The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume Ii Part 3

On the day after a burial the priest used to perform a ceremony to facilitate the pa.s.sage of the soul to its final rest. For this purpose some men would go out in the morning and kill a small bird of the swamps called _kokata_ and pluck up some reeds of a certain sort (_wiwi_).

These they brought to the priest at the grave. He asked them, "Whence came ye?" They answered, "From the seeking, from the searching." He asked them again, "Ah! what have you got? ah! what have you gained?"

Then the men threw the bird and the reeds on the ground. Next the priest chose a stalk of gra.s.s or fern and put it near the grave in a direction pointing towards Hawaiki, the land far away from which the forefathers of the Maoris came long ago. Another stalk of gra.s.s or fern was laid near the place of death, and along these stalks the soul of the dead man travelled to rejoin his friends and kinsfolk who had gone before.[69]

[69] E. Shortland, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, p. 44. Such a stalk to aid the spirit on its pa.s.sage was called a _tiri_.

Compare E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 517, _s.v._ "Tiri." The ceremony described in the text resembles in some points the one which seems intended to raise the soul of the deceased to heaven. See above, p. 25.

As might be antic.i.p.ated, the accounts which the Maoris gave of the spirit world and of life in it were neither clear nor consistent.

According to one account, while the heavens increase in beauty as they ascend one above the other, the lower regions increase in darkness and horror as they descend, each being darker and worse than the one above it, till in the lowest of all complete darkness reigns. There the souls, deprived alike of light and food, wasted away and ultimately ceased to exist; or according to another account they a.s.sumed the shape of worms and in that guise returned to earth, where they died a second death and so finally perished. But it was only the souls of common folk which came to this melancholy end. Chiefs and priests were believed to be descended from the G.o.ds, and at death their souls ascended to heaven, there to live for ever.[70]

[70] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 232; John White, "A Chapter from Maori Mythology," _Report of the Third Meeting of the Australasian a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, held at Christchurch, New Zealand, in January 1891_, pp. 361 _sq._

Other reports, however, paint the nether world in more cheerful colours. We are told that the souls of the dead live there very much as people do on earth, but all good things are more plentiful there than here. The staple food of the ghosts is sweet potatoes, and the quality of the potatoes appears to be remarkably fine; for once a woman, who had the good fortune to go to the spirit land and come back, received from her dead father in the nether regions two roots of sweet potatoes of a most prodigious size. These the ghost told her to take back to earth and plant for the benefit of his grandchild. So she hurried away with them and arriving at the foot of the North Cape had begun to clamber up the face of the cliff, when two infant spirits overtook her and attempted to drag her back to dead land by tugging at her cloak. To divert their attention she threw the two roots of sweet potato behind her, and while the sprites were munching them she made good her escape up the cliff and succeeded in reaching home. Her friends were very glad to see her again, but they always lamented that she had not brought back at least one of those gigantic roots of sweet potato, since it would unquestionably have done much to improve the quality of sweet potatoes grown here on earth.[71]

[71] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 48 _sq._, 67, 118; E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 153 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 233 _sq._

But the spirits of the dead are by no means strictly confined to the lower world; they can quit it from time to time and return to earth, there to influence the actions and fortunes of the living and to communicate with them through the priest, who can hear their voices.

They speak in whistling tones, which even common folk can sometimes distinguish as they walk about in the dark. Often their communications are made to the priest or chief in dreams, and he announces the glad or mournful tidings to other people in the morning. Any commands conveyed in this manner from the other world are, or used to be, implicitly obeyed and might decide the course to be pursued in the most important affairs of life.[72] In some tribes, especially among the natives of w.a.n.gunui, it used to be customary to keep in the houses small carved images of wood, each of them dedicated to an ancestor of the family, who was believed occasionally to enter into the image in order to hold converse with his living descendants.[73] But even without the intervention of such images the priest could summon up the spirits of the dead and converse with them in the presence of the relatives or of strangers; at these interviews, which were held within doors and in the dark, the voices of the ghosts, or perhaps of the priestly ventriloquist, were sometimes distinctly audible even to sceptical Europeans. Nor was the art of necromancy confined to men; for we read of an old woman who, like the witch of Endor, professed to exercise this ghostly office, and treated an English visitor to an exhibition of her powers.[74]

[72] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 67, 118; E.

