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TE TOHUNGA
TE TOHUNGA
HUPENE, THE OLD TOHUNGA TE TOHUNGA THE ANCIENT LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS OF THE MAORIS ORALLY COLLECTED AND PICTURED BY W. DITTMER LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1907 Nau i waka aua te kakahu, he taniko taku (You wove the garment, I have put the border to it) Maori Proverb TO THE COUNTESS OF RANFURLY Who was a true friend to Artists and their Art in New Zealand This Book is Dedicated By the Author...
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GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
The pronunciation of the vowels in Maori are: Ariki: a high chief, a leader, a master, lord. Aroha: affection, love. Atua: a supernatural being, a god. Atua-toko: a small carved stick, the symbol of the god whom it represents. It was stuck in the ground whilst holding incantations to its presiding god. Haere-mai: come here, welcome. Haere-ra: good-bye, go, farewell. Haere-mai-ra, me o tatou mate: come here, that I may sorrow with you. Karakia: invocation, ceremony, prayer. Kehua: spirit, ghost.
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PREFACE
PREFACE
With the drawings it began. An expired world tried to come to life again in the fragments which some old Maori narrated. Nature all around favoured admiration only, and her loneliness was alive with longing. Of Maori art I had never heard, and, when that art was first offered to me, I had none other to choose. At first it disgusted me. But I had to make use of my time. The evergreen nature was beautiful, and entrancing was her invitation to waste my life in her midst, as she herself was wasting
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I TIKI—THE ANCESTOR OF MANKIND
I TIKI—THE ANCESTOR OF MANKIND
Marikoriko, the first woman, and Tiki, her Creator. Hupene, the old Tohunga, squats muttering on the floor beside his carved ancestor Tiki. Tiki is a god who in the dim long ago helped to build the world, and whose carved image is now supporting the middle pillar of the house. His eyes of pawa-shell, which once commanded in the ten Heavens and were full of fire and wisdom, glisten out of the silent twilight; they stare far, far into the darkness, which Hine-nui-te-po is slowly spreading over the
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II THE CREATION OF HAWAIKI
II THE CREATION OF HAWAIKI
“Here friend”—so speaks Ngawai—“sit beside the old man of my people, and listen to the song of the gods, which is living in the mouth of the blind Matapo, and know that Truth is dwelling upon his lips. Listen to his words!” MATAPO, A BLIND TOHUNGA Ah, these are my words to you, my wanderer, the words of the old Matapo, the oldest of his people, and his eyes are closed and they cannot see you; but they are opened again towards his heart, and what they see your eyes cannot perceive, for upon those
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TRADITION
TRADITION
O, listen who will deny the truth of the old gods? Who can deny the truth of the Sun-god, Maui? Everyone is asleep in the whare-puni, asleep, too, is Ngawai. Murmuringly had Matapo recited how the world was created; deep into the night had he muttered the wisdom known only to himself and a few still living Tohungas, the wisdom of generations of gods and ancestors and heroes of Hawaiki. Then he, too, had dropped off to sleep, and everything is loneliness and blackness, for Hine-nui-te-po has fini
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IV THE CREATION OF THE STARS
IV THE CREATION OF THE STARS
Te Ra, the day-eye of Rangi is closing, and sends a last glowing look over the peacefully dreaming Moana-rarapa, the Lake of the Glittering Water. Softly murmurs the lake and reflects the sacred Red with which Tane once adorned the heaven, whilst over his floating colours black swans are drifting like dream-thoughts over a beautiful face. Slowly dying away in blue, deep blue and pure, is the last breath of day silently departing into the heavens. A canoe is putting off the shore, and voices of c
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V THE CHANT OF RANGI-NUI
V THE CHANT OF RANGI-NUI
A silent, shimmering ocean of stars encircles the Earth: Rangi in his indescribable beauty. Ah, the silent night sends fear into the hearts of the children of Tiki, and they murmur incantations, for Makutu, the terrible witchcraft, and the host of evil spirits, are wandering upon earth beneath the glittering beauty of Tane-Mahuta’s stars. Of half-forgotten wisdom the old friend had murmured into the listening ear of the guest, while the people of his tribe had covered their heads and closed thei
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VI TANE—THE CREATION OF NATURE
VI TANE—THE CREATION OF NATURE
“The g odpower of Tane lifted his father Rangi high above the mountains—oh, high above the mountains, clad in snow he lifted him with the help of the gods who dwelled above the earth. Ah, bare now was Rangi and naked—oh, he was beautiful and vast, but lonely and bare, and Tane adorned him with the stars; oh, then was Rangi very beautiful indeed! From his great work Tane was resting upon earth while his eyes were wandering over his mother, and his heart grew sad again, for he beheld that she lay
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TRADITION.
