Chap. XIII. NATIVE FEUD. . 385 
measure imitated. E Kuru had a more difficult game 
to play. Of his four wives now living, one was of the 
highest Ngatipehi blood, while another was the daugh- 
ter of a chief of as great influence as any among the 
democratic Ngarauru. 
It appears that the old grievances had been again 
raked up, principally by the inhospitable reception given 
at Taupo to two native teachers, who had been deputed 
from fVattotara to convert their former enemies, as 
well as to secure a lasting peace. Heuheu, the despotic 
chief of the Ngatipehi, was violently opposed to the 
introduction of the new creed, because it avowedly 
levelled the distinction between chief and slave, and 
raised up as leaders of the community those who, like 
the two emissaries in question, had lost caste by the long 
captivity which had been the means of their acquir- 
ing Christian knowledge in the normal schools of the 
North. The teachers had been very roughly handled ; 
and Heuheu had threatened that, if they returned on 
the same errand, he would " eat their heads, and make 
" cartridge-paper of their hymn-books ! " This treat- 
ment had led to recriminations and insulting messages 
between the IVaitotara natives and Turoay who warmly 
espoused the cause of his angry relation. The eager 
pupils of the repulsed teachers at length forgot all their 
new lessons of Christian meekness, assumed a high 
tone, and said that " Turoa^ head was potatoes for 
'• their ovens." So outrageous an insult was not to be 
tamely borne by a chief whose head was tapu, or sacred 
even against the touch. The very deepest affront had 
been openly sent as a message to him. He immediately 
communicated with his warlike allies ; and the conse- 
quence had been the arrival of a taua tapu, or " sacred 
" war-party," in the territory of the offending tribe. 
This expedition had been composed of 140 picked men, 
VOL. I. 2 c 