Shortland, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, ii. 83, 84.

[73] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, p. 83.

[74] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 84 _sqq._; _Old New Zealand_, by a Pakeha Maori (London, 1884), pp. 122 _sqq._ As to the belief in the reappearance of the dead among the living compare R. A. Cruise, _Journal of a Ten Months' Residence in New Zealand_ (London, 1823), p. 186: "The belief in the reappearance of the dead is universal among the New Zealanders: they fancy they hear their deceased relatives speaking to them when the wind is high; whenever they pa.s.s the place where a man has been murdered, it is customary for each person to throw a stone upon it; and the same practice is observed by all those who visit a cavern at the North Cape, through which the spirits of departed men are supposed to pa.s.s on their way to a future world."

The spirits of the dead were sometimes useful to the living, for commonly enough they would appear to their kinsfolk in dreams and warn them of approaching foes or other dangers. Again, they might be and were invoked by spells and enchantments to avenge a murder or even to slay an innocent person against whom the enchanter had a grudge.[75] But for the most part the ghosts were greatly dreaded as malicious demons who worked harm to man.[76] Even the nearest and dearest relations were believed to have their natures radically changed by death and to hate those whom they had loved in life.[77] And so powerful were these malignant beings supposed to be that they were confused with the G.o.ds, or rather the spirits of the dead became themselves G.o.ds to all intents and purposes, and played a much more important part in the religious life of the Maoris than the high primaeval deities, the personifications of nature, who figured in Maori mythology and cosmogony.[78] The G.o.ds whom the Maoris feared, we are told, were the spirits of the dead, who were believed to be constantly watching over the living with jealous eyes, lest they should neglect any part of the law relating to persons or things subject to the sacred restriction called taboo (_tapu_). These spirits, however, confined their care almost exclusively to persons among the living with whom they were connected by ties of relations.h.i.+p, so that every tribe and every family had its own wors.h.i.+pful ancestral spirit or G.o.d, whom members of the tribe or family invoked with appropriate prayers or spells (_karakias_). Ancestral spirits who lived in the flesh before the Maoris emigrated to New Zealand were invoked by all the tribes in New Zealand without distinction, so far as their names and memories survived in tradition. Thus the wors.h.i.+p of these remote ancestors const.i.tuted what may be called the national religion of the Maoris as distinguished from the tribal and family religions, which consisted in the wors.h.i.+p of nearer and better remembered progenitors.

The great importance attached by the Maoris to the wors.h.i.+p of ancestors may account, we are told, for the care with which they preserved their genealogies; since the names of ancestors often formed the groundwork of their religious formulas (_karakias_), and any error or even hesitation in repeating these prayers or incantations was deemed fatal to their efficacy.[79] "Ancestor wors.h.i.+p, or rather the deification of ancestors, was essentially a Maori cult. It was a form of necrolatry, or hero wors.h.i.+p. A man would placate the spirit of his father, grandfather, or ancestor, and make offerings to the same, that such spirit might protect his life principle, warn him of approaching danger, and give force or effectiveness to his rites and charms of black or white magic."[80]

[75] Elsdon Best, "Spiritual Concepts of the Maori," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol. ix. no. 4 (December 1900), p. 182.

[76] Elsdon Best, _op. cit._ p. 184.

[77] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 104.

[78] E. Shortland, _The Southern Districts of New Zealand_ (London, 1851), p. 294; _id._, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 80, 81; _id._, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, pp. 10 _sq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 108, "Maori G.o.ds are so mixed up with the spirits of ancestors, whose wors.h.i.+p entered largely into their religion, that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other."

[79] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, p. 81; _id._, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, p.

