great skill and infinite patience in fashioning, sharpening, and polishing their stone implements and weapons.[28] In council they were orators, and in the battlefield warriors whose courage has merited the respect, and whose military skill has won the admiration of the British troops opposed to them.[29] In short, the Maoris were and are one of the most highly gifted among the many uncivilised peoples which the English race, in its expansion over the world, has met and subdued. It is therefore of peculiar interest to learn what conceptions they had formed of man's spiritual nature and his relations to the higher powers.

[17] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the Maoris_,
p. 202. The elaborate system of fortification employed by the
Maoris, of which the remains may be seen by thousands, seems to
have no exact parallel in Polynesia. See Elsdon Best, "The
Peopling of New Zealand," _Man_, xiv. (1914) p. 75. These native
forts or _pas_, as they were called, had often a double or even
quadruple line of fence, the innermost formed by great poles
twenty or thirty feet high, which were tightly woven together by
the fibrous roots of a creeper. They were built by preference on
hills, the sides of which were scarped and terraced to assist
the defence. Some of them were very extensive and are said to
have contained from one to two thousand inhabitants. Many of
them were immensely strong and practically impregnable in the
absence of artillery. It is believed that the habit of
fortifying their villages was characteristic of the older race
whom the Maoris, on landing in New Zealand, found in occupation
of the country. See W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_
(London, 1835), pp. 122 _sqq._; G. F. Angas, _Savage Life and
Scenes in Australia and New Zealand_ (London, 1847), i. 332
_sq._; Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maoris of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_,
vol. xii. no. 4 (December 1903), pp. 204 _sqq._; W. H. Skinner,
"The Ancient Fortified _Pa_," _Journal of the Polynesian
Society_, vol. xx. no. 78 (June 1911), pp. 71-77.

[18] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_ (London, 1809), ii. 50.

[19] The ruins of native irrigation works are to be found in New
Zealand as well as in other parts of Polynesia (J. Deniker, _The
Races of Man_, p. 501).

[20] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 202 _sq._

[21] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, ii. 30 _sq._, 40 _sq._; W.
Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_ (London, 1835), pp. 157
_sqq._; E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 204 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 5.

[22] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, ii. 47 _sq._; W. Yate, _op.
cit._ pp. 161 _sqq._

[23] A. Shand, "The Occupation of the Chatham Islands by the
Maoris in 1835," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol. i.
no. 2 (July 1892), pp. 83 _sqq._

[24] R. Taylor, _op. cit._ p. 496; A. R. Wallace, _Australasia_
(London, 1913), pp. 442 _sq._

[25] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, p. 212; Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as
conducted by the Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, vol. xi. no. 4 (December 1902), p. 240.

[26] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, pp. 212 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 442
_sq._

[27] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, i. 49 _sq._; W. Yate, _An
Account of New Zealand_, p. 160.

[28] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, ii. 49; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A
Maui_, p. 4.

[29] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 4. The Maoris delivered set
speeches composed according to certain recognised laws of
rhetoric, and their oratory was distinguished by a native
eloquence and grace. See E. Shortland, _Traditions and
Superstitions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 186 _sqq._

Sec. 3. _The Beliefs of the Maoris concerning the Souls of the Living_

Like most other peoples, whether savage or civilised, the Maoris explained the mystery of life in man by the presence of an invisible spirit or soul, which animates his body during life and quits it at death to survive the separation for a longer or shorter time either in this world or another. But like many others who have sought to fathom this profound subject, the Maoris would seem to have experienced some difficulty in ascertaining the precise nature of the human soul. When the natural man, on the strength of his native faculties, essays to explore these dark abysses and to put his vague thoughts into words, he commonly compares his soul either to his breath or to his shadow and his reflection, and not content with a simple comparison he is led, by a natural confusion of thought, to identify more or less closely the imperceptible entity which he calls his soul with one or both of these perceptible objects. To this general rule the Maori is apparently no exception. He has two words which he specially uses to designate the human spirit or soul: one is _wairua_, the other is _hau_.[30] Of these words, _wairua_, the more usual name, is said to mean also a shadow, an unsubstantial image, a reflection, as of a person's face from a polished surface;[31] and we may surmise that these were the original and proper meanings of the term. Similarly _hau_, which is described as "the vital essence or life principle" in man,[32] appears primarily to mean "wind,"[33] from which we may infer that in its application to man it denotes properly the breath. The idea of the soul as a breath appears in the explanation which was given to Dumont d'Urville of the Maori form of salutation by rubbing noses together. The French traveller was told that the real intention of this salute was to mingle the breath and thereby the souls of the persons who gave each other this token of friendship. But as his informant was not a Maori but a certain Mr. Kendall, the truth of the explanation remains doubtful, though the Frenchman believed that he obtained confirmation of it from his own observation and the testimony of a native.[34] On the other hand the comparison of the soul to a shadow comes out in the answer given by a Maori to an Englishman who had asked him why his people did not prevent their souls from passing away to the nether world. The Maori replied by pointing to the Englishman's shadow on the wall and asking him whether he could catch it.[35]

