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Maori Religion and Mythology Part 2

Part VIII — The Institution of Tapu

page 15

Part VIII
The Institution of Tapu

Tapu a substitute for civil law. The gods are the vivifying power of tapu. Tapu represents the mana of gods. Tapu is ceremonial restriction. An "unclean" person is tapu. Indirectly a moral force. Modern priests are mentally neolithic. The turbulent Polynesian governed by tapu. Tapu an adjunct of religion, not religion itself. Many phases of tapu. Tapu means "unclean, prohibited, bespoken", etc. The life principle is tapu. Rules of tapu harassing to Europeans. The milder phases of tapu backed by personal mana. How tapu was acquired or imposed. tapu objects painted red. Evil influences ever present. Personal tapu. Tapu easily polluted. Tapu means exclusiveness. Loss of cheerful social intercourse. How tapu persons ate. No food allowed in dwelling huts. The troubles of travellers. tapu of the head. Tapu demands nudity in certain cases. Sickness and death. Burial places. How medical research was stifled. Tapu of new nets, of cultivations, of forests. Tapu as a game preserving institution. Words become tapu. Tapu names. Word making. The number twelve. Tapu of tattooing; of knowledge. How Tokowaru saved his body from the oven. Desecration of tapu the cause of massacres. Tapu of birth. Dangers of tapu. The abolition of tapu; how it was removed. The pure rite. The ruahine. Lustral rites.

The far-reaching powers and effect of the rules of tapu rendered this institution a highly important one in Maoriland, hence it is necessary that it should be here explained. This peculiar institution may be examined from two points of view; its manifestations were in evidence in the two departments of religion and sociology. Though viewed by some as being essentially a phase of religion, yet it was also the strongest force in Maori social life. It was the power that preserved order in the community; it took the place of civil law. The abiding force behind the institution of tapu was represented by the gods; they were the vivifying power that rendered it effective. Also tapu represented the mana (prestige, power, authority) of the gods, and this is a fact that must be borne in mind by the student of Maori usages. The social government of Maoriland may almost be termed theocratic in nature, inasmuch as fear of the gods was the strongest preserver of order.

Much might be said concerning this condition, its phases, or aspects, and effects. Briefly it may be described as one of ceremonial restriction. Anything sacred or holy is tapu, but it must not be supposed that tapu always means sacred. In some page 16cases it carries a meaning very much the reverse. The old-time folk of Southern Asia had evolved the same ideas as those of the Polynesian connected with tapu. In his Religion of Ancient Palestine, pp. 46-47, Mr S. A. Cook makes some remarks that might have been written of our tapu: "The terms Holy or Sacred are not to be understood in the ethical or moral sense. A holy thing is one that has been set aside, dedicated, or restricted; it is charged with supernatural influence which is contagious; everything that comes in contact with it becomes holy. In some cases it is provided that this inconvenient sanctity may be purged; in others the thing has to be destroyed." Now all this describes our tapu, and in many cases this term has to be rendered as being equivalent to the word "unclean", as employed in the Scriptures. When a person touches a tapu object with his hand, then that hand becomes tapu, and so must be purified, freed from tapu, when it can be used again.

Although tapu was not primarily a moral institution, yet indirectly it exerted a moral force, as in preventing offences against society and individuals. It was a conservative and strongly protective force throughout all Polynesia, hence the following remarks made by Montgomery in his Religions of the Past and Present, pp. 22-23: "Thus it may be seen that taboo is an important aspect of the phenomena of religion, influencing primitive ethical and social behaviour in general to an extent that makes it in some regions as broad a concept as that of religion itself. In Polynesia, particularly, the taboo was largely a method of government and the fear of retribution from supernatural sources was the direct cause of obedience to it." These are just remarks that can certainly be applied to the tapu of the Maori.

In Williams's Maori Dictionary we find the following definitions of the term tapu: As an adjective—"Under religious or superstitious restriction; a condition affecting persons, places, and things, and arising from innumerable causes. Any one violating tapu contracted a hara, and was certain to be overtaken by calamity." As a noun—"Ceremonial restriction, quality or condition of being subject to such restriction." (Williams's Maori Dictionary, 1921, p. 450.)