11. As to the _karakias_, which were prayers or invocations, spells or incantations, addressed to G.o.ds or ancestral spirits, see E. Shortland, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, pp. 28 _sqq._; E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 128, _s.v._ "karakia." Apparently the _karakia_ partook of the nature of a spell rather than of a prayer, since it was believed to be so potent that the mere utterance of it compelled the G.o.ds to do the will of the person who recited the formula. See R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 180 _sq._: "The Maori, in his heathen state, never undertook any work, whether hunting, fis.h.i.+ng, planting, or war, without first uttering a _karakia_; he would not even take a journey without repeating a spell to secure his safety; still he could not be said to pray, for, properly speaking, they had no such thing as prayer. As in war, they armed themselves with the most formidable weapons they could procure, and laid their plans with the greatest skill they possessed, so to secure the fruition of their desires, they used their most powerful means to compel the G.o.ds to be obedient to their wishes, whether they sought for victory over their foes, fruitful crops, successful fis.h.i.+ngs, or huntings, they called in the aid of potent incantations; when they planted their _k.u.mara_ [sweet potatoes], they sought to compel the G.o.d who presided over them to yield a good increase; when they prepared their nets and their hooks, they must force the ocean G.o.d to let his fish enter them; as the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by storm, so the heathen Maori sought, by spells and incantations, to compel the G.o.ds to yield to their wishes; they added sacrifices and offerings at the same time, to appease as it were their anger, for being thus constrained to do what they wished them. Their ancestors were addressed as powerful familiar friends; they gave them offerings, and if it can be said that any prayers were offered up, it was to them they were made. The word _karakia_, which we use for prayer, formerly meant a spell, charm, or incantation."

[80] Elsdon Best, "Maori Religion," _Report of the Twelfth Meeting of the Australasian a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, held at Brisbane, 1909_, p. 459.

The ancestral spirits who particularly watched over the fortunes of a tribe were the souls of its dead warriors and great men. In war these powerful, though invisible, beings were thought to attend the army and direct its movements on the march by communicating advice or warning through some one or other of their nearest living kinsmen. In battle they hovered over the combatants and inspired courage into the hearts of their own tribe. Hence when, on the eve of battle, any young man showed signs of the white feather, recourse was immediately had to the family priest, who repeated a charm, invoking the aid of his friendly spirit; for the sensation of fear was ascribed to the baneful influence of a hostile spirit. If the friendly spirit prevailed, and the craven spirit was expelled, the young man would rush into the thickest of the fight and prove himself the bravest of the brave.[81]

[81] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 81 _sq._

The interest taken by the spirits of the dead in mundane affairs seldom extended beyond the limits of the tribe to which they belonged. Hence a captive in war, who was carried away and enslaved by another tribe, ceased from that moment to be under the protection and care of any ancestral spirit or G.o.d. For the ancestral spirits of his own tribe did not trouble themselves to follow him among a hostile tribe and hostile spirits, and the ancestral spirits of the tribe whom he served as a slave would not deign to give him a thought. Hence being forsaken of G.o.d and left to their own devices, slaves were relieved from many of the burdensome restrictions which the Maori G.o.ds laid upon their wors.h.i.+ppers; they were therefore free to perform many menial offices, particularly in regard to carrying and cooking food, which no free Maori could discharge without sinning against the sacred law of taboo and incurring the wrath of the ancestral spirits, who for such a transgression might punish the sinner with sickness or death.[82]

[82] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, pp. 82 _sq._; _id._, _The Southern Districts of New Zealand_, pp. 296 _sq._

In addition to their deified ancestors, who had lived as men of flesh and blood on earth, the Maoris believed in certain great primaeval deities, who had existed before the human race came into being, and whose doings were the theme of many mythical stories. These mighty beings appear to have been personifications of the various forces or elements of nature, such as the sky and the earth. But though fancy wove round them a glistering web of myth and fable, they were apparently believed to stand aloof in cold abstraction from human affairs and to take no interest in the present race of men. The practical religion of the Maori was concentrated on the souls of his deceased kinsfolk and forefathers: "neither in any existing superst.i.tion nor tradition, purely such, is there to be found internal evidence that an idea of G.o.d existed more exalted than that of the spirit of a dead ancestor."[83]

[83] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, p. 80. Compare _id._, _Traditions and Superst.i.tions of the New Zealanders_, p. 81; _id._, _The Southern Districts of New Zealand_, p. 294; _id._, _Maori Religion and Mythology_, pp.