[30] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), pp. 177
_sqq._, 189 _sqq._

[31] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.
591 _sq._, _s.v._ "wairua."

[32] Elsdon Best, _op. cit._ p. 189.

[33] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p.
52, _s.v._ "hau"; Elsdon Best, _op. cit._ p. 190.

[34] J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la
recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833),
ii. 558 _sq._

[35] William Brown, _New Zealand and its Aborigines_ (London,
1845), p. 81.

Thus far the Maori conception of the soul does not perhaps differ very materially from the popular notion of it current among ourselves. But we come now to a marked difference between the Maori idea of the soul and our own. For whereas the European commonly believes his soul to be fixed during life immovably in his body, and only to depart from it once for all at death, the soul of the Maori is under no such narrow restrictions, but is free to quit its bodily mansion at pleasure and to return to it without prejudice to the life and health of its owner. For example, the Maori explains a dream by supposing that the soul of the sleeper has left his body behind and rambled away to places more or less distant, where it converses with the spirits of other people, whether alive or dead. Hence no well-bred Maori would waken a sleeper suddenly by shaking him or calling out to him in a loud voice. If he must rouse him, he will do it gradually, speaking to him at first in low tones and then raising his voice by degrees, in order to give the truant soul fair warning and allow it to return at leisure.[36] Believing in the power of the soul to wander far away and converse with other spiritual beings in sleep, the Maoris naturally paid great attention to dreams, which they fancied were often sent them by the gods to warn them of coming events. All dreams were supposed to have their special significance, and the Maoris had framed a fanciful system for interpreting them. Sometimes, as with ourselves, the interpretation went by contraries. For example, if a man dreamed that he saw a sick relative at the point of death, it was a sign that the patient would soon recover; but if, on the contrary, the sufferer appeared in perfect health, it was an omen of his approaching end. When a priest was in doubt as to the intentions of the higher powers, he usually waited for his god to reveal his will in a dream, and accepted the vagaries of his slumbering fancy as an infallible intimation of the divine pleasure. Spells were commonly recited in order to annul the effect of ill-omened dreams.[37]

[36] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), pp. 177
_sq._

[37] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 333-335. As to omens
derived from dreams see Elsdon Best, "Omens and Superstitious
Beliefs of the Maori," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
vii. no. 27 (September 1898), pp. 124 _sqq._

But the departure of the soul from the body in life was not always voluntary; it might take place under the compulsion of a hostile sorcerer or magician. In a Maori legend called _The curse of Manaia_ we read that "the priests next dug a long pit, termed the pit of wrath, into which by their enchantments they might bring the spirits of their enemies, and hang them and destroy them there; and when they had dug the pit, muttering the necessary incantations, they took large shells in their hands to scrape the spirits of their enemies into the pit with, whilst they muttered enchantments; and when they had done this, they scraped the earth into the pit again to cover them up, and beat down the earth with their hands, and crossed the pit with enchanted cloths, and wove baskets of flax-leaves to hold the spirits of the foes which they had thus destroyed, and each of these acts they accompanied with the proper spells."[38]

[38] Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_ (London, 1855), pp.
168 _sq._

This mode of undoing an enemy by extracting and killing his soul was not with the Maoris a mere legendary fiction; it was practised in real life by their wizards. For we are told that when a priest desired to slay a person by witchcraft, he would often dig a hole in the ground, and standing over it with a cord in his hand would let one end of the cord hang down into the hole. He then recited an incantation which compelled the soul of the doomed man to swarm down the cord into the pit, whereupon another potent spell chanted by the magician speedily put an end to the poor soul for good and all.[39]

[39] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), p. 187.

