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They early acquire those arts which are necessary for their maintenance and preservation. Near the
sea or the lakes they acquire the art of swimming almost before they are able to stand upright.
They are not deficient in obedience to their parents, although the latter do not exercise their
authority very strictly, but allow their children to do what they do themselves. Where there is no
occasion for burthening them with restrictions which they do not understand, as is the case in
civilised nations, there are fewer occasions for correction. They are a cheerful, affectionate set of
little urchins, indefatigable in annoying the visitor from distant Europe by their curiosity, which
extends to his person, clothes, all the things he may have with him, and even to his sayings and
doings, which are faithfully reported to the elders: nothing escapes the attention of these
youngsters. From their continual contact with adults all their mental faculties are early developed,
although they pass their youth in doing nothing, or in innocent games. (II:30f.)
As can be seen, the children are playful, innocent and respectful to their parents, as well as bright
and eager to learn. It is therefore no wonder that they are his favourites (II:12).
In this way, these ‘children of nature’ have been brought up within a natural environment
which encourages superstitions and fear of the unknown. The most common example is the Maori
reverence and trepidation of mountains, which culminates in “tales of terrible animals, or
divinities, which we should meet with on the summit of the mountain, and which would
inevitably devour the poor maori (native), but could do no injury to the pakea [sic] (stranger)”
(I:29). This belief has its roots in the imaginations of all barbarous peoples, even though the
results may differ:
[I]n addition to that awe which grand scenes of nature and the solemn silence reigning on such
heights produce in every mind, the savage views such scenes with superstitious dread. To him the
mountains are peopled with mysterious and misshapen animals; the black points, which he sees
from afar in the dazzling snow, are fierce and monstrous birds; a supernatural spirit breathes on
him in the evening breeze, or is heard in the rolling of a loose stone. It is this imaginative
superstition which gives birth to the poetry of infant nations, as we see in the old tales of the
Germans, which evidently have their origin in the earliest ages of the race, and bear the impress of
the ethics and religion of a people not yet emerged from barbarism; but with the Polynesians these
fears lead to gross superstition, witchcraft, and the worship of demons. (I:155f.) 92
When considering the apparent lack of idols in Maori culture, whereby their carvings only appear
to represent ancestors and a genealogical connection rather than worship, the Maori assume a
refreshing quality:
Nowhere in New Zealand have I seen anything that could be regarded as an idol, although some
persons have said that such exist. The absence of all carved gods among the New Zealanders
appeared to me a very attractive trait in their national character. They are too much the children of
nature, and perhaps too intellectual, to adore wooden images or animals, and I often heard the
heathen natives deride the pewter images of the Holy Virgin which the Roman Catholic priests
have brought into the country. They are superstitious, it is true, but not more so than we should
92 Cf. I:140, 149, 155.
87