152 Transactions. — Zoology. 



village was on the edge of the lake, and was completely buried. 

 In consequence of this, the entire lake and the land within 

 defined limits was tapu, lest the fish of the one and the pro- 

 ductions of the other should be eaten by any one. This was 

 proclaimed by Te Heuheu Iwikau. Nothing from the lake — 

 fish, koura, &c. — could have been eaten on pain of death. It 

 was not till five years after that the present Te Heuheu 

 removed the tapu. He was the man whose right it was to 

 do so, being the son of the deceased chief ; and it was done to 

 secure provisions for the gathering held for the lamentation 

 over his father. No foreign chief could have done it. The 

 ceremony was that the fish were caught, then removed to a 

 place still tapu, and then cooked ; then given to the priest, 

 the ariki, and then eaten by him solemnly. No meaner 

 person could have dared to do so. The high priest, the ariki, 

 on this occasion, was Te Takinga, and it was his office to eat 

 these first-fruits of the land. 



" I take the instance of Te Eangituamatotoro. After his 

 death he was conveyed by Tamaira to Motu-taiko. An earth- 

 quake shattered the island, and the bones fell into the lake. 

 The water -of the lake within certain limits was whakatapued. 

 Now, there was a certain shallow (taliuna) in the lake that 

 was a favourite fishing-ground, but it has been tapu ever since, 

 and it is so still, and no one will dare to fish there. 



" In all my experience I have never met with a single in- 

 stance of a tapu laid by a foreign tribe upon land not their 

 own property. Were such a thing attempted it would not be 

 respected. 



"I knew Totoia; also his elder brother, Te Ihukino. I 

 heard of the tapu imposed because of his death. I was present 

 at "Waikari when Te Kaperakau and the others were there. 

 Te Kaperakau — grandfather of Aperahama Te Kume [the 

 claimant] — and the rest started to look for his body, but it 

 could not be found. Totoia was a man of great consequence, 

 as is proved by the land being made tapu for his sake. It was 

 Te Kaperakau and Te Eeweti who proclaimed the tapu." 



A witness, however, on the other side gave the following 

 evidence : " When I and my party visited Maungaiti we found 

 Totoia living there alone. He was growing potatoes : that was 

 all I saw. We slept there one night, and went on the next 

 morning. Totoia gave us supper and lodging. There were 

 several houses, but much dilapidated, and he himself had 

 grown very old. He said that was his settlement. He was 

 dressed in a cat-skin rug, painted inside with red ochre. The 

 skins were of different colours. He wore it by day and he 

 slept in it by night. We went on from Maungaiti to Tapapa 

 and took up our residence there. After this we heard of To- 

 toia's death at Maungaiti. I do not know how he died. We 



