62 
TAPU. 
The resting places of great chiefs on a journey became tapu; 
if they were in the forest, the spots were cleared, and surrounded 
with a fence of basket work, and names were given to them. This 
custom particulaxdy applied to remarkablerocks or trees, to which 
karakia was made, and a little bundle of rushes was thrown as an 
offering to the spirit who was supposed to reside there, and the 
sacred object was smeared over with red ochre. A similar custom 
prevailed when corpses were carried to their final places of inter¬ 
ment. The friends of the dead either carved an image, which 
they frequently clothed with their best garments, or tied some of 
A CHIEF PRAYING TO III5 GOD, AND A MEMORIAL IDOL. 
the clothes of the dead to a neighbouring tree, or to a pole ; or 
else they painted some adjacent rock or stone, with red ochre, 
to which they gave the name of the dead ; and whenever they 
passed by, addressed it as though their friend were alive and 
present, using the most endearing expressions and casting 
some fresh garments on the figure, as a token of their love. 
These were a kind of memorial idols, similar to the painted 
windows in Popish churches. 
An inferior kind of tapu exists, which any one may use; a 
person who finds a piece of drift timber, secures it for himself 