It seems obvious that spells of this sort may be used with great advantage in war, for if you can only contrive to kill the souls of your foes, their mere bodies will probably give you little or no trouble. Nor did this practical application of the magic art escape the sagacity of the Maoris. When they marched to attack an enemy's stronghold, it was an ancient custom to halt and kindle a fire, over which the priest recited certain spells to cause the souls of his adversaries to be drawn into the fire and there to perish miserably in the flames. In theory the idea was admirable, but unfortunately it did not always work out in practice. For magic is a game at which two can play, and it sometimes happened that the spells of the besieged proved more powerful than those of the besiegers and enabled the garrison to defy all the attempts of the enemy to filch their souls from their bodies.[40] But even when the assailants were obliged to retire discomfited, they did not always lose heart, the resources of the magic art were not yet exhausted. On their return home the priest, nothing daunted by a temporary discomfiture, might betake himself again to his spells, and by crooning his incantations over a garment or a weapon belonging to one of his party, might dash in pieces the arms of the enemy and cause their souls to perish. Thus by his ghostly skill would he snatch victory from defeat, and humble the pride of the insolent foe in the very moment of his imaginary triumph.[41] One way in which he effected his purpose was to take a bag or basket containing some sacred food, hold it to the fire, and then opening the bag point the mouth of it in the direction of the enemy. The simple recitation of a spell then sufficed to draw the souls of the adversaries into the bag, after which nothing was easier for him than to destroy them utterly by means of the appropriate incantation.[42]

[40] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), p. 181.

[41] Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
xi. no. 3 (September 1902), p. 141.

[42] Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the
Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.
xii. no. 2 (June 1903), p. 72.

But valuable as are these applications of magic to practical life, the art, like every good thing, is liable to abuse; and even where it is employed with the best intentions, the forces which it controls are so powerful that in spite of all precautions an accident will sometimes happen. For example, in sickness the patient often had recourse to a priest, who would lead him down to the nearest water, whether a pool or a stream, and there perform the magical rites necessary for the relief of his particular malady. While the wizard was engaged in this beneficent task, all the people in the village kept strictly indoors, lest their souls should wander forth to the water-side and there colliding, if I may be allowed the expression, with the mystic forces of the priest's spells be damaged or even annihilated by the collision.[43] In such a case the fatal consequences were the result of a pure accident, but sometimes they were intentional. For this fell purpose a malignant wizard would dig a hole, invoke the spirit of the man against whom he had a grudge, and when the spirit appeared over the hole in the form of a light, he would curse it, and the man whose soul was cursed would be sure to die, sooner or later; nothing could save him. The Uriwera, who dwelt dispersed among the forests and lonely hills of a wild mountainous region in the North Island, were reputed to be the greatest warlocks in all New Zealand. When they descended from their mountains to the coast, the lowlanders scarcely dared refuse them anything for fear of incurring their displeasure. It is said that in their magical rites they made a special use of the spittle of their destined victims; hence all visitors to their country were careful to conceal their spittle lest they should give these wicked folk a handle against them.[44] Another mode in which a Maori wizard could obtain power over a man's soul was by working magic on the footprints of his intended victim. The thing was done in this way. Suppose you are walking and leave your footprints behind you on the ground. I come behind you, take up the earth from your footprints, and deposit it on the sacred _whata puaroa_, that is, a post or pillar set up in the holy place of a village and charged in a mysterious manner with the vitality both of the people and of the land. Having laid the earth from your footprints on the sacred post, I next perform a ceremony of consecration over it, and then bury it with a seed of sweet potato in the ground. After that you are doomed. You may consider yourself for all practical purposes not only dead but buried, like the earth from your footprints.[45]

[43] Elsdon Best, "Maori Medical Lore," _Journal of the
Polynesian Society_, vol. xiii. no. 4 (December 1904), p. 225.

[44] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_ (London, 1843),
ii. 58 _sq._; E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the
New Zealanders_, pp. 116 _sq._; _id._, _Maori Religion and
Mythology_ (London, 1882), p. 31.

[45] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of
the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), pp. 194
_sq._, 196.

From some of the foregoing facts it seems to follow that the souls of the Maoris are not, so to say, constitutionally immortal, but that they are of a brittle and perishable nature, and that in particular they are liable to be cut short in their career and totally exterminated by the insidious arts of magicians. So frequently, indeed, did this happen in former days that the Maoris of old apparently recognised no other cause of death, but imagined that every man and woman would naturally live for ever, if the thread of his or her life were not prematurely snipped by the abhorred shears of some witch or wizard. Hence after every death it was customary to hold an inquest in order to discover the wretch who had brought about the catastrophe by his enchantments; a sage presided at the solemn enquiry, and under his direction the culprit was detected, hunted down, and killed.[46]

[46] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 51.

