The Press. — London, England, 1855-03-24 00:00:00

286 charitable funds devoted to their support aro much larger than they really are. The Ger man and Polish Jews number about 4,000, and it is said : Their numbers are augmented by constant arrivals from Europe. Their principal support is derived from the money collected in the European synagogues, and which is sufficient fur an allowance of about 11. 10s. per annum for each person. Most of those who yearly arrive have spent their little savings on the journey, and trust to this fund and to any trade they may know for a livelihood. But these hopes are cruelly disappointed ; 11. 10s. per annum is a pitiful income in a place where water costs from threepence to fivepence per donkey load of four gallons, and the majority of this people are compelled to beg water during a great part of the year. The Spanish community, including the Oriental Jews, in number 8,000 or 7,000, are still worse off Not only have the majority of these Jews no trades, but they have no allowance from the fund of the community, which is burdened with an increasing debt of two million piastres, about 20,0001. The money collected abroad is not enough to pay the interest upon this debt, which is about 151. per day. Every Friday the synagogue servants go to the houses of those few who are a little better off, and beg loaves of bread, which they then distribute among the most needy. The disease and suffering occasioned by bad food, close crowded dwellings, and scarcity of water, are beyond description, and would surely, if known, awaken the compassion and active benevolence of happy England. Any one of the medical residents can testify that death from starvation is not uncommon. The munificent subscription lately raised for the relief of these wretched people must afford them some temporary relief, yet the increase in their numbers from immigration, only to be checked it seems by the extremity of famine, inspires serious apprehension for their future state. It is strange that while in other parts of the world the Jews form pros perous communities, they should in the city of their fathers, which they still fondly cling to as their home, be plunged in the deepest distress, and be dependent on charity for the means of dragging on a wretched existence. As Turkish power declines in Jerusalem Greek influence increases. Russian wealth is supposed to be freely spent to extend the possessions of the Greeks in Jerusalem and its environs. Mr. Bartlett says : It must be remembered that the Emperor of Russia is bead of the Greek Church ; that " there are two almighties (autocratores:—one in heaven and one in St. Petersburg." During a period of several years, the Greek convent has been gradually extended over one-fourth of habitable Jeru salem. by the purchase of houses which have been con nected with the convent, by means of arches thrown over the intervening streets. O f late, not only the houses im mediately contiguous, but buildings and plots of ground in every part of the city, have been bought up by a Greek ecclesiastic, who being a native of Turkey can legally pur chase. The convent cannot legally purchase land, but it is allowed in law to become possessor of property left to it by will on the death of the purchaser. The archimandrite Nikephoros has revenues so inexhaustible, that there can be no doubt as to their source. - The natural activity of the Greek people is fast turning these acquisitions to excellent account : Until very recently, no part of these great possessions was cultivated ; but within the last five years, many thou sand mulberry and olive trees have been planted in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem ; the most unpromising hills, apparently mere masses of rock, have been cleared with the aid of gunpowder, the rich soil exposed, walls built, terraces formed, vines planted, and small annual crops raised between the trees. Silk factories and houses are being built. At present public roads, twenty feet wide, are being made and walled in across the hills and valleys be tween the Convent of the Cross and Jerusalem, a distance of twenty minutes, in order to prevent passengers from trespassing upon the plantations in progress. Gradually one piece after another is fenced in, and already the rides around Jerusalem are much interfered with by the boundary-walls, while the rich verdure is a beautiful addi tion to the hitherto barren landscape. Large numbers of the Moslem and Christian Arab peasantry are employed in building, ploughing, and planting; and they commonly, while call ng down blessings on the Greek convent, term the Patriarch " Aboo Dahab," (the Father of Gold.) The corrupt Eifendies are also well acquainted with the various Russian coins, which are very common in the markets of Jerusalem. Thus, while diplomacy is exercised by the various Euro pean powers—while able Ministers are arranging the Eastern question, and