![Thumbnail: [Volume 48, 1915 page 440]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_48/thumbnails/rsnz_48_00_0496_0440_ac_02.gif)
Human Sacrifice.
We are aware that the practice of human sacrifice was followed in eastern Polynesia, and probably the Maori brought it with him to New Zealand. There is, however, some evidence to show that in former times two singular examples of this custom obtained here that we cannot trace to the former home of the Maori: these were the burial of human beings at the bases of the main forts of the stockade of a pa, or fortified village, and also at the bases of posts supporting a house. There are several allusions to the latter custom in Maori tradition, and, curiously enough, there is proof that in many cases some other object—such as a bird, a lizard, or a stone—was so buried, the human sacrifice being omitted. It would be interesting to know whether or not the depositing of a stone, &c, was the more modern custom, such objects serving as substitutes for a human sacrifice. Or were both forms of the ceremony practised during the same period? There is a certain amount of evidence to show that such sacrifices at the completion of a new fort or superior house, and perhaps also of a new canoe of the larger type, were practised at one time, but that in later times they became much less frequent, if, indeed, they did not entirely cease in some districts. Again, the custom of human sacrifice, or at least of slaying a person, at a certain ceremonial performed over the first-born child of a family of high rank does not seem to have been practised by the Takitumu tribes, as it was among some others.
The allusions in tradition to the burial of a human being at the base of a house-post are but few, and there is no record, so far as the writer is aware, of such an occurrence in late generations. One case, in which the mother of a child so sacrificed was a Maruiwi woman, hence probably a slave wife, occurred about two hundred and fifty years ago. Although Maori tradition says little about this custom, we do know that in Fiji the burial of human beings at the bases of house-posts was a custom of the natives.
In regard to the burial of human beings at the bases of stockade-posts, we know of no tradition concerning this custom, and no old natives questioned on the subject know anything about it. We have, however, some very direct evidence in the fact that the remains of such sacrifices have been found in one locality. The Tawhiti-nui pa, or fort, at Opotiki is said by natives of the district to be a very old one. It was occupied by members of the Toi tribes (a mixed Maori-Maruiwi folk) when the last Maori immigrants arrived here from Polynesia some twenty generations—or, say, five hundred years—ago. All signs of stockades have long since
![Thumbnail: [Volume 48, 1915 page 441]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_48/thumbnails/rsnz_48_00_0497_0441_ac_02.gif)
disappeared from Tawhiti-nui, leaving only the earthworks. When, some years ago, these earthworks were being levelled in order to facilitate farming operations, the workmen found remains of the butts of the main posts of the old stockade within the ramparts. At the base of each of these post-butts were the remains of a human skeleton.
Now, this is the only case in which such remains have been discovered, so far as we are aware; but it must be borne in mind that such earthworks are not often removed. Most of such fortified places are situated on hill-tops; such earthworks are not likely to be removed for any purpose. Tawhiti-nui is situated on the brink of a ploughable terrace. Maori tradition tells us nothing of this wholesale sacrifice of human life at the building of a new fort. It was evidently a ceremonial practice, connected with some idea of securing good luck for the fort and its inhabitants. Such an offering to gods or demons is quite a different thing from the slaying of a single person in order to give éAclat to a function, as not infrequently occurred among the Maori. It is most improbable that Tawhiti-nui represents an isolated example of such a singular ritual performance; such offerings must have been a customary procedure among former inhabitants of New Zealand. Were the folk who made such a wholesale sacrifice of human beings Maori or Maruiwi? If Maori, then presumably he did not bring the custom with him from eastern Polynesia, for he did not employ stockades there. Again, if this custom was universal at one time in New Zealand, it certainly was not practised in late generations, not even in the Opotiki district. Why was it discontinued? The following account of Fijian human sacrifice at the building of a new house is taken from “At Home in Fiji,” by C. F. Gordon Cumming: “A series of large holes was dug to receive the main posts of the house; and as soon as these were reared a number of wretched men were led to the spot, and one was compelled to descend into each hole, and therein stand upright with his arms clasped round it. The earth was then filled in, and the miserable victims were thus buried alive, deriving what comfort they might from the belief that the task thus assigned to them was one of much honour, as ensuring stability to the chief's house. The same idea prevailed with respect to launching a chief's canoe, when the bodies of living men were substituted for ordinary rollers.” (For “rollers” read “skids.”)
On the death of a Fijian chief his wives were strangled and buried with him. Something similar obtained among the Maori, though here it seems to have been voluntary on the part of the widows—in fact, suicide. Was this a general Polynesian custom, or was it practised in eastern Polynesia?