TAPU. 
165 
opposite the chief’s house, and there left it ; a gentleman 
entering my house, knocked his head against a beam, which 
made the blood flow, the natives present said, in former 
times the house would have belonged to that individual. To 
draw blood, even from a scratch, was a very serious mat- 
ter, and often attended with fatal consequences ; a thief 
caught in plundering, though liable to 'be killed for the act, 
still, if merely struck with a stick so as to cause a single 
drop of blood to flow, by that circumstance became at once 
the aggrieved party and could claim the karaka grove or 
kumara ground where the theft was committed, as a satisfac- 
tion for the injury he had sustained. 
A chief’s house was tapu, no person could eat therein, or 
even light his pipe from the fire ; and until a certain service 
had been gone through, even a woman could not enter ; the 
chief being sacred, had his food to himself, generally in his 
verandah, or apart from the rest. No chief could carry food, 
lest it should occasion his death, by destroying his tapu, or 
lest a slave should eat of it, and so cause him to die. A chief 
would not pass under a wata, or food store. The head of 
the chief was the most sacred part of the body ; if he only 
touched it with his fingers, he was obliged immediately to 
apply them to his nose, and snuff up the sanctity which they 
had acquired by the touch, and thus restore it to the part 
from whence it was taken ; for the same reason a chief 
could not blow the fire with his mouth, for the breath being 
sacred, communicated his sanctity to it, and a brand might 
be taken by a slave, or a man of another tribe, or the fire 
might be used for other purposes, such as cooking, and so 
cause his death. The chief power, however of this insti- 
tution was principally seen in its effects on the multitude. 
In former times, life in a great measure depended upon 
the produce of their cultivations, it was therefore of the 
utmost importance that their kumara and taro, should 
be planted at the proper season, and every other occupa- 
tion be laid aside until that necessary work was accom- 
plished : all, therefore, who were thus employed, were made 
tapu ; so that they could not leave the place, or undertake 