studying the ancient limits of the sanctuaries, title-deeds are being accumulated in the Greek convent, which the shock of war itself will not be able to invalidate, and which must indisputably confirm the right of the Russo-Greek purchasers to their possessions in Je rusalem and Palestine. The Armenian convent now forms a corn plete town, surrounded by a wall of its own, and Mr. Bartlett gives an interesting descrip tion of the handsome palace recently erected for the patriarch, containing the most spacious and splendid apartments in Jerusalem. From THE PRESS. the progress making by the Greeks, it appears probable that Jerusalem will at no distant date fall under their dominion. _ _ On the subjects we have noticed, and on many others relating to the present state of Jerusalem, the volume contains much accu rate information, while as descriptive of the antiquities of the Holy City, it is the latest and most careful authority that can be con sulted. Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race. By Sir George Grey, late Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand. London: Murray. HAD Sir George Grey shown only half as much capacity for government as he has for research into the mythological legends of the people he was called upon to rule, he would have left the affairs of New Zealand less in extricably confused than he did, though, perhaps, in not quite so clear and satisfactory a state as he now presents the ancient mytho logy of its aboriginies. But it is not our business here to discuss Sir George Grey's merits as a governor; we have only to bear witness to the results of his untiring study for a period of eight years of the language and customs of the New Zealanders, and to his composition of a work which will engage the attention of learned men, and be a high authority upon the mythological system of a semi-barbarous but noble race, now rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth. The Polynesian mythology may be said to belong to that physical theory of mythology which is its most primitive form. The savage, naturally observant, unable to unravel the mysteries of nature, is constrained to refer them to the power of a superior Being; hence he personifies the different phenomena of nature ; and the transition from a personifica tion of the elements themselves to the belief that supernatural beings preside over and direct those elements is easy and natural, and the deities, and not the objects themselves, speedily become the subjects of adoration This is the true myth,. the pure form of mythology ; but an addition is soon made in the deification of the great chiefs and heroes of the tribe at their death. Then the attri butes of the gods become soon so linked together with the adventures and exploits of these heroes that it is almost impossible to decide where the mythology of a nation may be said to cease and its history to commence. In this respect the Polynesian system is no exception to other systems of mythology. Its unaccountable and extraordinary legends and traditions are inextricably mixed up with a vast amount of historical truth ; the perpetual wars of rival chiefs, their forays, their mur ders and revenge, the emigration of a tribe and the discovery of New Zealand, are all more or less associated with the supernatural ; and, although they bear the stamp of histori cal truth on most points, they nevertheless are incontestably connected with traditions and legends that belong to an anterior period, but which, more or less embellished in every age, have been handed down by the savage high priests from generation to generation as the sacred creed of the race—a creed, too, so full of gross superstition and barbarous rites, at once puerile and cruel, that it is melancholy to reflect how so intellectual a race as the Maoris are, could have been so long subservient to so gross a system. One curious feature in this Polynesian mythology is the fact that the New Zealanders appear to consider their religion as an allegory from which they may draw important rules for self-guidance in life, for a moral or proverb is tacked to the end of every tradition, which, al though teaching rather shrewdness in their deal ings with their neighbours than any great reli gious doctrine or moral truth, nevertheless in some measure proves the allegorical light in which their traditions are regarded by the Maoris themselves. B ut the mostnotable feature throughout these legends is their thoroughly indigenous and original quality; they are of a pure home-growth, the product of the moun tains, forests, and sea-shores of their own native island homes. There is no foreign ingredient here ; they take the very oolour of the country ; SATURDAY, their gods wage war in canoes, and attack fortified pahs built upon the top of inaccessible hills; while their supreme virtue is that savage virtue, valour; their supreme duty, revenge; and all their