Towards the end of 1845, Sir George Grey was requested to administer the affairs of New Zealand. He quickly realised he could not successfully govern or conciliate with a people whose language, customs, manners and religion he was unaquainted with. In order to assist him with learning the Maori language, he spent eight years collecting ancient myths, poems and legends from the Maori chiefs who used these in their speeches, or in their letters, and frequently quoted fragments of ancient poems or proverbs, or made allusions which rested on an ancient system of mythology. This is a collection of ancient traditional poems, religious chants and songs of the Maori as translated by Sir George Grey and presented to the European reader.
|
