The Mauri or Mouri

We have here another quality proper to man and to things, and which is by no means easy to describe. Man's mauri is apparently his physical life principle, and the term Greek thymos seems to describe it, insofar as it is an inner activity. But it is more than that in the Maori belief, because, under the name of mauri ora, it is considered a protective quality, the sacred principle of human life. 

This aspect of the mauri will need to be expanded. Such is the immaterial mauri, but there is also a material mauri relating to man, forests, land, villages, etc., and this can be described as a protective talisman, a material emblem of the gods which possesses great protective powers, as does the immaterial mauri of man.

Some authors define man's mauri as his soul, but it is not advisable to use this term, because the reader would confuse it with the spirit which survives the death of the body, that is to say the wairua. The mauri ceases to exist with the death or disappearance of its physical base.

The firm belief of the Maori in the power of their gods, in the ever-present dangers surrounding all forms of life, in the need to protect the principle of life, resulted in the institution of material mauri or talismanic objects endowed with the power to protect the immaterial mauri, or principle of life. This practice was exercised not only in relation to the principle of human life, but also to that of crops, fish, birds, forests and the earth.

In the native belief, this subtle life principle pervades all things and it is necessary that it be carefully protected from all harmful influences. The earth and the heavens, the celestial bodies, the elements, all natural phenomena, the seasons, the day and the night, the ocean, the streams, the lakes, all possess this vital principle which gives life. This was probably a very common, if not universal, belief at one time.

The mauri of man is not located in any particular organ of the body, nor are the wairua and hau for that matter. Again, the mauri is not the seat of emotions, although it is affected to some extent by fear etc. Thus the expression ohomauri describes the feeling of surprise of a suddenly alarmed person; the mauri of the person is "frightened". So far, it can be called a sensitive mind. The mauri is of a more tranquil nature than the wairua; the latter is essentially an active principle. The mauri is a protective principle because it represents the gods and the tapu that belong to them. 

We would be inclined to call it the divine spirit in man; it is the immaterial sanctuary or the dwelling place of the mana or the power of the gods in man, so it is essentially tapu. If something happens by means of which a person's mauri or a is vitiated or polluted, and thus rendered noa or common (empty of tapu), then the person is in a dangerous state. This is because the protective powers of his wairua are nullified, that is, the protection of the gods has been removed, and his life principle is open to the malignant activities of evil spirits, the arts of magic black and with countless pernicious influences that have ever existed. surround the man.

The immaterial and material mauri are taunga atua, places of residence of the protective spiritual gods, or sanctuaries, and knowledge of these strange beliefs is absolutely necessary for anyone who understands the institutions of the Maori. The mauri material used as a protective talisman does not possess any innate power of its own, its virtues are derived from the spiritual gods who inhabit it by means of a priestly rite.

Any act that vitiates a person's tapu, as already explained, severely affects his mauri. In the same way, the material mauri of a forest, for example, can be rendered virtueless by an act of recklessness. For example, during bird-catching season, the forest is under strict tapu, and if someone carries cooked food into such a forest, then that forest and its mauri become tamaoatia or defiled. 

The gods immediately withdraw their protection, the forest becomes "powerless", fruits and other products no longer bloom, and most game birds desert it. It is now imperative that a priestly expert take matters into their own hands, reconcile the gods, and restore the tapu of the forest and the efficiency of its mauri. The immaterial mauri of man can be defiled in the same way.

Old natives who have observed the deterioration of their people in numbers, energy, and endurance have often told me that the cause lay in the fact that the mauri ora of the race had become polluted and devoid of virtue through contact with Europeans. As an old man said, the breed's health, vigor, and well-being have returned to Hawaiki. In the same way the vital principle of the forests has been destroyed or very weakened by the abandonment of the tapu and the impious customs of the Europeans, whence the great reduction in the number of birds.

A mauri or material talisman is sometimes called a whatu or an iho, both words having the meaning of core and core.

The Mauri material representing a person can, according to Tuta Nihoniho, be a stone or a piece of wood. Its power to protect man is implemented there by the ritual of the tohunga or priestly adept who locates the wairua (spirit or soul) of the deceased parents or ancestors of the person in the material mauri. These implanted spirits are the true protective power, the stone or other object being their temporary place of residence while protecting their living descendant. 

