THE MAORI’S PLACE IN HISTORY. Dik 
but in all there are certain observances and ceremonies that 
plainly point to the cruel rite. 
The licentious Areoi societies that existed in many of the 
Polynesian groups when the missionaries commenced their 
labours remind us of the religious processions on the Nile 
described by Herodotus. Of the Hawaiian “Pahu tabu” 
Ellis has left the following particulars:—“ Hither the man- 
slayer, the man who had broken a tabu or failed in the 
observance of its rigid requirements, the thief, and even the 
murderer fled from his incensed pursuers, and was secure. 
To whomsoever he belonged and from what part he came he 
was equally certain of admittance, though lable to be 
pursued even to the gates of the enclosure. Happily for 
him those gates were perpetually open, and as soon as the 
fugitive had entered he repaired to the presence of the idol 
and made a short ejaculatory address expressive of his 
obligations to him in reaching the place with security. 
Whenever war was proclaimed and during the period of 
actual hostilities a white flag was unfurled on the top of a 
tall spear at each end of the enclosure, and until the con- 
clusion of peace, the symbol of hope waved to those who, 
vanquished in fight, might flee thither for protection. It was 
fixed a short distance from the walls on the outside, and to 
the spot on which this banner was unfurled the victorious 
warrior might chase his routed foes, but here he must himself 
fall back—beyond it he must not advance one step on pain of 
forfeiting his life. The priests and their adherents would 
immediately put to death any one who should have the 
temerity to follow or molest those who were once within the 
pale of the ‘Pahu tabu.’ In this institution we have plainly 
represented the Israelites’ cities of refuge, from which the 
Christian sanctuaries of the middle ages emanated.” 
The right of tapuing, or declaring sacred, possessed by 
the priests of Polynesia and New Zealand, with the terrible 
punishment the breach of tapu drew down upon delin- 
quents, gave the order immense power both in temporal and 
spiritual matters; for much that is done by civil authorities 
in more civilized communities was, amongst the Polynesian 
peoples, done by the priests exercising their nght to tapu. 
Thus, a close season for game, a prohibition to fish m certain 
places, or the observance of a fast were alike insured by 
merely declaring the animals, localities, or days tapu. Our 
own history is marked by a gradual separation of Church 
and State with the excluding of Churchmen from civil offices. 
T 