The Maoris tell a story to explain how death first came into the world, or at least how men were prevented from enjoying the boon of immortality. The story runs as follows.

The great mythical hero of Polynesia is Maui, a demigod or man of marvellous powers, who lived in the early ages of the world, and whose mighty deeds are the theme of tales of wonder told far and wide among the islands of the Pacific.[47] In his childhood his mother prophesied that he should thereafter climb the threshold of his great ancestress Hine-nui-te-po, and that death should have no more dominion over men. A happy prediction, but alas! never destined to be fulfilled, for even the would-be saviour Maui himself did not escape the doom of mortality. The way in which he became subject to death was this. His father took him to the water to be baptized, for infant baptism was a regular part of Maori ritual.[48] But when the baptism was over and the usual prayers had been offered for making the lad sacred and clean from all impurity, his father bethought him that through haste or forgetfulness he had omitted some of the prayers and purifications of the baptismal service. It was a fatal oversight, and the anxious father was struck with consternation at the thought, for too well he knew that the gods would punish the omission by causing his son Maui to die.[49] Yet did his son make a brave attempt to rescue all men from the doom of death and to make them live for ever. One day, after he had performed many feats and returned to his father's house, his father, heavy at heart and overcome with a foreboding of evil, said to him, "Oh, my son, I have heard from your mother and others that you are very valiant, and that you have succeeded in all feats that you have undertaken in your own country, whether they were small or great; but now that you have arrived in your father's country, you will perhaps be overcome." Then Maui asked his father, "What do you mean? what things are there that I can be vanquished by?" And his father answered him, "By your great ancestress, by Hine-nui-te-po, who, if you look, you may see flashing, and, as it were, opening and shutting there, where the horizon meets the sky." And Maui answered, "Lay aside such idle thoughts, and let us both fearlessly seek whether men are to die or live for ever." And his father said, "My child, there has been an ill omen for us; when I was baptizing you, I omitted a portion of the fitting prayers, and that I know will be the cause of your perishing." Then Maui asked his father, "What is my ancestress Hine-nui-te-po like?" and he answered, "What you see yonder shining so brightly red are her eyes, and her teeth are as sharp and hard as pieces of volcanic glass; her body is like that of a man, and as for the pupils of her eyes, they are jasper; and her hair is like the tangles of long sea-weed, and her mouth is like that of a barracouta."

[47] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.
233 _sqq._, _s.v._ "Maui"; Horatio Hale, _United States
Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_ (Philadelphia,
1846), p. 23.

[48] J. L. Nicholas, _Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand_
(London, 1817), i. 61 _sq._, "The New Zealanders make it an
invariable practice, when a child is born among them, to take it
to the _Tohunga_, or priest, who sprinkles it on the face with
water, from a certain leaf which he holds in his hand for that
purpose; and they believe that this ceremony is not only
beneficial to the infant, but that the neglect of it would be
attended with the most baneful consequences. In the latter case,
they consider the child as either doomed to immediate death, or
that, if allowed to live, it will grow up with a most perverse
and wicked disposition." Before or after sprinkling the child
with water the priest bestowed on the infant its name. See W.
Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_ (London, 1835), pp. 82-84; A.
S. Thomson, _The Story of New Zealand_ (London, 1859), i. 118
_sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, Second Edition (London,
1870), pp. 184 _sqq_. Compare J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage
autour du Monde et a la recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du
Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833), ii. 443 _sq_. (who says that the
baptism was performed by women); E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New
Zealand_ (London, 1843), ii. 28-30 (who, in contradiction to all
the other authorities, says that the naming of the child was
unconnected with its baptism).

[49] Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_ (London, 1855), p.
32.

Now Hine-nui-te-po was the Great Woman of Night, the Goddess of Death, who dwelt in the nether world and dragged down men to herself. But Maui was not afraid, for he had caught the great Sun himself in a snare and beaten him and caused him to go so tardily as we now see him creeping across the sky with leaden steps and slow; for of old the Sun was wont to speed across the firmament like a young man rejoicing to run a race. So forth fared the hero on his great enterprise to snatch the life of mortals from the very jaws of death. And there came to him to bear him company the small robin, and the large robin, and the thrush, and the yellow hammer, and the pied fantail (_tiwakawaka, Rhipidura flabellifora_), and every kind of little bird; and these all assembled together, and they started with Maui in the evening, and arrived at the dwelling of Hine-nui-te-po, and found her fast asleep.

