56 
TAPU. 
tapu for certain periods; rivers until the fishing was ended; cul¬ 
tivations until the planting or reaping was completed; districts 
until either the hunting of the rat or catching of birds was 
done ; woods until the fruit of the kie-kie was gathered. 
The Tapu may be considered as having been of two kinds, 
private and public ; the one affecting individuals, the other 
communities. 
A person became Tapu by touching a dead bod}', or, by 
being very ill; in this respect it appears to bear a very close 
resemblance to the Mosaic law relating to uncleanness. 
The garments of an ariki, or high chief, were tapu, as well 
as everything relating to him ; they could not be worn by any 
one else, lest they should kill him An old chief in my 
company threw away a very good mat, because it was too 
heavy to carry ; he cast it down a precipice, when I inquired 
why he did not leave it suspended on a tree, that any future 
traveller wanting a garment might take it? He gravely told me 
that it was the fear of its being worn by another, which had 
caused him to throw it where he did, for if it were worn, his 
tapu would kill the person. In the same way, Taunui’s tinder 
box killed several persons who were so unfortunate as to find 
it, and light their pipes from it, without knowing it belonged 
to so sacred an owner; they actually died from fright. If the 
blood of a high chief flows (though it be a single drop) on any¬ 
thing, it renders that tapu. A party of natives came to see Te 
Heuheu, the great chief of Taupo, in a fine large new canoe. 
Te Heuheu got into it to go a short distance ; in doing so he 
struck a splinter into his foot, the blood flowed from the wound 
into the canoe, which at once tapued it to him. The owner 
immediately jumped out, and dragged it on shore, opposite the 
chief’s house, and there left it. A gentleman entering my 
house, struck his head against a beam, which made the blood 
flow; the natives present said, that in former times the house 
would have belonged to that individual. To draw blood, even 
from a scratch, was a very serious matter, and often was at¬ 
tended with fatal consequences. 
A chief s house was tapu, no person could eat therein, or 
even light his pipe from the fire; and until a certain service 
