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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 8 (November 1, 1934)

The Maori Poet

The Maori Poet.

For many a year I have noted down from the lips of the older generation of Maoris the chants and songs which form so great a portion of the mental treasury of the race, and have often marvelled at the great memorising powers of the men and women whose minds are heir libraries. One old friend of mine who has departed to the Reinga, told me that he knew about four hundred songs, ranging from joyful haka songs, love ditties, war chants, canoe songs, and so on to the laments for the dead, which formed the largest section of his repertoire. Moreover, as became a man who was the descendant of a long line of tohungas and sacred high chiefs, he could explain the inner meaning of the ancient incantations, which was more than most of his contemporaries could do. They might be able to recite the chants, but they were not instructed as to their real significance; so many of the mythological allusions were recondite and unknown to most Maoris.

The most successful pakeha translator of Maori songs in the days of the past was Mr. C. O. Davis, who has given many examples in his book, “Maori Mementos,” a rare little publication now much sought after by collectors. This book, published in Auckland in 1855, contains, besides the poetical addresses of farewell presented by various tribes to Sir George Grey in 1853, when he was leaving New Zealand for Cape Colony, a collection of tangi chants and other songs made by Mr. Davis, chiefly among the North Auckland and Waikato Maoris. A few extracts from these happily translated poems I shall give here as examples of the depth of feeling and the rich imagery contained in the literature of the most gifted and intellectual of primitive peoples.