Maori

Maori (i.e. "native," "indigenous"), the aborigines of New Zealand, who are the southernmost group of the Eastern Polynesians, apparently most nearly related to the Rarotonga islanders, but evidently with a strain of black blood derived perhaps from a Melanesian element existing in the archipelago before their arrival some 600 or 700 years ago. At the time of the discovery (1769) they were estimated at from 300,000 to 500,000, mostly concentrated in the North Island, for in the South Island they were never very numerous. Since contact with Europeans, the Maori, like all other Polynesians, have continued steadily to decline, falling in 1840 to 115,000, in 1857 to 56,500, and in 1891 to 42,000, including half-breeds. These are now mainly confined to the King Country in the North Island, which may be regarded as a sort of reservation, some 10,000 square miles in extent, secured to the natives by treaty rights. If not the finest, the Maori are certainly the most vigorous and energetic, of all the South Sea islanders, with strong, muscular frames, regular features formerly disfigured by elaborate tattoo markings, black, crispy hair, olive brown complexion. They are naturally intelligent, with some knowledge of medicine and even of astronomy, good musicians, skilful carvers in wood, great orators, brave and warlike, although since their final reduction by the English in 1869 they have never ventured to renew the struggle for independence. Their literature, purely oral, is rich in poetry, national songs, folk-lore, legends, and traditions, and much of these materials has been committed to writing by European students. The Maori were formerly polytheists, worshipping many deities besides the atua or Supreme Being; yet there were neither temples nor idols, nor a cult in the proper sense, the so-called tohunga or "priests" being rather soothsayers and wizards, charged also with the preservation of the national myths, songs, and legends. The people were undoubted cannibals, and the practice is even said still to exist, although nearly the whole nation has for some years been Christian, evangelised by Protestant missionaries, whose first station was founded in 1814 at the Bay of Islands in the North Island.