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erniedrigen mußte. Er ist übrigens einer der ärgsten Kannibalen gewesen und seiner
Menschenschlächterei wegen in den Annalen Neuseelands berüchtigt; seit langen Jahren jedoch
ein warmer Freund der Weißen, soll er in den neueren Kriegen Hunderten derselben das Leben
gerettet haben, wofür er von der Regierung eine jährliche Leibrente von 50 £ Sterl. erhält.
(25.5.1859, 150)
He has certainly proved his worth and renounced his savage past, but at the same time Krull feels
a great sympathy for his fall from grace, in terms of freedom, power and status, which leaves him
totally subjugated and often humiliated in his actions, as the above scene shows. While it shows
to the supporters of European civilisation that even the most savage of creatures can be controlled
and converted, as Krull notes, he has lost his native rights, and now is in effect a slave to the
white man. The quite comical depiction that follows of a drunken Te Puni falling off his cart and
injuring his head is then contrasted with his new companions cleaning him up and becoming great
friends from this day forward (25.5.1859, 150). Despite touching the chiefly head in the process,
which they later learn is worthy of death under traditional Maori practices, the converted Te Puni
has no qualms about this act, and neither does Krull have any reservations about the chief’s
cannibalistic past.
As can be seen, Krull views the Maori as a friendly, cheerful and relatively peaceful
people, despite their recent history with the British, in which “Menschenopfer unter ihnen nicht
mehr stattfinden, und […] der Krieg den schrecklichen Reiz für sie verloren hat, der sie früher zu
ihm anregte”, 65 as they now try to resolve their disputes in Court Houses. 66 He does, however,
acknowledge that the Maori are, or at least were, not incapable of the grossest acts of barbarism
when seeking retribution: “Früher waren sie Cannibalen, die nicht nur das Fleisch ihrer
gefangenen und geschlachteten Feinde brieten und verzehrten, sondern auch das warme Blut
derselben tranken. Auch ihre eigenen Sklaven schlachteten sie nicht selten zur Strafe für irgend
ein geringes Vergehen.” 67 This is also witnessed, for example, in the stories he is told of past
intertribal conflicts where, in one case, a tribe had slaughtered all their prisoners only to soon
receive the same fate from the “blutige[n] Rache” of the enemy chiefs (25.2.1859, 110), and the
noticeable piles of bleached bones from a bloody battle fought nine years earlier between the
Maori and British soldiers, in which “nicht ein geringer Theil von diesen […] von den lebend in
65 Krull, “Mittheilungen”, 104.
66 Krull, for example, witnesses, albeit with some difficulty as the proceedings are delivered in their native tongue,
the accused and plaintiff being represented by their chiefs who agree on the penalty and are accompanied by their
whole tribes and the noise they bring with them (18.3.1859, 124).
67 Krull, “Mittheilungen”, 103.
142