It will be seen that, in native belief, many of the ills of life were caused by the aforesaid hara, that is, by a disregarding of the laws of tapu. This belief has been retained down to our own time, and has been widely taught by Christian priesthoods; it is one of many barbaric survivals noted in Christianity. I well remember a priest making the following remark when preaching to a Maori page 17audience at Whakatane long years ago: "You have all heard of the great Bonaparte, and of his defeat and fall. Now it is not the case that he fell on account of the bravery of the English: no: it was because he had sinned."

This word tapu did not often convey to the Maori mind the sense of our terms sacred and holy. As Frazer puts it, primitive people often make no distinction between holiness and pollution; both call for the ceremonial restriction which is tapu.

The late Colonel W. E. Gudgeon wrote as follows when dealing with this interesting subject: "[The Maori] were a people proud of their descent from those very gods, whose paternal care had enabled their forefathers to cross the broad "Sea of Kiwa" with impunity, and perform feats of navigation that are without parallel in modern times … It will be freely admitted that such a race of men would, under any circumstances, be difficult to manage, and yet we find that in their own pas or villages, they were as obedient, orderly and law-abiding as any statute-ridden Anglo-Saxon; and that such order prevailed among such a fierce and turbulent race ought to be susceptible of explanation, and I hold that the power of the tapu was the chief factor by which the difficulty was solved." Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 15, pp. 49—50). Herein we have evidence from a man who spent a long life in contact with the Maori, and such evidence cannot be brushed aside. This writer maintained that one excellent effect of tapu was the mental and moral discipline that it imposed upon the Maori; its enforcement of self-denial and subordination.

The statement made by Colenso (On The Maori Races of New Zealand, p. 386) to the effect that the observances of tapu were in place of religion is one that can scarcely be accepted. Certainly it entered largely into religion, but the data given in this work will show that there was much more than tapu in Maori religion. It did not form the framework of religion, but was merely an accessory. Dieffenbach defined tapu as representing religious worship and civil law (Travels in New Zealand, vol. 2, p. 100). These earlier writers did not sufficiently emphasise the fact that tapu originates from the gods and is the manifestation of the mana of the gods. When a party of men was engaged in some special task of importance in which it was considered necessary to secure the goodwill of the gods, such as fashioning a superior canoe, or building a superior house, then those men necessarily became tapu because they were working under the mana of the gods. Polack, an early writer on the Maori, considered that such artisans were placed under tapu in order to prevent their page 18abandoning the task ere it was completed (New Zealand: A Narrative of Travels and Adventure, vol. 2, p. 253). This point of view is certainly incorrect. This kind of tapu explained above may be considered as caused directly by the association of the gods with the task in hand. We have, however, other phases of tapu to consider. For instance, when a man of position placed a path or place under tapu, that condition depended largely on the mana of the person who imposed it. The higher the rank of the imposer the stronger was the ban and the less liable to be flouted. Yet such a prohibition as this was a very different quality to the heavy tapu emanating directly from the superior gods.

There were so many different kinds of tapu, that is, the term was used with such a wide range of meaning, that it would be easy to give a wrong impression as to its signification. Certainly, the condition we term sacredness would be termed tapu by the Maori, but we would employ many terms to denote the different kinds of phases of tapu. It often means "bespoken", as when a young woman is made tapu to a certain man. In many cases it simply means "prohibited", as in cases of rahui, whereby food products are preserved. In other cases it practically means unclean or polluted. Also different phases of tapu vary in intensity.

Many aspects of tapu are, of course, familiar to us, and are universal; others again are met with only among barbaric folk. We have lost old notions as to the "unclean" condition of those who handle the bodies of the dead, and of women during the birth of children, but we have certainly preserved some aspects of tapu. There was much of tapu in Zoroastrianism, and it is still a powerful force in India. Some of the beliefs and usages of Southern Asia and Indonesia closely resemble those of Polynesia. In the above mentioned cult it appears to have been taught that the spirits of certain things, cultivated plants for one, required protection from pollution as a religious duty. This peculiar concept is paralleled among our Maori folk by their singular belief in the tapu life principle of the sweet potato, the principal cultivated plant in New Zealand. This principle was protected by means of much ceremonial and by the assistance of the gods.

Nicholas, who sojourned in New Zealand in the early years of the nineteenth century, was wide of the mark when he wrote: "In the single word taboo all their religion and morality may be said to consist." Elsewhere he tells us, with much more correctness, that—"It serves them in the absence of laws as the only security for the protection of persons and property, giving them an awful page 19sacredness which no one dares to violate." There were other protective and corrective forces on Maori life, however, that Nicholas was not aquainted with (Nicholas, Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, vol. 2, pp. 309-311).