10 _sq._ In Maori mythology Rangi is the personification of the sky, and Papa of earth. They were the primal parents, and the other great G.o.ds were their offspring. See Elsdon Best, "The Maori Genius for Personification," _Transactions of the New Zealand Inst.i.tute_, liii. (1921) p. 2. Among the great primordial deities who were wors.h.i.+pped by all tribes of New Zealand may be mentioned Tane, Tu, Tangaroa, and Rongo. Of the four, Tane was the origin and tutelary deity of forests and birds: no tree might be felled and no bird caught till certain rites had been performed to placate him. Tu was the G.o.d of war.

Tangaroa was the G.o.d of the ocean, the origin and tutelary deity of fish. Rongo was the G.o.d of peace, and presided over agriculture. See Elsdon Best, "Maori Religion," _Report of the Twelfth Meeting of the Australasian a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, held at Brisbane, 1909_, p. 458. The same four G.o.ds, with names only dialectically different, were, as we shall see later on, the princ.i.p.al deities of the Sandwich Islanders, the most distant geographically from the Maoris of all the Polynesians. The coincidence furnishes an example of the h.o.m.ogeneity of religion which prevailed among the various branches of the Polynesian race.

The word which the Maoris applied to a G.o.d, whether a personification of nature or the spirit of a dead ancestor, was _atua_. The name is not confined to the Maori language, but is the common word for G.o.d throughout Polynesia.[84] When the Maoris attempt to define the nature of an _atua_, they have recourse to the same comparisons with a shadow and with breath which appear to underlie their conception of the human soul.[85] But though "G.o.d" is the nearest English equivalent of the word _atua_, we must beware of a.s.suming that the Maori idea of G.o.dhead coincided with ours. On this subject one of our best authorities tells us that the term "G.o.d" is really not applicable to the _Atua Maori_, the so-called G.o.ds of the Maoris. For these beings, he says, "were, with few exceptions, malignant demons, to be feared and placated or conciliated, but not wors.h.i.+pped. Their princ.i.p.al task seems to have been the inflicting upon mankind of diverse evils, pains, and penalties. Of the few good offices performed by them, the warning of the people in regard to coming troubles, seems to have been the most important. The vast majority of the so-called G.o.ds of the Maori were simply deified ancestors."[86]

[84] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.

30 _sq._, _s.v._ "Atua."

[85] J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833), ii. 516 _sq._

[86] Elsdon Best, "Notes on the Art of War as conducted by the Maori of New Zealand," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, vol.

xi. no. 2 (June 1902). pp. 63 _sq._

In order to ill.u.s.trate the difference between the Maori conception of deity and our own, I will quote the words of another eminent authority on the native religion of the New Zealanders. He says, "Before the mythology of the Maori is further considered, it will be necessary briefly to state what were the ideas of G.o.d entertained by the natives.

