Offerings to Atua

The two direct methods employed by the Maori when they wished to influence the gods in their favor, or when they were about to ask for their help, were (1) offerings of food or other things, and (2) appeasement by other means, such as the recital of ritual formulas supposed to possess powers of influence over spiritual beings. These offerings are called arnonga, raupanga, tiri, koropa, whakahere and whakaepa. The last two words are also used as verbs, meaning "to reconcile or appease by means of a present." Such offerings were frequently made by the human mediums of atua, although, as already explained, no offerings were made to the supreme being Io; the practice was reserved for atua of the second, third and fourth classes. The custom ranged from large ceremonial offerings to the most important beings, such as Tu, and these included human sacrifices, to small food offerings made to the fourth class atua, familiar spirits. To illustrate the latter aspect, I knew an old native who reserved a small portion of each meal he ate for his particular atua. Other branches of the race appear to have practiced a similar custom. For example, in his account of the Tahitians, the captain cooking says: “Many of them are so strictly scrupulous that they will not begin a meal without first setting aside a morsel for the atua. »

The attitude of the most primitive peoples in conciliating evil beings only seems entirely justifiable, to the extent that it would obviously be useless to make sacrifices or offerings to a benevolent divinity. In this regard, we can trace the two aspects of Christianity and the ancient cult from which it arose or of which it is an offshoot. Observe the many sacrifices linked to Judaism. In the Old Testament we read of human and animal sacrifices being made to an angry and jealous deity. In Christianity, these savage horrors have been suppressed, and we find only survivals, such as the Communion; although, strange to say, we still retain the idea of a wrathful supreme being.

F. B. Jevons, in his short work on comparative religion, shows that in the early stages of sacrificial offerings the sacrifice was left entirely to the god, and that at a later stage of development those who made such a sacrifice participated in it.

All offerings to the gods were tapu, and those made by the people, such as cultivated and wild foodstuffs, fish, etc., were often carried by the priest to the tuahu. Apart from these, however, people made private offerings, usually food, to what may be called their family gods. The act of making an offering to a god is described by the verb whangai, which means "to feed" or "to offer food." A human sacrifice was ika tapu, and perhaps koangaumu: while hapainga seems to have been used in a more general sense for an offering. The modern expression patunga tapu was of missionary origin, not an old usage Maori.

Offerings to the gods were made in connection with many things – with war, cultivation, disease, witchcraft, fishing, poultry, and many other activities and conditions. There are few things in this world, or in the unseen world, for which offerings have not been made by priests to the gods, except the fact that no offering of any kind has been made to God, that is to say to the Supreme Being. Such offerings were made to the gods who dwell with Tama-i-waho in the heavens, and to those who dwell in the underworld with Hine-nui-te-po. These offerings were of a soothing and conciliatory nature, to gain the goodwill of the gods. Those made to the departmental gods were composed of products under the influence of such beings. Thus, offerings of birds were made at Tane, of fish at Tangaroa, of kumara at Rongo, of fern root at Haumia, of killed men at Tu, while at Tawhiri-matea offerings of birds active at night.

A Ngai-Tahu note in Mr. White's unpublished case is to the effect that offerings of the blood of human beings and dogs were made to the gods by natives of the South Island, but we do not We have no such information regarding such a custom in the North Island. A small quantity of blood was placed in a small cup formed by a leaf, and thus transported by the tohunga to the place where the ceremony was to take place, that is to say to the tuahu. Here he dipped his index finger in the blood, then pointed that finger towards the image or medium of the god, after which he again dipped his finger in the blood and pointed it towards the heavens. After a third dip, he points downward, the last two movements representing offerings to the gods of the heavens and the underworld.

The sacrifice of a dog was done in ceremonies where it was not convenient to provide a human victim, such as those preceding a fight.

