ABSTRACT
Perceptions of exotic species affect not only those in the wild but domestic stock too, and the cultural assimilation may run deep. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, New Zealand’s only mammals were the dog and the native rat brought by the Maori from their original Polynesian homelands. Early voyagers left pigs and ships’ rats behind, but within some three decades of the arrival of the first horse, those animals not only acquired spiritual significance but also featured in ‘customary’ legal practice, especially as satisfaction for acts of adultery. Interestingly adultery was a very serious crime, especially if the woman involved was the wife of a high-ranking chief, but the idea that horses represented customary satisfaction might seem rather curious given that the animals were not indigenous to New Zealand.