It is in the work of early voyagers, travellers and traders that we find so many allusions to the institution of tapu, for in those days it had not broken down under European influence. These early visitors were often much incommoded, not to say exasperated, by the exigencies of tapu, for such were at times exceedingly harassing.

It is necessary to make another point clear, viz., that a person must possess mana when he essays to render anything tapu. According to the nature of the embargo or prohibition so must the status of the imposer be. Thus a slave had no mana whatever, and could impose no form of restriction on person, place or object. An ordinary freeman, a commoner, held but limited powers; he could impose minor restrictions in connection with unimportant matters only. If he found a desirable log of drift timber on the beach he might claim it by marking it with his stone adze, a mild form of tapu. But he would not possess the power to place a path under tapu, for his mana would not be equal to the occasion. The higher the social position of a person the greater his mana as a rule. The persons possessing the greatest mana with regard to tapu would be superior priests and the ariki of a community.

The condition of tapu was imparted in different ways. It might come about by accident, as by a tapu person touching something noa or void of tapu. In other cases the condition was brought about by means of ritual performances, the recital of karakia by priestly experts. A person of mana, as a chief, could render a place tapu by means of pulling a thread from his garment and tying it to a branch or other object. In yet other cases a tapu place was marked by a carved post, often hewn into grotesque human form and painted red. Human hair often marked a tapu place. Or possibly no material token was employed, a person of rank would simply state that a certain place, path, or stream was tapu, and the news thereof would spread rapidly.

Tapu objects, including bones of the dead, were often marked or painted red. This ceremonial use of red paint was also a custom in India and other lands. The outlook of our Maori folk closely resembled that of the Hindus. Both look upon strangers as possible enemies, and all persons outside the tribal community were supposed to possess a dangerous influence. Such evil page 20influences are ever present in all extra-tribal regions, and are specially manifested in articles of food. Hence both peoples were specially careful with regard to food supplies obtained from peoples without the tribal limits to perform certain ceremonies over any present of food received from a neighbouring tribe in order to nullify any evil influences that might pertain to it.

Personal tapu was an important attribute of persons of rank, and irreverent Europeans of past days used to speak of certain native chiefs as being tapu an inch deep! Although the head was the most tapu part of a person, yet it also pertained to his whole body, also to his garments and any object used by him. His sleeping place was tapu, and in some cases any spot where such a person seated himself became tapu. Such a spot would be marked by the erection of some sticks that served to warn off trespassers. Tapu of this intense nature was assuredly irksome to all.

A tapu person had to be very careful not to enter a cooking shed, or go nigh any oven or fire utilised by cooks, for cooked food is the very antithesis of tapu; it is a polluting agent. Uncooked food is objectionable in many cases, but its objectionable qualities are mild indeed in comparison with the cooked article. Any fire used by such a tapu person, as for warming purposes, could not possibly be used for cooking. Should any ordinary person take a brand from it, or interfere with it in any way whatever, his punishment would come swift and certain. Thus it might easily come about that a person wanting fire would be compelled to generate it by the slow and laborious hika process when, at the time, there was a fire burning near him.

The head of a person of excessive tapu was sometimes extremely dirty and unkempt simply because it was too tapu to be touched. Tapu persons joined no cheery circle at meal times but ate alone. Quite probably the practice of the sexes often having their meals apart originated in the exigencies of tapu. The phase of tapu that prevents a person touching food with his hands simply means that he cannot use them to convey it to his mouth. Persons of superior social status under such conditions would be waited on by a relative, who would feed them, probably using a stick or piece of fern stalk as a fork. Persons of lower degree often had no such attendant, and so had to eat their food as it lay on the ground, being unable to touch it with their hands. Even a dog is better off than were these hapless ones, for the dog can use his paws to steady his food as he knaws at it. The interdictions, prohibitions and restrictions of the institution of tapu, backed by page 21the dread power of the gods, represented an extremely virile and effective force.

Dr Savage, author of the first book written on New Zealand, tells us how strongly natives objected to passing through " 'tween decks" on a ship where food supplies, such as potatoes, were suspended overhead. (Some Account of New Zealand, 1st ed., p. 23). He shrewdly surmised that their objections were connected in some way with their religion.

