168 
TAPIT. 
was formed against the father’s wish, and there was offspring, 
the grandfather frequently destroyed it ; a chief of Rotoaira 
thus put to death the illegitimate child of his daughter by 
cruelly tying it up in a basket to one of the rafters of his 
house, and there leaving it to perish ; the mother, ill from 
its loss, came to me for medicine, but did not seem to grieve 
for her infant’s death. 
The power of the tapu, however, mainly depended on the 
influence of the individual who imposed it. If it were put on 
by a great chief, it would not be broken, but a powerful man 
often broke through the tapu of an inferior. A chief would 
frequently lay it on a road or river, so that no one could go by 
either, unless he felt himself strong enough to set the other 
at defiance. The duration of the tapu was arbitrary, and de- 
pended on the will of the person who imposed it ; also the 
extent to which it applied. Sometimes it was limited to a par- 
ticular object, at other times it embraced many ; sometimes it 
was laid on one spot, at other times on an entire district. Some 
persons and places were always tapu, as an .ariki or tohunga 
and their houses, so much so, that even their owners could 
not eat in them ; therefore all their meals were taken in the 
open air. The males could not eat with their wives, nor their 
wives with the male children, lest their tapu or sanctity should 
kill them. The women generally took their meals by the side 
of the ovens. If a chief took a fancy for anything belonging 
to another who was inferior, he made it tapu for himself, by 
calling it his backbone : and thus put, as it were, his broad 
arrow upon it. A chief anxious to obtain a fine large canoe 
belonging to an inferior who had offended him, merely called 
it by his own name, and then his people went and took 
it. If a chief wished to hinder a person from going to any 
place, or by a particular road, he made it tapu. During the 
disturbances between the Government and the natives, they 
tapued the sea shore, would not permit any Europeans to 
travel that way, and compelled some of the highest func- 
tionaries to retrace their steps. 
Some years ago, a German missionary located himself at 
Motu Karamu, a pa up the Mokau ; the greater part of the 
