New Zealand
Maori superstitions. Amidst the mythological personages of New Zealand "the spirits of the dead " ever play a very prominent part, and our chief interest in noticing the Maoris, lies in the fact, that belief in, and open communion with these spirits, still exist. The priests or Tohungas" are unmistakably Mediums," in the modern sense of the term. Sometimes they are born with their gift, and sometimes they are devoted to the priestly office by their parents and acquire their power after the fashion of Eastern ecstatics, by prayer, fasting and contemplation. That good prophets exist amongst the Maoris has been abundantly proved. During the time when Great Britain busied herself in colonizing New Zealand, her officials frequently wrote home, that the Maori would never be conquered wholly; information of the parties sent out to attack them; the very colour of the boats, and the hour when they would arrive; the number of the enemy, and all particulars essential to their safety, being invariably communicated to the tribes beforehand by their prophets or Tohungas.
The best natural prophets and seers amongst the Maoris are of the female sex; and although the missionaries try to account for the marvellous powers they exhibit, above all for the sound of the Spirit voice, which is a common phase in their communion with the dead-on the hypothesis that the women who practise "the arts of sorcery," are ventriloquists-this attempted explanation rarely covers the ground of the intelligence which is received.
New Zealand In his Old New Zealand General Cummings cites an interesting case of Tohungaism. A certain young chief had been appointed Registrar of births and deaths, when he suddenly came to a violent end. The book of registries was lost, and much inconvenience ensued. The man's relatives notified their intention of invoking his spirit, and invited General Cummings to be present at the ceremony, an invitation which he accepted. "The appointed time came. Fires were lit. The Tohunga repaired to the darkest corner of the room. All was silent, save the sobbing of the sisters of the deceased warrior-chief. There were thirty of us, sitting on the rush-strewn floor, the door shut and the fire now burning down to embers. Suddenly there came a voice out from the partial darkness, 'Salutation, salutation to my family, to my tribe, to you, pakeha, my friend!' Our feelings were taken by storm. The oldest sister screamed, and rushed with extended arms in the direction from whence the voice came. Her brother, seizing, restrained her by main force. Others exclaimed, 'Is it you? Truly it is you! aue! aue!' and fell quite insensible upon the floor. The older women and some of the aged men were not moved in the slightest degree, though believing it to be the spirit of the chief. "Whilst reflecting upon the novelty of the scene, the 'darkness visible' and the deep interest manifest, the spirit spoke again, 'Speak to me my family; speak to me, my tribe: speak to me, the pakeha!' At last the silence gave way, and the brother spoke : 'How is it with you? Is it well with you in that country?' The answer came, though not in the voice of the Tohunga-medium, but in strange sepulchral sounds : 'It is well with me; my place is a good place. I have seen our friends; they are all with me!' A woman from another part of the room now anxiously cried out, 'Have you seen my sister?' 'Yes, I have seen her; she is happy in our beautiful country.' Tell her my love so great for her will never cease.' 'Yes, I will bear the message.' Here the native woman burst into tears, and my own bosom swelled in sympathy. 66 6 6
The spirit speaking again, giving directions about property and keepsakes, I thought I would more thoroughly test the genuineness of all this: and I said, 'We cannot find your book with the registered names; where have you concealed it?' The answer came instantly, 'I concealed it between the tahuhu of my house, and the thatch; straight over you, as you go in at the door.' The brother rushed out to see. All was silence. In five minutes he came hurriedly back, with the book in his hand! It astonished me. "It was now late, and the spirit suddenly said, 'Farewell my family, farewell, my tribe; I go.' Those present breathed an impressive farewell, when the spirit cried out again, from high in the air, 'Farewell!' 66
This, though seemingly tragical, is in every respect literally true. But what is that? ventriloquism, the devil, or what!..."
Mrs. Britten, in her Nineteenth Century Miracles says: "The author has herself had several proofs of the Mediumistic power possessed by these 'savages' but as her experiences may be deemed of too personal a character, we shall select our examples from other sources. One of these is furnished by a Mr. Marsden, a person who was well-known in the early days of New Zealand's colonial history, as a miner, who grew rich 'through spiritual communications.' Mr. Marsden was a gentleman who had spent much time amongst the Maoris, and who still keeps a residence in the King country,' that is the district of which they hold control. Mr. Marsden informed the author, that his success as a gold miner, was entirely due to a communication he had received through a native woman who claimed to have the power of bringing down spirits-the Maoris, be it remembered, always insisting that the spirits descend through the air to earth to visit mortals. Mr. Marsden had long been prospecting unsuccessfully in the gold regions. He had a friend in partnership with him, to whom he was much attached, but who had been accidentally killed by a fall from a cliff. The Spirit of this man came unsolicited, on an occasion when Mr. Marsden was consulting a native seeress, for the purpose of endeavouring to trace out what had become of a valuable watch which he had lost. The voice of the spirit was first heard in the air, apparently above the roof of the hut in which they sat, calling Mr. Marsden by his familiar name of 'Mars.' Greatly startled by these sounds, several times repeated, at the Medium's command, he remained perfectly still until the voice of his friend speaking in his well-remembered Scotch accent sounded close to his ear, whilst a column of grey misty substance reared itself by his side. This apparition was plainly visible in the subdued light of the hut, to which there was only one open entrance, but no window. Though he was much startled by what he saw and heard, Mr. Marsden had presence of mind enough to gently put his hand through the misty column which remained intact, as if its substance offered no resistence to the touch. Being admonished by an earnest whisper from the Maori woman, who had fallen on her knees before the apparition, to keep still, he obeyed, when a voice-seemingly from an immense distance off-yet speaking unmistakably in his friend's Scotch accents, advised him to let the watch alone for it was irreparably gone-but to go to the stream on the banks of which they had last had a meal together trace it up for six miles and a half, and then, by following its course amidst the forest, he would come to a pile, which would make him rich, if he chose to remain so. Whilst he was waiting and listening breathlessly to hear more, Mr. Marsden was startled by a slight detonation at his side. Turning his head he observed that the column of mist was gone, and in its place, a quick flash, like the reflection of a candle, was all that he beheld. Here the séance ended, and the astonished miner left the hut, convinced that he had heard the Spirit of his friend talking to him. He added, that he followed the directions given implicitly, and came to a mass of surface gold lying on the stones at the bottom of the brook in the depth of the forest. This he gathered up, and though he prospected for several days in and about that spot, he never found another particle of this precious metal. That which he had secured he added, with a deep sigh, was indeed enough to have made him independent for life, had it not soon been squandered in fruitless speculations."