When a northern chief partook of a meal on board Marsden's vessel, he was very careful not to render tapu the table implements, hence his rice he took out of the plate with a spoon, and putting it out of the spoon into his hand, conveyed it to his mouth; and in drinking his tea, he put his hand before his lips, pouring the tea into the palm of it, and scrupulously abstaining from touching with his lips the vessels out of which he ate and drank! Had he done so, he must either have thrown the vessel or implement overboard, or have taken it away to dispose of otherwise.

We hear of early European settlers who were much incensed at the actions of natives who deliberately broke or carried off vessels containing water or food that had been given to them. Cruise (Journal of a Ten Months' Residence in New Zealand, p. 180), another early sojourner on these shores, tells us of an excellent device for keeping natives out of one's house: "Consequences no less calamitous are supposed to await those who enter a house where any article of animal food is suspended over their heads. A dead pigeon or a piece of pork hung from the roof was a better protection from molestation than a sentinel; and, latterly, this practice has been followed by our people who lived on shore with great success, whenever they wished to be free from the intrusion of the natives."

Of the tapu house of the chief Taraia, Nicholas (Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, vol. 1, p. 358) wrote: "Besides the rule against eating within its walls, any contact with it on the outside was deemed a most heinous violation of its mysterious attributes; and while I happened to put a bundle, containing some necessaries that we had brought with us, upon the roof of it, they all cried out taboo taboo, with indignant vehemence, and desired me to take it off immediately."

Nicholas also tells an amusing story concerning a pair of domestic fowls given to natives. The cock horrified them by his scandalous behaviour in roosting on the top of a tapu hut, in impious contempt of the awful prohibition, and to the great page 22scandal of the indignant beholders; who, after having driven him repeatedly from the mystical edifice, while he as often returned to it, determined at length, as the just punishment of his contumacious sacrilege, to send him into exile! (ibid, vol. 1, p. 211).

The above named writer gives some entertaining illustrations of the irksome demands of tapu. When travelling he was often accommodated in native huts for the night, but was not allowed to take any food supplies into them, nor yet to eat a meal therein. Thus, in wet weather, he was sometimes compelled to remain outside during heavy rain while partaking of a meal. On one such occasion he was eventually allowed to take his supper in the small verandah of a hut, but this was an important concession, and he was closely watched by the natives lest he commit some dreadful act of impiety. When he wished to take a drink of water he was compelled to thrust his head out from under shelter though rain was falling in torrents. When a person was so given a drink of water he has not allowed to take the gourd vessel containing it and place it to his lips. The water was poured into his hands which he placed together so as to form a sort of trough to convey the water to his mouth. This method prevented any trouble in connection with the universal tapu.

This tapu is exceedingly persistent in many cases. How often have many of us got into trouble when travelling or sojourning in native districts over camp fires. One sees some old pieces of wood lying about, perhaps far from any hamlet, and innocently uses them as fuel. This is noted by a passing native who at once commences to make trouble because you have used a portion of a tapu house to cook food with, decaying remnants of a house that once existed!

An early traveller describes how some travelling natives passed the night miserably in heavy rain rather than seek the shelter of some deserted but tapu huts close by. Angas gives a description of a deserted village that was abandoned owing to tapu. (Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, vol. 2, p. 126). Such a tapu might rest upon a village on account of the death of an important chief, or because of blood having been shed there. The hamlet of Mana-te-pa, at Ruatahuna, was deserted in the 'forties of last century owing to several of its inhabitants having been shot there.

Angas, the artist, when travelling in the interior frequently experienced trouble over the question of tapu. For instance, it gave great offence if he placed sketches representing a chief and a page 23food store in the same portfolio, or used the same pencil to delineate a tapu person and a woman scraping potatoes, (ibid., vol. 2, p. 112-3). In many cases he was compelled to obtain his sketches in a secret manner. On one occasion he placed a portfolio containing a sketch of Te Heuheu, the head chief of Taupo, in a cooking shed in order to keep it dry; the result being distressing turmoil.

So extremely tapu was the head of any person of standing that it was necessary to be extremely careful in making any allusion to it. Thus Angas writes: "A friend of mine … once told a chief while in conversation with him … that he had some apples 'nearly as large as that boy's head'—pointing to the son of the chief, who stood by." This was a grievous insult, and, in olden days, would have caused serious trouble, accompanied probably by violence.

