Chap. IV. TAPU ON THE SUMMH? OF A MOUNTAIN. 113 
" the interior, who may encroach on our possessions till 
'* we become their servants ; but if you can make up 
" your mind to come yourself now and then, and visit 
" this mean place, whose people are your slaves, you 
*' will find the ^ same welcome. The place and the 
** people are yours. Go to TVanganuir The old 
man said all this calmly and without working himself 
into a state of excitement; but while he disclaimed 
any intention of swaggering, and, in holding up his 
right arm from beneath his mat, displayed his her- 
culean proportions unimpaired by the sixty years that 
have whitened his hair, I could not help admiring his 
calm and manly declaration, and believing it to be, as 
he said, true. I succeeded, after much trouble, irl 
making him understand that we had all come to Taupo 
out of curiosity only, and with no view of acquiring 
land ; and assured him that the southern pakehas, at 
least, would never annoy him by any attempts to wrest 
from him his chieftainship or his land. 
I asked his permission to ascend Tonga Riro on my 
way back; knowing that he had been very angry with 
Mr. Bidwill for doing so during his absence. But he 
steadily refused ; saying, " I would do anything else to 
" show you my love and friendship ; but you must not 
" ascend my tipuna, or ' ancestor.' " He told me that 
he had for the same reason refused the same request 
when made by the two White men who had come 
from the Governor to buy his land ; referring to Dr. 
DiefFenbach and Captain Symonds, who had been here 
two or three months before. 
This was a curious illustration of the enforcement 
of the custom of tapu, as used to support the dignity of 
the chief. Hevheu constantly identified himself with 
the mountain, and called it his sacred ancestor. 
This legend of an hereditary descent from an object, 
VOL IT. 1 