TRADITION.
Maui is the hero of the Maori people: he is the God of the Sun. He is Maui-roto, the Night-sun, the hero of the Lower World; and he is Maui-waho, the Day-sun, the hero of the light. Maui-roto, living in the Lower World, created the Earth, which has, like the Sun, a body of granite; and Maui-waho then nourishes her with his blood, which he streams down upon her as the red Evening-glow. This Evening-glow, covering the earth, does not die away with the Sun, but it cools and forms a new layer upon E
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TE IKA A MAUI
TE IKA A MAUI
Listen: Taranga was his mother, but—ah, for Tama-nui-ki-te Rangi! ah, for Tama-nui-ki-te Rangi, what would have become of Maui? But a prey of the birds of the sea, ah! Tama found a bundle of jellyfish and sea-kelps on the shore, and the sea-birds were collecting around it fighting and screaming; so he went, and, stripping the fish and sea-kelps, he saw that they were covering and enclosing a child—Maui-potiki. Ah, behold Maui-potiki, Maui, the infant, reared and fashioned by the fish and the wee
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TRADITION
TRADITION
The Gods and the heroes of the Maori people are personifications of Nature and her elemental powers: through the forms and doings of these gods and heroes alone could they understand Nature—night and light, cloud and lightning, sun and ocean. The personalities and deeds of these heroes were human translations of the unfathomable workings of Nature and the character of the elements: the winter became the mother of the summer, but the winter has to devour his child again; the night kills the eveni
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X MAUI AND MAHUIKA
X MAUI AND MAHUIKA
“Listen, friend. Maui extinguished all fires in Hawaiki, and no fire was burning anywhere, and all was cold and dark. Then he called out: ‘Where are the lazy slaves? Maui is hungry; where are the slaves to cook his food?’ And all people were awakened by his noise, and they found all fires extinguished at Hawaiki. Ah.— The ancestress of Maui, my listener, Mahuika, was now alone in all the world in the possession of fire, for she is the mother of fire, which is living in her finger. She was to be
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XI THE DEATH OF MAUI
XI THE DEATH OF MAUI
Many descendants had Maui; and many of them were living at Hawaiki, and many were living in this land, in Aotea-roa. When he had created this land; when through his great deed he had compelled Tama-nui-ki-te-ra to prolong the days that the hearts of his descendants may be gladdened; and when at last he had cheated Mahuika out of her flames which were living now in the Kamaki-tree to give fire and warmth to his children, then the life at Hawaiki became finer and finer; and finer and finer became
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XII TE AROHA O THE LOVE OF HINEMOA
XII TE AROHA O THE LOVE OF HINEMOA
High above the sandhills Rangi the mighty spreads his Garment of Day. It is adorned with a border of snow-white clouds, which is resting on the distant hills of Papa, Papa, the happy. Ah, she is sending white cloud-messengers of her love up to Rangi, to Rangi, the smiling, the beloved of Papa. His golden Eye of Day caresses Papa, and looks down upon her with tenderness, and her blood mounts blushing into her cheeks of snow-white cliffs, and higher into the crimson glory of the flowering Pohutuka
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XIII MAUI AND IRAWARU: A TRADITION
XIII MAUI AND IRAWARU: A TRADITION
MAUI AND IRAWARU The Sun is setting, and our canoe is gliding, slowly, with the tide, up the river. Hupene, sitting in the prow, is staring to the west, and mutters lowly to himself; Ngawai plays lazily with the paddle, and is listening to what the old man is muttering, while the sandhills slowly pass by. Hupene is staring into the broad reflexion of the Sun over the sea, but he has to close his eyes; and, bending his head, he commences a low-toned chant. Of Maui he sings, yes, of Maui, the hero
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The Children of the Mist By James Cowan.