Then Maui addressed them all, and said, "My little friends, now if you see me creep into this old chieftainess, do not laugh at what you see. Nay, nay, do not, I pray you, but when I have got altogether inside her, and just as I am coming out of her mouth, then you may shout with laughter if you please." But his little friends were frightened at what they saw, and they answered, "Oh, sir, you will certainly be killed." And he answered them again, saying, "If you burst out laughing at me as soon as I get inside her, you will wake her up, and she will certainly kill me at once; but if you do not laugh until I am quite inside her, and am on the point of coming out of her mouth, I shall live, and Hine-nui-te-po will die." And his little friends answered, "Go on then, brave sir, but pray take good care of yourself."

Then the young hero started off, and twisted the strings of his weapon tight round his wrist, and went into the house, and stripped off his clothes, and the skin on his hips was as mottled and beautiful as the skin of a mackerel by reason of the tattoo marks cut on it with the chisel of Uetongo, and he entered the old chieftainess. The little birds now screwed up their little mouths to keep back their laughter when they saw him disappearing into the body of the giantess; their cheeks swelled up and grew purple, and they almost choked with suppressed emotion. At last the pied fantail could bear it no longer, and he suddenly exploded with a loud guffaw. That woke the old woman, she opened her eyes, and shut her jaws with a snap, cutting the hero clean through the middle, so that his legs dropped out of her mouth. Thus died Maui, but before he died he begat children, and sons were born to him, and some of his descendants are alive to this day. That, according to Maori tradition, is how death came into the world; for if only Maui had passed safely through the jaws of the Goddess of Death, men would have died no more and death itself would have been destroyed. Thus the Maoris set down human mortality at the door of the pied fantail, since but for his unseasonable merriment we might all have lived for ever.[50]

[50] Sir George Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_, pp. 56-58; John
White, _The Ancient History of the Maori_ (Wellington and
London, 1887-1889), ii. 98, 105-107. For another version of the
myth, told with some minor variations, see S. Percy Smith, _The
Lore of the Whare-w[=a]nanga_, Part I. (New Plymouth, N.Z.,
1913), pp. 145 _sq._, 176-178. For the identification of the
bird _tiwakawaka_ see E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative
Dictionary_, p. 519, _s.v._ "Tiwaiwaka."

Sec. 4. _The Beliefs of the Maoris concerning the Souls of the Dead_

When a chief died, a loud howl or wail announced the melancholy event, and the neighbours flocked to the scene of death to testify their sorrow. The wives and near relations, especially the women, of the deceased displayed their anguish by cutting their faces, arms, legs, and breasts with flints or shells till the blood flowed down in streams; it was not wiped off, for the more the person of a mourner was covered with clotted gore, the greater was esteemed his or her respect for the dead. Sometimes relatives would hack off joints of their fingers as a token of grief. Mourners likewise cut their hair, the men generally contenting themselves with clipping or shaving it on one side only, from the forehead to the neck. The eyes of the dead were closed by the nearest relative; and the body dressed in the finest mats, decked with feathers, and provided with weapons, lay in state for a time. After the first day a brother of the deceased used to beat the body with fresh flax gathered for the purpose; this he did to drive away any evil thing that might be hovering about the corpse. In the olden time one or more of the chief's wives would strangle themselves, that their souls might accompany their dead lord and wait upon him in the other world, and with the same intentions slaves were killed, lest the great man should lack attendants in the spirit land.[51]

[51] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, pp. 135 _sqq._; J.
Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la recherche de
la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833), ii. 541
_sq._; Servant, "Notice sur la Nouvelle-Zelande," _Annales de la
Propagation de la Foi_, xv. (1843) p. 25; E. Dieffenbach,
_Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 62, 118; W. Brown, _New Zealand
and its Inhabitants_, pp. 15 _sqq._; G. F. Angas, _Savage Life
and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand_, i. 331; A. S. Thomson,
_The Story of New Zealand_, i. 185 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A
Maui, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants_, Second Edition
(London, 1870), pp. 217 _sq._; E. Tregear, "The Maoris of New
Zealand," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xix.
(1890) pp. 104 _sq._