Ettie Annie Rout - Maori symbolism : being an account of the origin, migration, and culture of the New Zealand Maori as recorded in certain sacred legends

Report made by

ETTIE A. ROUT

(New Zealand Law Court Reporter)

From the evidence of

HOHEPA TE RAKE

(An Araw a Noble)

With a Preface by

SIR WILLIAM ARBUTHNOT LANE, BART., C.B., M.S.

Maori Symbolism

Report made by

ETTIE A. ROUT

(New Zealand Law Court Reporter)

From the evidence of

HOHEPA TE RAKE

(An Araw a Noble)

With a Preface by

SIR WILLIAM ARBUTHNOT LANE, BART., C.B., M.S.

LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.

BROADWAY HOUSE: 6874 CARTER LANE, E.C.
1926

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY FELLOW
COUNTRYMENTHE NEW ZEALAND MAORI

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows
will fall behind you.MAORI PROVERB.

BY SIR WILLIAM ARBUTHNOT LANE, Bart., C.B., M.S., ETC.

BY HOHEPA TE RAKE

Cover DesignWhalebone Ko-te-ate. See p. xxix

By SIR WILLIAM ARBUTHNOT LANE, Bart., C.B., M.S. Consulting Surgeon to Guys Hospital, etc.

A CAREFUL reading of the MS. of this book convinces me that it is one of the most valuable reports ever prepared regarding the natural mode of life of Mankind. Long surgical experience has proved to me conclusively that there is something radically and fundamentally wrong with the civilized mode of life, and I believe that unless the present dietetic and health customs of the White Nations are reorganized, social decay and race deterioration are inevitable. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the mass of personal misery and national loss which follows upon the neglect of intestinal health. The New Zealand Maori view that when the bowels are clean the whole body is clean is perfectly sound scientifically, and its ethical significance is far wider and greater than most of us imagine. The connexion between the nervous system of the abdominal and pelvic region and that of the brain is so close and intimate that literally it is a fact that the state of the mind, and even of the character, is largely governed by the state of the bowels. Chronic intestinal stasis, constipation as it is commonly termed, means that a mass of dead fcecal matterreally filthwhich ought to have been emptied down the sewer is retained in the lower bowel, and while there it presses upon the most delicate and complicated machinery of the human body, namely the genital apparatus. Marital happiness and sexual efficiency are thereby seriously impaired. The whole body gradually becomes saturated with bowel poisons, and this poisoning produces physical disease, mental depression, and disorganization, and frequently moral disorder as well.

The natural remediesor, rather, the preventiveswere clearly known to the Ancient Maori. By diet and by exercise of the abdominal and pelvic muscles, the Maori kept themselves physically fit and healthy. If the so-called civilized nations of the present day could be persuaded to adopt the Maori dietabundance of fruit and vegetables, coarse meals, with occasionally a little fish or birdI believe most firmly that the Cancer Problem among the White Nations would cease to exist. There was no cancer among the New Zealand Maorior any other native raceso long as they lived their own natural life. It was only when they adopted the artificial life of the White Nations that such diseases came among them. As to the contagious diseases, the Maori public health laws were obviously sufficient to eliminate these, and until the Maori came under the control of European public health officers, acting as emissaries of civilization, the spread of contagious diseases was impossible: the exercise and health parades were alone sufficient to ensure rigid prevention. Indeed, one of the most interesting and valuable parts of this report to my mind is the record of the Public Health Laws of the Ancient Maori. It is deplorable to think how far behind these wise and kind sanitary provisions Europe still is. Only recently, in the matter of Sunlight, have we begun again to realize how much of life and health we lose by shutting out the light of heaven from our rooms and smothering our bodies away from the sunshine. The Maori was quite correct in his argument that clothes, as a fetish, constitute the principal means of spreading and hiding the most disastrous of all diseases. It seems to me a matter of the deepest regret that the wonderful health laws of this ancient racethe laws which enabled it to live happily and improve itself vastly during so many thousands of yearsshould have been so little understood in the past and so thoughtlessly brushed aside as valueless and even harmful. Civilization necessarily demands personal and social adjustments in different countries, but surely these can be made without sacrificing health and happiness! I am more than ever convinced, after reading this MS., that if civilized humanity will take the trouble to understand the fundamental health laws which govern native-life, and endeavour to apply them and get those in charge of the nation to advocate and enforce them, the gain to the nation would be almost incalculable. In the matter of diet alone very great reforms could be enacted almost immediately by enlightened public opinion. As to daily exercise, it is shown here that every person capable of movement can benefit by it, and I am certain that the only natural and really beneficial system of exercise is that developed through long ages by the New Zealand Maori and their racebrothers in other lands. The immobility and fixation of the lower half of the trunk necessarily keeps the contents of the lower bowel more or less stagnant, and retards their proper expulsion easily and frequently. Were the habit cultivated by civilized Europeans of regulating their diet and exercise in such a manner as to ensure three soft motions a day (as was the Maori habit), undoubtedly this efficient and frequent emptying of the lower bowel would benefit public and personal health almost unbelievably. An obese and inflated abdomen is a truly hideous and unnatural sight, as unhealthy as it is unlovely; but an overloaded colon is much worse: it is the chief cause of our mental depression, national pessimism, marital unhappiness, and social disorder.