64 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. III. 
without seeing us, had we not brought him to by a shot^* 
He was anxious to know whether we approved of the 
location ; and seemed to ])e afraid lest Wynen and Guard 
should have ascertained our opinion, and determined to 
conceal it from him. He varied his inquiries, how^ 
ever, with descriptions of his own excursion ; telling* 
some wonderful tales of the numl)er of pigeons he had 
shot^ and of one of them flying away with his ramrod 
which he had left in the gun in his hurry to fire quick 
enough. He pushed on homewards the same evening, 
having a White crew. Our native crew declined to 
pull a heavy boat against the wind. Guard told us the 
maori " boys" were good for a sj)irt, but not for hard 
or continued fatiguing labour. 
The next afternoon we encamped early on Guard's 
Island, the wind being again contrary. Landing on a 
sheltered beach on the west side, we found Enai, the 
elder brother of Charley, who had come thus far to 
meet us in order to hear what we thought of the Ohiere. 
He is a tangata tapu, or *' sacred personage," and is con- 
sequently not adorned with tatu. He was endowed with 
the power of cursing, blessing, and, to a certain degree, 
prophesying. He was also supposed to have the art of 
overcoming diseases and bad weather, or obtaining a fair 
wind, by his incantations. He was not a little arrogant 
of his rank and sanctity, and accosted us in a sort of 
slang ofF-hand manner, acquired among the whalers 
of Cloudy Bay. 
An old chief named Pukiroa, uncle to Charley and 
Enai, lived at this settlement, and was also considered 
very sacred. The spot we had selected turned out to 
be tajiu, on account of some of his hair being buried in 
a small painted mausoleum close by ; and he made a 
great fuss about our dinner having been cooked there. 
Being under the protection of the family, however, we 
