OF NEW ZEALAND. 
87 
some with which they have never any thing to 
do. The head of a chief is always, and at all times, 
considered as most sacred ; and when his hair is 
either cut or dressed, he himself, with the person 
who operated upon him, dare not engage in any 
work, nor partake of any food, except in the way 
prescribed to all who are rendered sacred from 
that or from other circumstances. To use the 
scissors, or the shell, with which the operation 
was performed, for any thing else, or for any other 
person, would be a terrible profanation of sacred 
things, and would render the person, who had 
dared so to appropriate it, liable to the severest 
punishment. A chief, on account of his sacred 
character, never carries food; and if any one 
places food over his head, it is taken as a curse, 
and as a threat that he shall be eaten as a relish 
for the food, be it kumera, corn, or potatoes, that 
may have been put in this position. No chief is 
ever allowed to eat within the house ; and for 
a slave to presume to do so, would, under almost 
any circumstances, ensure his destruction. It is 
on account of their numerous tapus, and the utter 
impossibility of steering clear of them all, that 
the natives of New Zealand never want excuses 
for their depredations upon each other. No pre- 
datory excursion was ever undertaken, but, when 
all other reasons failed, the breach of some tapu 
has been urged as a justification of the proceed- 
ing, to whatever extent it might have been car- 
ried. There are some persons of rank who are 
