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The Maori Race
Curses
Curses.
Among the Maori a very frequent cause of bloodshed and a still more frequent cause of social unquiet was “the curse.” It had its primitive signification generally, this being to utter an evil wish; often among Europeans cursing only means the utterance of forbidden or disgusting words. In this latter sense the word had no signification for the Maori, and he has had to fall back on the resources of civilization. The real curse (kanga) was generally a page 204 wish that the indignity of being cooked should fall to the lot of the insulted person, “May your head be cooked,” etc. Another form (apiti) consisted in likening a portion of the other person's bodily parts to some undignified utensil, etc., also generally connected with cooked food, as, “Your skull is my calabash,” “My fork is of your bone,” etc. The third curse (tapatapa) was to call anything by a person's name, such as to name a vessel after him. This is not what we understand as a curse, but it would give the person whose name was used a title in the article. For instance, if a chief tapatapa'd a spear by saying that it was one of his legs, it became his property, that is if the owner was not a greater man than he, in which case he would probably consider himself cursed, and demand satisfaction. The subject is difficult, and can be best understood by giving a few examples.
An old man of Waikato was at work in a plantation at Kawhia during a shower of rain. The sun came out and made the moisture rise in a cloud from the worker's body. A lad of the Ngati-toa tribe standing by said “The steam from the old man's head is like the steam from the oven.” These words were considered a curse, and a war ensued in which many were killed. A famous battle was fought in old days because a woman was asked “Is the firewood your brother's pillow that you do not use it for the fire?” This parallel drawn between common “cooking wood” and the pillow on which a chief's sacred head rested was sufficient to convey a deadly insult. A chief jealous of the page 205 fame of the great leader Te Rauparaha said of him “His head shall be beaten with a fern-root-pounder (paoi).” War followed; as it did on another occasion when it was reported to Te Rauparaha that a man had cursed him by saying “I will rip open his stomach with a barracouta tooth.” A little boy having gone up to receive a portion of the livers of some skates that had been cooked was pushed aside by his uncles, and the child wept. He went, however, to his half-brothers, of another tribe, and told the tale of the slight upon him. Soon a war party was assembled and this taua attacked and carried the fort of the churlish relatives. The boy's uncles pleaded to him for mercy but received none, and each as he was despatched heard the taunt “This is the liver of your skate.” The old wife of a chief was pounding fern-root when a party of another tribe, passing, called out “Pound away at the fern-root; it will line the oven in which you are cooked.” This was a fearful and unsurpassable curse, so the old lady was not long in rousing up a war-party to pursue the speaker and avenge the insult.
Sometimes the curse took the form of naming some part of an opponent's body or limbs, and striking the ground at the same time, thus bestowing a blow by proxy on the part named, and this was considered as equivalent to a blow on the part itself. A curse need not always be uttered, an action was sufficient, thus when the bones of Tupurupuru were used as tools with which to dig fern-root, his tribe was “cursed” thereby.
page 206To liken a man to an animal or inferior was a curse. One chief noticing that the hair of a senior was white as a Maori's dog skin, called to him as one calls a dog “Moi! Moi! Moi!” This was a very deadly insult. If, when hair had been cut from the head of some person of consequence and had not been removed to the sacred enclosure (wahitapu), any one should say “How disgusting to leave it about; whose is it?” that would have been a curse on the owner of the hair.
The supposed origin of cursing was the malediction on the moon, uttered by Rona. (See Moon Stories.)
A curious legend exemplifying the extraordinary way in which a curse could be conveyed is related by the Arawa tribe. Tuwharetoa was a renowned warrior whose three sons were killed in battle. With his remaining son, and his fighting men, the old chief started out for revenge. Arriving near a fort of an allied tribe they blew the long war-trumpet (pukaea) and this sound so enraged an old priestess resident near the fort that she cursed them with a shout of “Cooked heads” (pokokohua ma). When the sons of Tuwharetoa heard this curse they repeated the sound of it on the trumpet, thus “To-roro! to-roro!” “Your brains.” The priestess replied “My fern-root is the bones of your ancestors.” So the hearts of her hearers grew dark with the shadow of so terrible an insult. Tuwharetoa was very sad and consulted the oracles how the curse might be removed. According to direction a lizard was killed and the apiti page 207 neutralised; after which the army went home and stayed for ten nights. Then said the chief “Go and slay the offenders,” and the war-party moved off to the attack; two forts were encircled and captured.
A laboriously intricate ceremonial accompanied the removal of a curse (kanga). The person insulted had to accompany the priest (both being naked) to the side of a moving stream beside which mounds of earth were raised. The priest set a twig of mangeao (Tetranthera calicaris) into the bank; on this the gods were supposed to alight and rest upon the mounds. The two men then went into the water and an incantation was uttered.5 Then returning to the village a place was swept clean of grass and leaves as a resting place for gods, and the “Sweeping” spell (tahinga) was recited. After this a hole about two feet long was made as a grave for the souls of the people who had uttered the curse. With a mussel-shell these spirits were swept or scraped into the grave. The priest brought stones and gave each of them a name of one of the cursing persons, then put them one by one into the grave and covered it up, patting down the soil with his hands. The next day the priest and the injured party again visited the spot and wove a little “god's basket” (paro taniwha) repeating an invocation which fixed the soul of the enemies in the basket and this basket was hung over the grave and squeezed by the hands of the priest, the contained spirits being offered to the gods. There were several other ceremonials before the whole page 208 matter was concluded, but they are wearying to peruse except by those persons to whom the study of ecclesiastical formulæ is of interest.6
If one person insulted another who could not at the time practically revenge it, the injured person would perform the “clutch” action (kapo); that is, would raise his arm above his head and clench the fingers as if clutching an object. This had the meaning of intention to attend to the matter later on.