The mauri was therefore bound to protect a person, to save him from the terrible effects of black magic and also from death by violence and other dangers. A mauri of this type was sometimes only employed for a short time, such as to represent a person during the performance of certain divinatory rites, after which it was discarded.

In some cases, a man about to embark on a journey would obtain a tohunga to provide him with a mauri, that is, to empower a small stone or other object to serve as a protective talisman for him during his journey. The tohunga located or implanted the gods in this stone to protect the traveler. (Ka whakamohio e te tohunga nga atua ki roto i taua kohatu hai tiaki i te tangata haere). considered atua.

In these cases, the adept would warn the recipient not to lose the talisman, otherwise disaster would surely overtake him. Judging by the explanations received from many other natives, the great danger would lie in an enemy finding such a lost talisman and using it as a means of sympathetic magic.

On the return of the traveler, he compelled the follower to deprive the mauri or talisman of its powers, to make it a common thing again, after which it was without virtue. It is interesting to note how close the beliefs described above are to those of true ancestor worship.

The following notes were obtained from members of the Ngati-Porou tribe:

The mauri of the roto tuna or roto kakahi, lagoons or lakes where eels or freshwater mussels abounded, was generally a stone. In the ceremony by means of which the stone was made into a mauri, the priestly adept dipped a branch into the water of the lake or stream, and then tapped the stone with it, repeating at the same time the necessary charm.

This act was hai whakanoho i te wairua o te roto ki te kohatu, i.e. implanting the wairua (spirit or soul) of the lake in stone. The stone was then hidden away, lest it be found by an indiscreet person, which might have the result that such food supplies could no longer be obtained from the waters. The ceremony endowed the stone, so to speak, with the mana of the lake, or of the stream or of the awa kehe. The mauri will hold or retain the food products of the water or the forest, that is to say its fecundity, such is its function. 

It protects these products of magical arts from enemies and renders these arts futile. The task of setting the wairua of the forest or stream in stone was done by a tohunga. Until the mauri was found and tampered with, no wizarding art could affect the foodstuffs it represented.

The mauri of a forest, river or stream was also used as a means to attract fish to that stream, to make them fruitful and abundant to retain them in such waters, to prevent them from leaving the river. This material mauri is just a stone on which a tohunga recited a certain charm in order to endow it with the above powers, and which was then concealed somewhere on the river bank. 

The fish would then become numerous in these waters. If someone found the mauri and removed it, then the fish would leave that stream. The mauri of a bird trapping ground, pools of water where birds were caught and lakes were all of the same nature.

Again I was told that a stone chosen as a Mauri material for a fishing canoe had a certain charm recited on it, after which it was carefully hidden, lest it be found and removed or deprived of its powers by an ill-intentioned person. His office was to keep the tapu and to influence the gods to protect the canoe at sea; also to make the ocean fish complacent.

If an enemy takes possession of a pa's mauri, then surely that pa will lose its mana (prestige, luck, etc.) and its inhabitants will lose their temper, self-confidence, etc. In addition, food supplies will run out and become scarce, as food products will not ripen. 

In the mauri we have a talismanic object that represented the power of the gods to preserve the pa and its inmates from evil, to inspire confidence, to maintain the prestige of the fort and the people, to promote general well-being. The mauri was the shrine and visible representation of such power and protection from the gods. The Mauri. was the very core, heart and soul of pa.

The mauri of the Arawa ship that was brought here from Polynesia was a stone, and it was deposited in Moehau to serve as a mauri forever for immigrants and their descendants. All important seagoing vessels had such a talisman.

The fish mauri was considered an institution of great importance, as it was believed to attract fish and retain them in its native waters. Eel fishermen used to have such a talisman at their eel dams.

The harvest mauri was another important institution in Maori eyes. We hear about it mainly about kumara or sweet potato, the main food product grown in these islands. The coarse stone images called "kumara gods" by us, and described by the natives as taumata atua, or abodes of the gods, were used as the mauri of the crops.

We have now seen that the mauri is a vitalizing principle belonging to animate and inanimate things, and that it never leaves an animal body until death; it is not a separable or apparitional soul. The life principle is perhaps the best term to describe it, but it is believed to have certain powers that are not easily grasped by Europeans.

There were certain formulas called mauri which were recited over people in ancient times. In the case of infants, the object seems to have been either to endow an infant with mauri life force or to make him mauri tapu and efficient. This last form of charm seems to have been repeated in adults as well.