to the figure or any insult offered to it, could not harm the spirit of the deceased. Mr. Polack says “The most valued ornament that has stood the test of many generations is the tiki, made of the pounamu or green serpent-stone in the form of a distorted monster. There is no reason given for the outré shape in which this figure is invariably made. Gods or lares are not in this land; and they are equally unlike departed friends, for the resemblance is neither like anything above the earth or perhaps beneath the waters. These ornaments stand paramount in public estimation; the original cause of their manufacture is forgotten.”
The Maori themselves have lost any traditional knowledge that they may once have possessed of the origin of these remarkable objects; and it is unfortunate that the old priests who knew the symbolic meaning of these figures have all passed away. The Maori who now pose as authorities are untrustworthy. They are at best theorists and less likely to theorize correctly than Europeans, because of their limited knowledge. For while the knowledge of the white man ranges over the whole race, that of the native New Zealander is confined to customs and practices of the particular family or tribe to which he belongs.
Perhaps in its origin the tiki was a symbol of an ancient creed or a representation of a being worshipped in some long forgotten religion, and its persistent retention of its archaic form would seem to lend support to this theory. Some students, observing the superstitious dread which the Maori have of the spirits of unborn children, consider that the doubled-up attitude of the tiki is suggested by that of the human foetus, and that the ornament, in its original intention, was a talisman to guard the wearer against the maleficent influence of those spirits. Others believe it to be possible that the curious compressed appearance which