So deeply has the Maori mind been saturated with ages of superstition that among the civilised, well-educated classes there may to-day be observed numerous expressions and actions which have their origin in an instinctive dread of the supernatural. Many degrees of superstition exist among the Maoris of the present day, says a writer in the Pall Mall Gazette. In the recesses of the Urewera country for example, diablerie has lost little of its early potency; the tohunga there remains a power in the land. Among the more enlightened natives a precautionary policy is generally followed; it is always wiser and safer, they say, to avoid conflict with the two mysterious powers tapu and makuta. Tapu is the less dangerous of the two; a house, an individual, or an article may be rendered tapu, or sacred, and if the tapu be disregarded harm will befall someone. But makuta is a powerful evil spell cast for the deliberate purpose of accomplishing harm, generally to bring about death. The tohunga is understood to be in alliance with the spirits of the dead. The Maori dreads death, and he fears the dead. Places of burial are seldom approached during the day, never at New Zealand night. The spirits of the dead are believed to linger sometimes near places of burial. Without going to experts in Maori lore, who have many and varied theories to set forth, a preferable course is to discover what the average Maori of to-day thinks and believes respecting the strange powers and influences he deems are at work in the world around him.
A Maori of this type-who can read and write, is under forty years of age, and fairly intelligent was drawn into a lengthy conversation with the writer. He believed, magistrates notwithstanding, that tohungas, somehow, had far more power than ordinary men. He did not think they got that power from the "tiapo" (the devil?); they just were able to make themselves masters of men and of many things in the world. There are many degrees of Tohungaism. An ordinary man or woman was powerless against a tohunga, but one tohunga could overcome another. The speaker knew of an instance of one tohunga driving the tohunga power entirely out of a weaker rival. It was a fairly recent east coast occurrence. Three Maoris had accidentally permitted their pigs to trespass into the tohunga's potato paddock, and much damage and loss was the result. The tohunga was one of the dangerous type, and being very wroth, he makutued the three men, all of whom promptly died. Nobody was brave enough to charge the tohunga with causing the death of the men; they were all afraid of this terrible makuta. At length another tohunga was heard of, one of very great power. This oracle was consulted, and he agreed to deal effectively with tohunga number one, and punish him for killing the owner of the pigs. So, following his instructions, the first-mentioned individual was seized, and much against his will, was conveyed to the home of the greater magician. Many Maoris, it should be known, stand in awe of hot water, they will not handle it, even for purposes connected with cooking or cleaning. Into a large tub of hot water the minor tohunga struggling frantically, was placed, then he was given a page torn from a Bible, which he was ordered to chew and swallow. The hot water treatment, combined with the small portion of the white man's sacred volume, did the expected work; the man was no longer a tohunga, and fretting over his lost powers, he soon afterwards died." Spiritualism. Amongst the earliest investigators in Dunedin, was a Mr. John Logan. Before he had become publicly identified with the cause of Spiritualism, an association had been formed, the members of which steadily pursued their investigations in private circles and semipublic gatherings. One of the most marked events in connection with the early development of Spiritualism in Dunedin, however, was the arraignment and church trial of Mr. Logan, the circumstances of which may be briefly summed up as follows. This gentleman, although holding a high position in the first Presbyterian church of the city, had attended circles and witnessed Spiritualistic phenomena and it was currently reported that one of his own near relatives was a very remarkable Medium. On the 19th of March, 1873, Mr. Logan was summoned to appear before a Church Convocation, to be held for the purpose of trying his case, and if necessary, dealing with his "delinquency." Mr. Logan was in the event deprived of his church membership.
In many of the principal towns besides Dunedin, circles held at first in mere idle curiosity, have produced their usual fruit of mediumistic power, and this again has extended into associative action, and organisation into local societies. For over a year, the Spiritualists and Liberalists of Dunedin secured the services of Mr. Charles Bright as their lecturer. This gentleman had once been attached to the editorial staff of the Melbourne Argus, and had obtained a good reputation as a capable writer, and liberal thinker. Mr. Bright's lectures in Dunedin were highly appreciated, and by their scholarly style and attractive manner, served to band together the liberal element in the city. In Auckland, the principal town of the North Island, the same good service was rendered to the cause of religious thought, by the addresses of the Rev. Mr.
Edgar, a clergyman whose Spiritualistic doctrines, had tended to sever him from sectarian organisations, and draw around him, the Spiritualists of the town. Besides the good work effected by these gentlemen, the occasional visits of Messrs. Peebles, Walker, J. Tyerman, and the effect of the many private circles held in every portion of the islands, tended to promote a general, though quiet, diffusion of Spiritual thought and doctrine, throughout New Zealand.