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THE
Maoris appreciated to the full the natural resources of their country. Te
wao nui a Tane, the great
forest of Tane, was something to be jealously guarded, for it
provided them with food, with materials for making their homes, canoes, and
weapons, and even for fortifying their pas. Totara was their most useful
tree for timber, perhaps because it was more easily fashioned than the
kauri. So highly did they prize it, that on the birth of a chief a totara
was often planted and given a special name. Laboriously and with infinite
patience, aided by fire and the skilful
chiselling of their adzes, they
shaped their long canoes from a single trunk. Moreover, the branches
of the totara were useful for holding bird-snaring troughs, the bark made
splendid food baskets, and the sticks were
excellent for making fire by friction.
As the Maoris rejoiced in creating beautiful things, they decorated
the rafters and lintels of their homes, their wooden implements and utensils
as well as their canoes, paddles, and
weapons, with a profusion of
ornament.
But the forest was not prized merely for its timber. It provided fruit and
berries, together with the juices, leaves, and pith of various plants. For
thatching the roofs of houses and for making kits and baskets, nothing was
better than the leaved of the nikau palm. The flax too made excellent food
baskets, and more important still, provided a durable fibre which could be
woven into cloaks, head-bands, and
fishing nets. Moreover, many leaves and flowers were highly prized
for their fragrant properties and were made into little perfume sachets. In
many cases these could not collected until the tohunga—the priest—had
performed certain ceremonial rites and incantations,
And so for purposes of necessity and
luxury, for food, clothing, timber, and medicinal requirement the
Maori found his needs supplied by the forest Thus in due season special
gifts were offered to Tane and particular care was taken that, in the
hunting or snaring season, no word or
action should give offence to the great god, lest the fruitfulness of
the forest be lessened. No tree was felled until the tohunga had performed
traditional rites over it in order to propitiate Tane for the death of one
of his children, and when at last the giant crashed
fronds of fern were laid on the stump as
an offering to the forest god. It was not until the European arrived
to clear the land by fire and axe that the Maori lost his old reverence for
the forest, an Tane's long reign came
to its fiery close.
'A greeting' as portrayed by Captain R. A. Oliver in
1852
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a Maori war canoe, from an early steel
engraving in a French publication
Carved boxes, a plate from 'Cook's
First voyage' by Dr. John Hawkesworth (1773)
'Tane' the God of Trees |
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