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MAORI FIRE MAKING RITUALS (summary)
ELSDON BEST (1924)
that
was alight, larger dry material such as raupo was placed over the
flame. Ceremonial fires entered largely into Maori life and activities. Religious ceremonies were performed and ritual chants were repeated in connection with conception, birth, marriage, death, burial, war, peace-making, fishing, fowling, agriculture, history teaching, house building, canoe making, travelling, voyaging, etc. Many of the ceremonies involved ceremonial fires and tapu steam ovens.
Geiger, in his paper on the discovery of fire, has laid stress on the fact that fire has entered into religious ceremonial practically the world over. Fire was looked upon as representing the sun, and in Maori myth we can see how fire was derived from the sun. In the universal contest between Light and Darkness, fire and sun are against Whiro and darkness.
Old-time races believed fire was a divine being, of celestial and pure origin, which was shut up in wood, and which was contaminated by contact with men and with human affairs, thus necessitating the generation of new fire.
A man might see many cooking fires blazing around him, but, if he wanted a fire in his sleeping hut, he would, by violent exertion, have to kindle it. In like manner he might have to kindle fire to cook a meal, when a tapu fire was burning close by.
The following ritual formula was one chanted when a tapu fire for ceremonial purposes was being generated:—
| “Hika
ake au i taku ahi. Te ahi na wai? Te ahi na Maui; Maui tikitiki a Taranga. Ko wai taku kaunoti? Ko Tu-te-hurutea, ko te kaunoti a Maui. Ko wai taku hika? Ko te Tuke-a-rangi. Ko wai taku hika? Ko Toroi-a-pawa i a Takutaku, i a Puhoumea Ka tu taku ahi, ko te ahi o Tongaruru Ka tu taku ahi ko Tonga-apai Ka tu taku ahi ko te Piere-tu Ka tu taku ahi ko te Piere-tau Ka tau te ahi na Mahuika. |
I
generate my fire The fire of whom? The fire of Maui. Maui-tikitiki of Taranga. What is (the name of) my kaunoti? It is Tu-te-hurutea, the kaunoti of Maui. What is my hika (rubbing stick)? It is the Tuke-a-rangi. What is my hika? It is smoke from wood dust made by rubbing. My fire ignites, the fire of Tongaruru. My fire ignites, it is Tonga-apai. My fire ignites, it is the Piere-tau. My fire ignites, it is the Piere-tau. The fire of Mahuika appears. |
Tongaruru, Tonga-apai and Maunga-nui are the name of volcanos. Piere-tu is said to denote that the groove is blackened and fire almost generated. In daily speech piere denotes a fissure.
A name that occurs in these ahi karakia or ritual fires is that of Tumatere, sometimes given as Tu-mata-tere or Tumata-tere. One such formula commences:—
- “Hika ra taku ahi Tumatere.”
The karakia (charm, incantation) repeated over a fire to be used for ritual purposes imparted tapu to that fire. The following is a specimen of such karakia ahi, or fire ritual:—
Tuaranga hiwi roa o te whenua e takoto nei.. e
Hei ahi patu atua mahaku ki te po
E whati i au te tini o te po....