The word _atua_, or spirit, which is used for G.o.d, formerly had various significations; a plague or disease was also _he atua_, or G.o.d; a thief was an _atua_, thus also a thievish dog was _he kuri atua_, a G.o.d-like dog, so also _he tangata atua ki te muru_, a man equal to a G.o.d in stealing; a child who pilfered was _he tamaiti atua_, a divine child; there were great spirits and small ones, a man's spirit was an _atua pore pore_, a little spirit, but Maru Rongomai and other G.o.ds were _Atua nui_, great G.o.ds; there were _atua ika_, reptile or fish G.o.ds; a great chief was called _He ika_, a fish, sea monster, or reptile, and was regarded as a malignant G.o.d in life, and a still worse one after death; there were likewise _Atua marau_, as the _toroa_, albatross, the _ruru_, owl; and _karu karu_, the film which shades its eye from the light, was also an _atua_; male and female spirits presided over dreams, and were regarded as _atuas, Ko nga atua moe moea o te poko_, the G.o.ds of dreams; _Tunui a rangi_, a male, _Pare kewa_, a female deity, both were prayed to as G.o.ds; the _atua kore_ and _atua kiko kiko_ were inferior G.o.ds. The _Atua ngarara_ or reptile G.o.ds were very abundant, and were supposed to be the cause of all diseases and death, being always ready to avail themselves of every opportunity of crawling down the throat during sleep, and thus preying upon the lives of unfortunate creatures. _Atuas_ or spirits of the deceased were thought to be able to revisit the earth and reveal to their friends the cause of their sickness. Everything that was evil or noxious was supposed especially to belong to the G.o.ds; thus a species of euphorbium, whose milk or juice is highly poisonous, is called _wai u atua_, the milk of the G.o.ds."[87] "In fact, in the accounts which the natives give of their G.o.ds and their exploits, we have but a magnified history of their chiefs, their wars, murders, and l.u.s.ts, with the addition of some supernatural powers; they were cannibals; influenced by like feelings and pa.s.sions as men, and were uniformly bad; to them were ascribed all the evils incident to the human race; each disease was supposed to be occasioned by a different G.o.d, who resided in the part affected; thus, Tonga, the G.o.d who caused headache, took up his abode in the forehead; Moko t.i.ti, a lizard G.o.d, was the source of all pains in the breast; Tu-tangata-kino was the G.o.d of the stomach; t.i.tihai occasioned pains in the ankles and feet; Rongomai and Tuparitapua were the G.o.ds of consumption, and the wasting away of the legs and arms; Koro-kio-ewe presided over childbirth, and did his worst to unfortunate females in that state. In fact, the entire human body appears to have been shared out amongst those evil beings, who ruled over each part, to afflict and pain the poor creatures who wors.h.i.+pped them."[88]

[87] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 134 _sq._

[88] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 137.

Anything, indeed, whether good or evil, which excited the fear or wonder of the Maoris would seem in the old days to have been dubbed by them an _atua_ and invested with the attributes of divinity. For example, when a traveller in the early years of the nineteenth century showed his watch to some Maoris, the ticking struck them with such astonishment that they deemed it nothing less than the voice of a G.o.d; and the watch itself, being looked upon as a deity (_atua_) in person, was treated by the whole of them with profound reverence.[89] Other travellers have had similar experiences among the Maoris,[90] and compa.s.ses and barometers have also been accorded divine honours by these ignorant savages.[91]

[89] J. L. Nicholas, _Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand_ (London, 1817), i. 254.

[90] J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833), ii. 516.

[91] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 118.

-- 5. _Taboo among the Maoris_

But the most momentous practical consequence which flowed from their belief in the spirits of the dead was the enormous influence which that creed wielded in establis.h.i.+ng and maintaining the system of taboo, the most remarkable and characteristic inst.i.tution in the life of the Maoris and of the Polynesians in general. I shall first give some account of the taboo or _tapu_, as the Maoris called it, and afterwards show how this extraordinary system of society and religion was directly based on a belief in the existence of ghosts and their mighty power over human destiny.

