Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/427

Rh temper, endurance of torture without complaint, revenge of injuries, and abstinence from insult to others, were regarded as virtues; among slaves, obedience to their masters and respect for the taboo; among married women, fidelity to their husbands. A ceremony called iriiri or rohi was performed by the priests upon infants before they were a month old, and consisted of a species of baptism, sometimes by sprinkling, sometimes by immersion. After baptism the priest forced little pebbles down the throat of the child to make his heart hard and revengeful. When first visited by Europeans, the New Zealanders lived in fortified villages (pahs), built on peninsulas or on hilltops. Since the general introduction of Christianity, these forts have been abandoned, except a few that are conveniently situated, and the natives live in open villages and farm houses. The different nations were almost constantly at war, and deadly feuds were frequent between tribes. These contests were carried on with great ferocity, the defeated tribe being reduced to slavery, or killed and eaten; cannibalism was universal. Quarrels about land and women were the usual causes of strife, but wars were not entered upon without much deliberation and attempts at conciliation. Sea fights occasionally took place between fleets of canoes, these vessels for military purposes being made 80 ft. long, 4 ft. wide, and 4 ft. deep, propelled by 50 paddles. The weapons used in war before the introduction of firearms were slings, javelins, long spears made of pine hardened by fire and sharp at both ends, and clubs and tomahawks of greenstone or other hard stones. Bows and arrows were known, but not used in war. Of late years these arms have all been laid aside, and firearms adopted. Wars among the aborigines have nearly ceased since slavery and cannibalism have been removed by Christianity and civilization. Marriage among the New Zealanders did not involve any religious ceremonies. Before marriage girls not betrothed were permitted to indulge in promiscuous intercourse if they pleased, and the more lovers they had the more highly they were esteemed. Married women, however, were kept under strict restraint, and infidelity was punished severely, often with death. Polygamy was permitted, but not common, and men could divorce their wives simply by turning them out of doors. Since the introduction of Christianity a great change has taken place. The natives are now generally clothed like civilized men, and possess flocks, herds, furniture, houses, and cultivated lands. One half of the adults can read and write, and two thirds of them belong to Christian churches. But from various causes, especially from the introduction of new diseases, their numbers are rapidly diminishing. In 1872 the number of the aborigines, formerly computed at 100,000, was less than 40,000, nearly all in the North island. The Maori is one of the Polynesian languages. (See MALAYO-POLYNESIAN RACES AND LANGUAGES.) Consonontal sounds employed in it are k, ṅ, h, ’, n, s, l, r, p, m, f, and w; the sound of v, heard in the other languages of the Polynesian group, is wanting, and replaced by the English w. It possesses the vowels a, e, i, o, u, both long and short. The words are formed from dissyllabic stems, either by reduplication or by prefixes and suffixes. Reduplication in verbs signifies either repetition, as haere, to walk, haerehaere, to walk to and fro; or intensity, as kai, to eat, kakai, to eat rapaciously; or simultaneousness, as moe, to sleep, momoe, to sleep with somebody. Reduplication in adjectives signifies either the superlative degree or the plural number, as ika pai, a good fish, ika papai, good fishes. Reduplication in nouns signifies the plural of collectives. The prefixes and suffixes are loose particles, without exercising any phonetic influence on the words which they accompany. The want of grammatical number and the processes of indicating it in the Polynesian languages has been spoken of in the article referred to above. In Maori the force and use of the particles would render the declension of a noun, after the model of the inflected languages, as follows: Singular—nom. te taṅata, the man; gen. o or a te taṅata; dat. ki te taṅata; ace., loc., and instr. i te taṅata; abl. e te taṅata; plural—nom. ha taṅata; gen. o or a ṅa taṅata; dat. ki ṅa taṅata; ace., loc., and instr. i ṅa taṅata; abl. e ṅa taṅata. There are exclusive and inclusive dual and plu. ral expressions. The personal pronouns ahau, I, koe, thou, ia, he, have the dual taua, korua, raua, and the plural taton, kouton, and raton. When the speaker does not include himself, he says maua in the dual and maton in the plural number. Verbs may be arranged in paradigms somewhat as follows: karaṅa, to call; active—present (1st person sing.), e karaṅa ana ahau; preterite, i karaṅa akau; pluperfect, kua karaṅa ahau; future, e karaṅa ahau; future present, ka karaṅa ahau; passive—present, e karaṅatia ana ahau; preterite, i karaṅatia ahau; pluperfect, kua karaṅatia ahau; future, e karaṅatia ahau; and future present, ka karahatia ahau. The particles e, i, ka, and kua indicate the time; the suffix tia the passive voice. Negation is expressed by the particle te. The first ten cardinal numbers are tahi, rua, toru, wa, rima, ono, witu, walu, iwa, and nahuru. A considerable body of literature was preserved by tradition in the shape of fables, stories, proverbs, songs, and laments for the dead. Their poetry is mostly lyrical, none epic or dramatic. Each sentence is metrically arranged, but rhyme is not used. The prose stories are of great length, some of them requiring successive days for their narration. In style and spirit they resemble children's tales. Several collections of this literature have been made, as "Poems, Traditions, and Chaunts of the Maoris," by Sir George Grey (Wellington, 1855), and 