such as cooking, and so cause his death.”[1] It is a crime for a sacred person in New Zealand to leave his comb, or anything else which has touched his head, in a place where food has been cooked, or to suffer another person to drink out of any vessel which has touched his lips. Hence when a chief wishes to drink he never puts his lips to the vessel, but holds his hands close to his mouth so as to form a hollow, into which water is poured by another person, and thence is allowed to flow into his mouth. If a light is needed for his pipe, the burning ember taken from the fire must be thrown away as soon as it is used; for the pipe becomes sacred because it has touched his mouth; the coal becomes sacred because it has touched the pipe; and if a particle of the sacred cinder were replaced on the common fire, the fire would also become sacred and could no longer be used for cooking.[2] Some Maori chiefs, like other Polynesians, object to go down into a ship’s cabin from fear of people passing over their heads.[3] Dire misfortune was thought by the Maoris to await those who entered a house where any article of animal food was suspended over their heads. “A dead pigeon, or a piece of pork hung from the roof was a better protection from molestation than a sentinel.”[4] If I am right, the reason for the special objection to having animal food over the head is the fear of bringing the sacred head into contact with the spirit
- ↑ R. Taylor, l.c.
- ↑ E. Shortland, The Southern Districts of New Zealand, p. 293; id., Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders, p. 107, sq.
- ↑ J. Dumont D’Urville, Voyage autour du Monde et à la recherche de La Pérouse, exécuté sous son commandement sur la corvette Astrolabe. Histoire du Voyage, ii. 534.
- ↑ R. A. Cruise, Journal of a Ten Months’ Residence in New Zealand (London, 1823), p. 187; Dumont D’Urville, op. cit. ii. 533; E. Shortland, The Southern Districts of New Zealand (London, 1851), p. 30.