This intense tapu of the head has its necessary sequel in the tapu of the hair. When the hair of a tapu person was cut the cuttings were usually disposed of by depositing them at the sacred place of the village.

Early writers have told us how natives who had to cross a tapu place would divest themselves of their garments and do so in a state of nudity. These persons would be actuated by the same feelings that caused a priest to take off his garments ere performing a religious rite. I remember a curious scene that occurred long years ago when a native entered a burial cave of his people in order to procure some evidence in connection with a disputed land claim. He took off all his garments and performed his task almost naked, having merely some herbage twisted round his waist.

This leads us to the intense tapu connected with the dead. To violate the sanctity of a burial place was about equal to committing suicide. The condition of special tapu obtained as soon as a person became ill, and this tapu was the principal reason why sick persons were segregated and so much neglected. In early days of European settlement natives strongly objected in many cases to persons giving food or medicine to sick persons. This owing to the rules of tapu.

The various forms of restriction that affected persons in connection with death all came under the meaning of the term tapu. Thus the segregation of a widow in the "house of mourning" and this impurity of a person who has handled a corpse are both described as tapu, as also are all forms of prohibition pertaining to sickness, death and mourning.

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Burial places were intensely tapu, not only graves, but also places, such as caves, where the exhumed bones of the dead were finally disposed of. To trespass on such a place was a very serious offence and, in native belief, recourse to a priestly adept was the only way in which to preserve the life of the delinquent. When diagnosing the complaint from which a sick person was suffering, a tohunga would often assert that the sufferer had trespassed on a burial place or some other tapu spot.

An early missionary, the Rev. Mr Wade, has given us a typical account of how tapu enveloped a sick person. He explains that, in many cases, the hapless person seems to have been starved to death, carried to a wretched shed on the outskirts of the hamlet and there segregated, on account of the tapu of sickness and of death. Little effort was made to provide proper food for the invalid, and nothing in the form of medicine was employed. The progress of medicine among the Maori was retarded by the belief that disease emanated from gods or evil spirits, and was very often the result of transgression of the laws of tapu, or of black magic. Mr Wade also describes how he endeavoured to approach a man who was, apparently, suffering from rheumatism: "I found that we were not to advance within six yards of the invalid, a line being marked off as a boundary to all except tapu persons, by branches of laurel stuck in the ground around his shed." (A Journey in the Northern Island of New Zealand, pp. 116-7).

The belief that sickness was caused indirectly by the gods and directly by a kind of demoniac possession would have the effect of rendering an invalid tapu. If a person died in a dwelling house or hut, then the house became tapu and could not be used again, hence the segregation of a sick person was considered to be quite necessary. Nicholas mentions a case in which a sick native was not allowed to receive certain articles of food sent to him by local missionaries. When the pioneer missionary Marsden was denied access to a sick native he was apparently much incensed, hence the man of peace settled the matter by threatening to turn the ships' guns on the village to "blow it about their ears, as a punishment for their contumacious prohibition"! (Nicholas, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 178). Any part of a sea coast whereat a new fishing net was being made or used was placed under stringent tapu; any person violating such a prohibition would be attacked. If such an offender came by canoe then the vessel would be destroyed or seized by the outraged imposers of the restriction. Travellers, on coming to such a prohibited area, were compelled to make a detour so as to avoid it. A minor form of tapu might be page 25placed on any area of land that did not actually prohibit persons crossing it, but such persons had to be very careful in their behaviour when doing so. Cultivations were placed under heavy tapu while the crops were growing, and a trespasser on such places might even be slain. Forests were also placed under tapu, as during the bird-snaring and rat-trapping seasons. In fact, any area or place might be made tapu in connection with its products. Or, in other cases, merely certain objects were protected, as certain trees for their fruits, or trees suitable for canoe-making were preserved for future use.

Any spot where the blood of a tapu person was shed became at once tapu. Missionary Taylor tells us of an incident that occurred at Taupo, where the chief Te Heuheu, in entering a canoe belonging to another person, hurt his foot so that blood flowed. That canoe was at once rendered tapu, hauled ashore and abandoned; it could not be again used (Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, 1st ed., p. 56). I have known of cases in which a man has been awarded a certain piece of land because his blood had been shed on it.