other endowments the mere human qualities of the race, and not in any peculiarly exalted degree. They possess the same contempt of death, the same noble ness of disposition, the same love of freedom and of adventure, the same cunning shrewd. ness of character, the same instinctive sagacity which plans a successful attack or finds an instant remedy in every emergency, the same tenderness of heart, and the same poetic imagination, which we find among the race at this very day. It would far exceed our limited space to give in detail any of their legends, but their " Theory of the Universe" is highly poetical, and is worthy of attention:—" Men had but one " pair of primitive ancestors ; they sprang " from the vast heaven that exists above us, " and from the earth which lies beneath us." Such is their text of the origin of the human race. Rangi and Papa, heaven and earth, slave together; "and on that account there " was as yet no world with its bright light, " but darkness only, for the beings which " existed." At last the gods of the beings, worn out with this continued darkness, con sulted among themselves as to whether it would not be better to slay their parents, Rangi and Papa, or to rend them apart. These deities were six in numbei—Tu-ma tauenga, the god of man ; Tane-mahuta, the god of forests ; Rongo-ma-tane, the god of cultivation ; Haumia-tikitiki, the god of natural fertility ; Tangaroa, the god of fish and reptiles; and Tawhiri-ma-tea, the god of winds and storms. The first five agreed among themselves that Rangi and Papa should be separated, but the sixth grieved greatly at the thought of his parents being torn apart, and would not consent : But at length, their plans having been agreed ou, to Bongo-ma•tane, the god and father of the cultivated food of man, rises up, that he may rend apart the heavens and the earth ; he struggles, but he rends them not apart. Lo, next, Tangaroa, the god and father of fish and reptiles, rises up, that he may rend apart the heavens and the earth; he also struggles, but he rends them not apart. Lo, next, Haumia-tikitiki, the god and father of the food of man which springs without cultivation, rises up and struggles, but ineffectually. Lo, then, Tu•matauenga, the god and father of fierce human beings, rises up and struggles, but he, too, fails in his efforts. Then, at last, slowly uprises Tane-mahuta, the god and father of forests, of birds, and of insects, and he struggles with his parents ; in vain he strives to rend them apart with his hands and arms. Lo, he pauses ; his head is now firmly planted on his mother the earth, his feet he raises up and rests against his father the skies, he strains his back and limbs with mighty effort. Now are rent apart Rangi and Papa, and with cries and groans of woe they shriek aloud, " Wherefore slay you thus your parents? Why commit you so dreadful a crime as to slay us, as to rend your parents apart?" But Tane-mahuts pauses not, he regards not their shrieks and cries ; far, far beneath him he presses down the earth; far, far above him he thrusts up the sky. Then the god of hurricanes and storms, dread ing that the world— Should become too fair and beautiful, rises, fol lows his father to the realms above, and hurries to the sheltered hollows in the boundless skies ; there he hides ■nd clings, and nestling in this place of rest he consults long with his parent, and as the vast Heaven listens to the suggestions of Tawhiri-ma•tea, thoughts and plans are formed in his breast, and Tawhiri•ma-tea also understands what he should do. Then by himself and the vast Heaven were begotten his numerous brood, and they rapidly in creased and grew. Tawhiri•ma-tea despatches one of them to the westward, and one to the southward, and one to the eastward, and one to the northward; and he gives corresponding names to himself and to his progeny the mighty winds. He next sends forth fierce squalls, whirlwinds, -lento clouds, massy clouds, dark clouds, gloomy thick clouds, fiery clouds, clouds which precede hurricanes, clouds of fiery black, clouds reflecting glowing red light, clouds wildly drifting from all quarters and wildly bursting, clouds of thunder storms, and clouds hurriedly flying. In the midst of these Tawhiri-ma•tea himself sweeps wildly on. Alas! alas ! then rages the fierce hurricane ; and whilst Tane-mahuta and his gigantic forests still stand, uncon scious and unsuspecting, the blast of the breath of the mouth of Tawhiri-ma tea smites them, the gigantic trees are snapt off right in the middle ; alas ! alas ! they are rent to atoms, dashed to the earth, with boughs and branches torn and scattered, and lying on the earth, trees and branches all alike left for the insect, for the grub, and for loathsome rottenness. From the forests he sweeps down into the seas, and lashes them into their utmost fury; and Tangitroa, the father of fish a►dd reptiles, hides himself in the depths of his "~. J