Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-03-23
DueIing Among the maori.

|
Dueling Among the Maori.
The written laws of the Persians and
the Medes, the arbitrary emanations from
the brains of despots, executed by court.
ly chamberlains and obsequious minis.
ters of justice, were less freely and will
lingly obeyed than we're the customs,
traditions, and oral laws Of the Ma
oris enfotced by the sovereign will
of the people. Had it been otherwise,
anarchy must have overcome order
among people whose every unit was
trained to the use of arms.
The ordeal of public battle by single
combat was the recognized course for the
redress Of private injuries, supplemented
in many cases by damages levied upon
| the offending party, and, in some in
stances, upon his relatives.
Woman was the most frequent cause
of dueling even an immodest glance
being a sufficient cause for inhicting a
little bloodletting upon its recipi-
ent. Injuries in some way or other
connected with land were the next
most prolific motive of these affairs of
honor looked upon with so much favor
A trespass upon a piece of "tapued
ground, even if accidental, subjected the
| offender to the chance of having hole
picked through him, and himself and
his relations to being heavily mulcted by
those interested in the tapu. The plea
of ignorance or accident was never for a
moment entertained or even thought Of
1t mattered not how or why man had
done anything; he had to take the conse.
quences of his act. Limited liability was
unknowa; and ingenious excuses, such
as those invented by railroads to shrk
their liability for accidents caused by the
carelessness of their servants, or the
recklessness of their own management,
would have insured those making them
ample opportunities for practicing the
noble art of self defence with the spear.
To invent an excuse for an inflicted in
jury was considered an aggravation of
the crime. We are stating the two mo
frequent causes Of dueling, and even of
war, to be quarrels about land and about
women, we must not in justice forget
that insulting language, still the reason
of so many duels upon the continent of
Europe, was never cause of quarrel
and bloodshed among these barbarians,
whose language did not even possess q
curse until one was invented out of a
mixture Of Maori and English. Custom
so governed the practice of dueling that,
while it was encouraged, it was at the
same time restrained.
A person, in the constant habit of re-
quiring the assistance Of his friends,
would have been considered an intoler-
able nuisance, and means would soon
have been found Of getting rid of him.
the most obvious being that Of turning
him into ridicule; punishment TO which
most Maoris, Of gentle birth, preferred
deathitself. While the State recognized
and patronized dueling, it insisted that
it should take place in public. A pri-
vate renee htre would have been looked
upon as positive fraud upon the public,
which would thereby have been deprived
of mornings edilying instruction and
exciting entertainment; besides, when a
man was killed in a sudden quarrel
aud such an accident sometimes hap.
pened-the affair was generally stigma
tized as "kohoru,' an act of treachery
or murder. Duels, which were the oc.
casion of military display, were believed
to assist in keeping alive the martial
spirit, and were rarely attended with
fatal results. This was most sedulously
guarded against by the combatants, for
the death of a man, killed upon the
spot by a clumsy duelist, might, and
sometimes did, precipitate an immediate
and general battle.
Barbarous as this system of law and
Justice must be considered, it was per
fectly satisfactory to those whose ac.
tions it controlled. Maori ladies re.
, ceived no invitation from a local Lord
Penzance, and Maori gentlemen had moi
the honor of having interviews (by
deputy with lord chancellor Neither
! had the rising generations and the pub
lie at large the questionable advantage
| of reading in the public prints prurient
: details of salacious trials Moreover as
, the consequences of indiscretion were
{ so heartily visited, not only upon the
trespasser, but upon his relatives and
friends, men and women walked with
, the utmost circumspeetioH. and the sun
never shone upon a more cheerful
| happy, and as far as their knowledge
led them, a more moral people than the
Maoris. The zest and excitement af
forded we're not impaired by their toe
freouent occurrence. 1t was remarked
, that when two or three had taken place
, in quick succession in the same neigh
borhood, an interval Of months would
, pass away without one; everybody being,
as it were, put upon the best behavior.
a-