In some very ancient traditions, it is noted that certain “bloodless” foods were selected as offerings to the gods because of their bloodless state. As some plant foods appear to be included – if, indeed, they were not all – the term “bloodless” would seem to indicate a dry nature, a lack of moisture or sap in these foods. We are told that in ancient times the ancestors of the Maoris lived in a land called Irihia, situated far to the west, a land with a warm climate, so hot that it was given the secondary name of Irirangi, because of the heat of the sun. The distant ancestors of the Maori had migrated from a large land called Uru, located in the west, to the land of Irihia, for two reasons. The first of these reasons was the war; the second was the fact that Irihia produced the kai toto kore (bloodless food) called ari. This appears to have been the main foodstuff of the country of Irihia; but there were also other “bloodless” foods, known as kata, porokakata, tahuwaero and koropiri. All of these, including ari, which appears to have been the most important of these products, were used as sacred offerings to the gods due to their "bloodless" nature. (Enei kaie waiho ana hei kai whakaepa kinga atua, hei kai ma nga ariki; he kai kaore ona toto tahi, na reira ka waiho hei kai whakaepa ki nga atua.)

As for what these food products were, it is impossible to say, but it is stated that ari was a vegetable food “grown in the warm land of Irihia”. Ari is the word dravidian for the rice.

The following passage, from Grant Allen's The Evolution of the Idea of God, is incorrect and misleading: "Dr. Codrington notes that the large mouths and lolling tongues of many New Zealand and Polynesian gods are due to the habit of smearing his mouth with blood. and other offerings. » Many writers and speakers have fallen into the error of assuming that house sculptures and other similar figures represented gods.

Mr. White tells us that the offering of a matata bird to the gods was made in war. and that only the blood of this little creature was thus offered, the bird itself being placed at the wahi tapu. It would appear, however, that blood offerings were by no means universal among the Māori and may have been confined to a few tribes.

In Māori belief, the gods simply consumed or appropriated the appearance or essence of all food offerings. Such offerings made to a tuahu were often placed on a small frame of sticks, called a tiepa.

In the legend of Manaia and Nuku there is described an incident in which Manaia kills a bird and uses it as an offering to his atua, a Maru-tahanui.

Mr. White has a Ngai-Tahu note to the effect that when a dog was killed as an offering to an atua, the person officiating opened the carcass with an instrument called maripi tuatini, took out the heart and placed it in front. a fire on a roasting stick. Such fire was first made tapu by means of the recital of certain rituals. As the priestly expert intoned the ritual necessary before this fire, the spectators stood and pointed their hands at him, joining in the responses. This ceremony was performed when an atua had to participate in an important operation, such as a war. In this case, the officiating expert would have eaten the roasted heart himself, after its dedication to the god; and this consumption of offerings by the priests is mentioned by other native authorities. It is, however, certain that this consumption of offerings by the priests was not a universal custom; offerings of fish, etc., left at a tuahu would simply remain there until they decomposed. In other cases, an offering of food was placed on a tree, or simply tossed aside, and left so. In thus rejecting an offering, a person would say: “Your food, O——” (mentioning the name of the atua to whom it was offered, as in “To kai, E Whiro”). In many cases, the person officiating took the offering in his hand and waved it towards the gods, that is, with the outstretched arm he waved it towards space; hence the expression kapoia kidna atua used in the description of this act. Rev. R. Taylor notes in his Te Ika a Maui: "When an offering was made, it was held by the tohunga [priest] above his head, while he said his karakia [ritual] and waved it . »

TO Mangareva, in eastern Polynesia, priests proceeded in the same way during ceremonies, holding a portion of food in their outstretched hand. Offerings to the gods were made on certain stone erections called marae, one of which was called Anga-o-Tane. In Price's description of Judaism we read: “A characteristic feature of Pentecost was the offering of two leavened loaves made of new wheat, which were waved before God and then eaten by the priests.

When a person went fishing, he could throw back the first fish caught as an offering to the gods. The first eel caught by a boy, and the first bird trapped by him, were devoted to a similar purpose. In this case, the offering was made by the village priest, and not by the boy himself: certain rituals were recited during the ceremony. Tunui-a-rangi, of Wai-rarapa, states that, after such a fish or bird had been thus offered, it might be eaten by the boy; but it is doubtful whether this was a universal custom. All the firstfruit offerings were placed at the place of the tapu called tuahu. One authority states that when the kumara (sweet potato) harvest was about to be harvested, a few tubers were taken and cooked. One of them was “waved” to the gods by the priest, who himself ate the rest. These details, however, often differed between different tribes. Additionally, after the above ceremony, two more ovens of tubers were cooked for the main chiefs and the body of the people respectively. After this tapu lifting ceremony, the harvest could be resumed. Similar performances marked the first fruits function linked to uncultivated food products, birds and fish, as well as the first fish caught in a new net. The first fruits of fish were offered to Tangaroa, those of birds to Tane (both being tutelary beings), just as the body of the first enemy killed in combat was dedicated to Tu.

