CHAP. VI.] NEW ZEALAND ORIGIN. 101 



perty contained in a house left uninhabited by its 

 proprietor, a house containing seeds, a canoe left 

 unprotected on the beach, a tree selected for being 

 worked into a canoe at a future period are " tapu." 

 What is this but a command not to steal ? A 

 burying-place, the utensils and clothes used in in- 

 terments, are strictly consecrated, as is the house 

 in which the deceased lived. And this custom arose 

 from a feeling deeply rooted in all the human family, 

 and the more so the higher they advance in civil- 

 ization, namely, respect to the memory of de- 

 parted friends or relations. What is this but a law 

 against sacrilege ? They also " tapu " the canoe in 

 which a person has been drowned, or the musket 

 with which he committed suicide. These are no 

 longer used, but are either left untouched, or are 

 broken up and the pieces placed upright at the spot 

 where the accident happened. If any blood of a 

 chief has been spilt, however innocent the occasion 

 and slight the loss, the instrument which inflicted 

 the wound becomes " tapu," and the chief takes it 

 as his property. A meeting was to take place at the 

 Taupo lake : Te Heu-Heu, the principal man of the 

 tribes, was requested to be present, and a new and 

 highly ornamented canoe was sent to fetch him 

 over. When he stepped into it a splinter penetrated 

 the skin of his foot : every one left the canoe imme- 

 diately, it was hauled up, and the proprietor did not 

 think of remonstrating against Te Heu-Heu laying 

 his " tapu " on it, and regarding it as his property. 



