518 
TAREHA. 
Mr. Kemp went to the Chief, entreating him to spare the 
slave's life, but seemingly to no purpose ; he placed in the 
Chief's hand, which he was holding behind him, a little to- 
bacco; this did not appease him, he raged still more violently, 
shaking his hand as an intimation that it was not enough, 
threatening to kill him at once ; the poor slave trembled, 
Mr. Kemp then added a shirt as a companion to the tobacco ; 
this was also insufficient, his hand still shaking for more, and 
his threats increasing ; at last, he gave a blanket, immedi- 
ately he felt this in his hand, his wrath subsided, his tone 
changed, and he not only granted his pardon, but bestowed 
the youth upon him ; on another occasion, when some of our 
Missionaries where going up the Kerikeri river, they were 
struck with sounds of lamentation ; on landing, they found 
that Tareha had got a fish-bone in his throat, and was choking, 
being tapu , no one dared come near or touch his sacred head ; 
but one of the Missionaries immediately approached, and 
fortunately having a pair of scissors with him, after some 
difficulty, managed to extract the bone ; in about half-an- 
hour, the Chief had so far recovered as to be able to speak ; 
and to the amazement of the kind operator, who had thus, in 
all probability, saved his life, his first words were a command 
to his followers to seize the scissors as a payment for having 
touched his sacred throat, the Missionary, however, managed 
to retain possession of them, although they had thus been 
forfeited by the law of tapu. 
On another occasion, a boat's crew went up what is called 
Tareha's River, to cut wood, leaving one man to take care of 
the boat, and get food cooked for the party on their return ; 
the man commenced with gathering two baskets full of 
oysters ; he had no sooner done so, than up came Tareha, 
who in his fierce gruff voice, demanded his business there, at 
least so the man supposed, being totally ignorant of the lan- 
guage ; but knowing what a dreadful cannibal he was, and how 
completely he was in his power, he told me he trembled in 
every joint, thinking his last moments had arrived; Tareha 
repeated his savage growl in a louder tone ; the man think- 
ing perhaps it was the cry of hunger, thrust before him one 