Rev. R. Taylor describes the ceremony relating to the first catch of rats made in a season, when five different ovens were used. In the first a solitary rat was cooked, as an offering to the gods; in the second, two, for the main priestly expert; the third contained ten, for the assistant priests, apparently; the fourth a considerable number, for the trapper; and the fifth a large number, for the majority of the people. The offering to the atua, however, had to be made before the opening of the other ovens.

Mr. White describes a peculiar custom which is not recorded in any work on the Maoris, although he does not say which tribe practiced it. It is as follows: If an expert in tapu historical and priestly traditions agreed to transmit such knowledge to a member of another tribe, then he claimed certain privileges for himself and his descendants. Each year, the scholar's parents offered the expert, or his family, a certain quantity of first fruits and kai popoa from their household. No explanation is given as to the length of time this tribute was payable, and indeed we have no corroboration of this communication; However, it was perhaps a local custom. The kai popoa referred to is a term applied to all tapu food items employed in priestly rites relating to many subjects – birth, baptism, illness, death, house building, canoe making, etc.

Polack, a sojourner to the northern parts of the North Island in his early days, speaks of groups of travelers making an offering of food to the local genie of whatever place they might camp before taking that food themselves: “A portion is reserved in a small basket for the local dryad, which is hung on the branch of a tree… Similar precautions to propitiate said atua are taken in the morning; often he is obliged to rest content with a lock of hair, which is raised in the same manner. » This lock of hair was a frequently made offering in times past and, apparently, was considered the most effective. Fishermen surprised by a storm at sea, or the crew of a capsized ship, would pluck a hair from their head and throw it into the sea, while repeating certain ritual words, a form of charm. Anyone imagining themselves in danger from a mythical taniwha-type monster, on land or sea, would act in the same way.

Shortland talks about the food offered by the Māori to the stone images, but does not explain what these images were. The only ones we know of are those used as fertilizers in crop fields. Offerings were made by travelers at Genius loci to certain trees or rocks known as uruuru whenua. These offerings were only branches, a handful of herbs or stones, placed at the base of the tree or rock, the act being accompanied by the story of a charm. This act was an appeasement of the local atua (demons or spirits), and if neglected, problems, such as bad weather, would ensue.

Offerings of a curious nature were also made at certain mortuary memorials and at places where a sick person of rank had rested when carried home on a litter. At these latter places a carved pole was sometimes erected, such as Te Pou-o-te-Puehu, at Ruatahuna, and on such a pole the travelers would hang a garment or fragment of a garment. In the end times, colorful handkerchiefs and brightly colored strips of cloth were used for this purpose. Other singular observances of the same nature will be described elsewhere.

The terms hapainga and hapainga tapu are applied to these offerings to atua, and to human sacrifice, but these are probably modern expressions, like patunga tapu. Ngakoa is another word for such offerings. Of course, Māori have always believed that any spiritual being is fully aware of any offering made to it, no matter how light the ceremony or how remote the place where it is performed.

Offerings to the dead are on much the same level as offerings to atua, or spiritual beings. When a person of any social status died, not only their personal belongings, weapons, clothing and ornaments were arranged on or near them, but also condolence visitors brought similar items as gifts to the dead . These were known as kopaki tupapaku and were often buried with the body. The name applied to them can be translated as “corpse wrappings”. People often placed objects in a relative's grave, and this custom survived the introduction of Christianity. Thus, I knew of a case in which a woman placed in the grave of her infant niece a precious ancient shell necklace known as a hangaroa. In another case, a father placed a silver crown in the grave of his infant child and changed the name of a surviving sister of the child to Karauna (crown). An old native friend of the writer, on the death of his father, placed in the grave a manuscript volume of ancient tribal traditions, collected and written down with great care, and therefore a valuable possession. Numerous examples could be cited as illustrations of this custom among the natives. It is also interesting to note how this custom has survived to the present day among European nations – one of the most persistent survivals being the placing of flowers on graves.