The Children of the Mist By James Cowan.
Far up in the misty mountains dwell the Patu-paiarehe, the fairies of Maori Land. They are seldom seen; and, indeed, most mortals who have no gift of imagination and no mana-tapu cannot expect to behold the good people; and many who know no better deny their existence. It is supposed by some that they were really tribes of aborigines whom the Maoris found dwelling in this wild new land when they arrived here from the isles of Polynesia. But the old Maoris say that they still inhabit certain of t
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XV TIHI-O-TE-RANGI
XV TIHI-O-TE-RANGI
“The Path of the Spirits”—the mind of the young Maoris runs far now from battle and bloodshed, and but few bear the blood of the warriors in their veins, that blood which suddenly boils into powerful deeds. Few carry the blood of the Rangatiras, who were masters over the bloodthirsty savages, or of the women, who were slaves, but who were sometimes Tohungas and powerful masters over the savage passions. Out on the sea is the tribe, enjoying life and fishing under the summer sky; the pa (village)
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THE GIANTS
THE GIANTS
Once the volcanoes Taranaki, Ruapehu, and Tongariro dwelled together. That was the time when Tongariro in her wonderful beauty had captured the fiery hearts of the two giants, so that their joy filled the heavens with majestic outbursts and covered the earth with their dark-glowing heart-blood of fiery lava and molten stones. Softly then answered the gently ascending Steam-column of Tongariro, smiling and swaying, gold-bordered by the setting sun; smiling at both her suitors. Ah, Tongariro was a
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XVII THE COMING OF THE MAORI.
XVII THE COMING OF THE MAORI.
A long double sailing-canoe, with a connecting platform and a thatched deck-house amidships, put off one day long ago into the Great Ocean of Kiwa from the palm-clad shores of Tahiti the Golden, in the far South Seas. A multitude of brown people stood on the shining beach, with loud cries bidding farewell to the brave band of kinsmen who were adventuring into the vast unknown places in search of a new and wider land. In their midst, leaning on his staff, was the patriarchal chief Hou-mai-tawhiti
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TRADITION.
TRADITION.
Ngatoro-i-Rangi is the Sun. Tama-te-Kapua, the cloud invites the Sun to travel in his canoe, and Ngatoro-i-Rangi, coming from the east, follows the invitation and brings his wife, the Earth; for with the rising of the Sun out of darkness rises also the Earth. During the journey Ngatoro climbs up to the Height of the Midday, tying the earth to him by his sun-rays; but Tama-te-Kapua unties the sun-rays which bind the earth to the Sun—the cloud flies over the earth—and takes her to his wife. When N
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TE REINGA, THE MAORI SPIRIT-LAND
TE REINGA, THE MAORI SPIRIT-LAND
In the extreme north of the North Island of New Zealand is the Muri-whenua, the Land’s End, where the never-resting surges thunder at the feet of the bare rocky capes, and the giant sea-kelp swirls in long snaky masses round the fabled gateway to the Maori spirit-land. For here is Te Reinga, otherwise called Te Rerenga-Wairua, or the Place where the Spirits take their Flight. Te Reinga is a long craggy ridge that dips down to the ocean, ending in a rocky point whence the ghosts of the departed t
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THE BURIAL OF TE HEU-HEU ON TONGARIRO
THE BURIAL OF TE HEU-HEU ON TONGARIRO
This is Rangi-a-mohio’s story: Iwikau, the brother of the dead Rangatira Te Heu-heu, and chief now over the tribe of the Ngati-tu-wharetoa, is the leader of a large procession of sorrowing, weeping people of the tribe. The four greatest warriors of the tribe carried the carved box which contained the bones of Te Heu-heu; it was painted red, and adorned with white albatross-feathers. The whole tribe had decided to give their dead Rangatira the mightiest burial-ground in all Ao-tea-roa—the crater
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