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"F. L. Journal," vol. i. p. 202; "Revue des Trad. Pop." vol. iv. p. 305. Von Hahn, vol. ii. p. 78. In illustration of these remarks on marital relations in a society where female kinship only is recognized, let me quote the following paragraph concerning Maori customs. The Maories, it must be borne in mind, have only recently emerged from this stage; and many relics of it remain.
They had a saying that "there is no woman for a hairy man;" but it would appear that the fashion has changed in New Zealand, perhaps owing to the presence of Europeans, and I am assured that beards are now admired by the Maories. On the Siamese, Prichard, ibid. vol. iv. p. 533. On the Japanese, Veitch in 'Gardeners' Chronicle, 1860, p. 1104.
Under the present favourable circumstances we were ready to cut the carcass adrift shortly after midday, the head, of course, having been taken off first. Just after we started to cut-in a boat appeared alongside with six Maories and half-breeds on board. Their leader came up and civilly asked the skipper whether he intended doing anything with the carcass.
Jacques Paganel, during his three days' captivity among the Maories, had been tattooed from the feet to the shoulders, and he bore on his chest a heraldic kiwi with outspread wings, which was biting at his heart. This was the only adventure of his grand voyage that Paganel could never get over, and he always bore a grudge to New Zealand on account of it.
The only outlet was the regular door of the Ware-Atoua, and the Maories guarded the promontory which united it to the "pah" like a drawbridge. All escape was thus hopeless, and Glenarvan having tried the walls for the twentieth time, was compelled to acknowledge that it was so. The hours of this night, wretched as they were, slipped away. Thick darkness had settled on the mountain.
Until the Maories become members of the Vegetarian Association they will eat meat, and human flesh as meat." "Why not animal flesh?" asked Glenarvan. "Because they have no animals," replied Paganel; "and that ought to be taken into account, not to extenuate, but to explain, their cannibal habits.
Wearied as they might be, they must fly or be discovered. "Let us go down!" cried he, "before our passage is cut off." But just as the ladies had risen with a despairing effort, McNabbs stopped them and said: "Glenarvan, it is useless. Look!" And then they all perceived the inexplicable change that had taken place in the movements of the Maories. Their pursuit had suddenly stopped.
They had hardly got way upon her, beginning to draw out from the land, when the eagle-eye of one of the Maories detected the carcass of a whale rolling among the breakers about half a mile to the westward. Immediately a boat was lowered, a double allowance of line put into her, and off they went to the valuable flotsam.
The taboo has the same weight as a law; or rather, the code of the Maories, indisputable and undisputed, is comprised in the frequent applications of the taboo. As to the prisoners confined in the Ware-Atoua, it was an arbitrary taboo which had saved them from the fury of the tribe.
There was also a formal reconciliation with Duaterra and his tribe, and the wondering Maories took their travelled brother into high estimation when they really beheld the animals they had imagined to be mere creations of his fancy, and were specially amazed at the sight of Mr. Marsden mounted on horseback.
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