First, then, as to taboo or _tapu_ itself. This curious inst.i.tution, as I have said, prevailed throughout all the widely scattered islands of Polynesia, but nowhere to a greater extent than in New Zealand. It pervaded the whole life of the natives, affected their plans, influenced their actions, and in the absence of an efficient police provided a certain security both for their persons and their property. Sometimes it was used for political, and sometimes for religious purposes; sometimes it was the means of saving life, and at other times it was the ostensible reason for taking life away.[92] It may be defined as a system of consecration which made any person, place, or thing sacred either permanently or for a limited time.[93] The effect of this consecration was to separate the sacred person or thing from all contact with common (_noa_)[94] persons and things: it established a sort of quarantine for the protection not only of the sacred persons themselves, but of common folk, who were supposed to be injured or killed by mere contact with a tabooed person or object. For the sanct.i.ty which the taboo conferred on people and things was conceived of as a sort of dangerous atmosphere, charged with a spiritual electricity, which discharged itself with serious and even fatal effect on all rash intruders. A tabooed person might not be touched by any one, so long as the taboo or state of consecration lasted; he might not even put his own hand to his own head; and he was most stringently forbidden to touch food with his hands. Hence he was either fed like a child by another, who put the food into his mouth; or he had to lap up his victuals like a dog from the ground, with his hands held behind his back; or lastly he might convey the nourishment by means of a fern stalk to his mouth. When he wished to drink, somebody else poured water into his mouth from a calabash without allowing the vessel to touch his lips; for mere contact with the lips of the tabooed man would have rendered the vessel itself sacred or tabooed and therefore unfit for common use. Similarly, when he desired to wash his hands, water had to be poured on them from a distance by his attendant. This state of consecration or defilement, as we might be tempted rather to call it, was incurred by any person who had touched either a young child or a corpse or had a.s.sisted at a funeral. The taboo contracted by a.s.sociation with the dead was the strictest and most virulent of all. It extended not only to the persons who had handled the corpse or paid the last offices of respect to the departed; it applied to the place where the body was buried or the bones deposited. So sacred, indeed, was deemed the spot where a chief had died that in the old days everything upon it was destroyed by fire. Hence in order to avoid the destruction of a house, which a death in it would have entailed, it was customary to remove a sick or dying man to a temporary shed just large enough to shelter him from the sun or screen him from the rain; for if the man died in it, the destruction of the wretched hovel was no great loss to the survivors.[95] A widow was tabooed and had to observe the aforesaid restrictions from the death of her husband until his bones had been sc.r.a.ped and deposited in their last resting-place; and the same rule applied to a widower.[96] These taboos were temporary and could be removed by a priest, who performed certain rites and repeated certain spells (_karakias_), and thereby relieved the tabooed person from the state of sanct.i.ty or consecration under which he had laboured. The performance of the ceremony put an end to the spiritual quarantine; the man ceased to be sacred, he became common (_noa_) once more, and could mingle freely with his fellows. One of the ceremonies of desecration, as we may call it, was to pa.s.s a consecrated piece of wood over the right shoulder of the tabooed person, then round his loins, and back again over the left shoulder, after which the stick was broken in two and buried, burned, or cast into the sea.[97] Again, a temporary taboo was laid on all persons who were engaged in planting sweet potatoes, or in sorting the seed, or in digging and preparing the ground; they might not leave the fields where they were at work nor undertake any other labour. The fields themselves were sacred during these operations; none but the persons who were tabooed for the purpose might set foot on the ground or pluck up the weeds which grow rankly round the roots of the vegetable.[98] Similarly, in their great fis.h.i.+ng-expeditions to catch mackerel, all concerned in making or mending the nets were under a taboo: the ground where the nets were made was sacred, and so was the river on the banks of which the work went on.

No man but the tabooed persons might walk over the land or pa.s.s up or down the river in a canoe: no fire might be lighted within a prescribed distance: no food might be dressed while the taboo lasted. Not till the net had been finished and wetted with the sacred water, and the owner had caught and eaten a fish, did these burdensome restrictions come to an end by the removal of the taboo.[99] Once more, the men who took part in a warlike expedition were under a severe taboo and had to observe very strictly the customs which that mysterious state of consecration rendered obligatory.[100] Even after their return home they were not allowed to enter their houses or to hold any direct communication with their families who had remained there, till they had been rendered common (_noa_) by a ceremony of desecration. Before that ceremony took place, the warriors were obliged to throw away the remains of the bodies of their foes on which, as usual, they had been feasting; for being sacred food the flesh could only be touched by sacred or tabooed persons. One woman only, the _wahine ariki_, as she was called, that is the elder female of the elder branch of the stock from which the tribe traced their descent, was permitted to touch the sanctified meat; indeed, in order to carry out the ritual of desecration in due form she was expected and required to swallow an ear of the first enemy killed in battle.[101] A warlike expedition might lay even people at home under a taboo; for all who remained behind, including old men, women, and slaves, were often required to observe a rigid fast and to abstain from smoking till the return of the warriors.[102]

[92] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, pp. 84 _sq._

[93] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, p. 84; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 163.

[94] E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, pp.

268 _sq._, _s.v._ "Noa."

[95] W. Yate, _An Account of New Zealand_, pp. 85 _sq._; R.

Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 163, 164.