TAPU. 
169 
natives there* with their head chief Te Kuri* were members 
of the Church of Rome ; but his head wife became his warm 
patron. When the priest arrived there on his way down the 
river* he scolded Te Kuri for suffering a heretical missionary 
to be located in his district* applying many opprobrious 
epithets to the intruder ; this very much incensed the 
chiefs lady ; she said her teacher should not be abused* and 
therefore next morning* when his reverence was preparing 
to continue his journey* she made the river tapu* and to his 
annoyance there was not a canoe to be found which dare 
break it; after storming for some time he was obliged to 
return by the way he came* the lady saying it would teach him 
better manners another time* and not insult her minister. 
To render a place tapu* the chief tied one of his old gar- 
ments to a pole* and stuck it up on the spot intended to be 
made sacred, this he either called by his own name* saying 
it was some part of his body* as Te Heuheu made the 
mountain Tongariro sacred* by speaking of it as his back- 
bone* or he gave it the name of one of his ancestors* then 
all descended from that individual were bound to see the 
tapu maintained* the further back the ancestors went* the 
greater number of persons interested in keeping it up* 
as the credit and influence of the family were at stake* 
and all were bound to revenge any infringement of it. 
Words were also rendered tapu* and could not afterwards be 
used on any account. A chief of Rotorua was called Imi or 
food when he died, the word was made tapu* and although 
the most common one another was substituted : to use the 
former there* would have been equivalent to a curse. 
Graves and wahi tapu were always sacred* and no one ever 
thought of entering them* to do so was attended with danger. 
Governor Philip introduced a large breed of pigs into the 
island* but highly as those new animals were prized* when 
they sacrilegiously presumed to root in their wahi tapus* 
they were exterminated for their impiety. 
Another kind of tapu was that which was acquired by acci- 
dental circumstances* thus* — An iron pot* which was used 
for cooking purposes* was lent to an European; he very 
