MAORI RELIGION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2425, 13 February 1909, Page 6

MAORI RELIGION.

■PAPER BY MR. BEST

At the meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science Professor Skertchlv read a paper written by Air Eldson Best on the Maori Religion. It must be borne in mind, the writer said, that among a primitive people religion and maigic were inseparable, not to speak of the grossest superstitions, so that the rites cf the black magic often entered into the rites of these people. In all primitive cults morality was not -a concomitant of religion. The ancient Alaori did not worship his gods. He possessed a budget of charms, spells, incantations, etc., numbered by hundreds. The Maori gods were mostly malevolent beings. The Alaori’s system was not one of worship, but of plaeation. The native word that was glibly translated by us as “god” is “atiia,” which really meant demon. Maori* religion was a good illustration of polytheism. Tu was the god of war, and to his service male children were dedicated -with much ceremony. Tangaroa was god of the ocean, while Eon-go -was the god of peace, and presided over agriculture. The laws of tapu were respected, obeyed, upheld, as no other rules were in Maoriland. The cause of this reverence was fear. Ancestor worship, or lather the deification of ancestors, was essentially a Alaori cult. Religious ceremonies .were usually performed at the Tuahu. or sacred place of the hamlet, or at the sacred -water. Present-day Maoris stated that they had given up their ancient religion and accepted Christianity because of the superior powers of the white man’s God.