Maori Lore

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Under the regulations of the school the father of a pupil was required to take charge of his child, so that there should be no crying, whispering, nor exhibitions of restlessness. The attention of students devoted to the acquisition of knowledge was not allowed to be distracted by the perversity of one of...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Under the regulations of the school the father of a pupil was required to take charge of his child, so that there should be no crying, whispering, nor exhibitions of restlessness. The attention of students devoted to the acquisition of knowledge was not allowed to be distracted by the perversity of one of their number. In the season of kahu-rua-maku (autumn) the period of school began, the teaching being continued for four or five months consecutively, school opening at sunset and closing at midnight.- All slept from midnight to dawn. Bathing, games, and other forms of exercise were daily allowed. Students were not permitted to go where food either had been or was being cooked, nor were they allowed to associate with any but the priests and themselves. Any one who, inadvertently or otherwise, came near to a pupil became a carrier to the institution as a punishment for his fault. At a spot some distance from the tutiare-kura food was prepared by females for the use of the school, and by them it .would be brought to its proximity; carriers would then fetch it to the students within the buihiing. Teaching would be begun by the chief priest, who always sat near the door. He would recite a portion of history. The oiher priests followed according to the order of their rank. During the time thus occupied strict silence, broken only by the voice of the teaching priest, would be maintained. The repetition having been finished, then the elder and more accomplished priests, whose place was on the south side of the school, would insist upon the instruction given being rehearsed verbatim by the students, and the examination into the memory attainments of each pupil would be extremely critical. An incantation to open wide the ears of the pupils was the first lesson; the next inculcated the pat...