Lakes, rivers, stretches of sea, were placed under tapu for various reasons, so that no fish might be taken from them, and in some cases no canoe might traverse them. Thus we are told that the chief Tara placed a rahui or embargo upon three small lakes of the Napier district, Te Roto a Tara, Poukawa, and Te Roto a Kiwa, so that he and his friends only could take fish and birds therefrom. Any river or sheet of water in which a person of consequence was drowned would be liable to be put under tapu.

Another form of tapu was the bespeaking or commandeering of any article. This could only be done by a person of importance; he might claim some article by calling it by his own name, or in some other way, and this would only be done in connection with the property of inferiors. Here, as we have already seen, in some cases tapu meant "bespoken".

A word of vernacular speech might at any time become tapu in the sense of being prohibited, as when it formed the name of a chief, or a part thereof. In such a case it was a grievous insult to the owner of the name to use such in ordinary speech; offenders might be slain for such outrageous behaviour. A special tapu name was sometimes assigned to a child of a leading person, but this would probably be abandoned after a certain time. It can be seen how this matter of tapu names might cause certain changes in a local vocabulary. When a word became prohibited and had to be replaced by another, then the new word might be one coined page 26for the occasion, and it might become a permanent usage. When a tapu child of the Tuhoe district was given the name of Te Ahiahi (The Evening), then that word could no longer be employed by the people save as a name for the child. They then used the word maruke to denote evening, and this word seems to have been specially coined as a substitute, though maru ahiahi is a term denoting evening, or the shades of evening.

There seems to have been a certain amount of tapu pertaining to the number twelve in Maoriland; that is, it appears to have been much utilised in sacerdotal matters. This was also the case in Polynesia, as was shown by Fornander (An Account of the Polynesian Race). In Maori myth there are twelve divisions of the heavens, which are inhabited by twelve companies of male and twelve of female beings. There were also twelve periods (Po) or aeons prior to the birth of the offspring of the primal parents, Sky and Earth. Io the Supreme Being had twelve names, as also had Tane, according to one authority. There are twelve "branches" or divisions of the Maori year, twelve white-tipped feathers in the tail of a huia, twelve white feathers in the parson bird's "choker", and the nohu fish is provided with twelve spines, at least so says the Maori. The origin of this predilection for the number twelve is not known to us, but the same usage obtained in Chaldea, where, in very early times, the duodecimal scale was in use. To those old-time folk we owe the twelve divisions of our time pieces.

The curious stringency of the tapu pertaining to tattooing may be explained by the fact that it necessitated the shedding of blood.

Knowledge may also be tapu, extremely so. Thus the matter taught in the old School of Learning, or Whare Wananga, was intensely tapu, and such matter could not possibly be repeated at any common place, any spot where food was consumed or even carried. It might be recited only at a tapu place and among folk nearly related to the speaker and of rank entitling them to a knowledge of such teachings.

A knowledge of the rules of tapu was useful in some cases, as, for instance, when Tokowaru, a worthy old time warrior of the north, found himself in a desperate situation one day. Surrounded by enemies, no hope of escape remained. But Toko was no peace-at-any-price upholder, hence he resolved to die as does the ururoa shark, fighting to the last. Even so he drew his bone dagger, and, attacking the chief man of his enemies, slew him with a vigorous thrust. Then, as the life blood of his victim flowed forth, he scooped it up with his hand and hastily smeared page 27it over his head and body, crying out as he did so: "Behold the last man slain by Tokowaru. It shall be heard of down the changing years." Then the world of death closed round Tokowaru and the shining sun was not. But he had saved his body from the degradation of the oven. It was tapu from the blood of his victim.

The desecration of a tapu place has often led to very serious trouble, often to the slaying of the offenders. In the early days of intercourse with Europeans this was the cause of some serious affrays. We have it on native authority that the slaying of Marion du Fresne and members of his crew on 12th July, 1772, was owing to the fact that they had violated the laws of tapu by fishing in waters wherein certain natives had perished, and which therefore were under tapu.

The phase of tapu that pertained to a woman of rank during confinement was peculiarly stringent, hence great care was taken to prevent any kind of contamination, for that would mean offending the gods, and a person who has so offended them can know no health of body, spirit or mind. Not only was such a woman secluded for a time, with but one attendant probably, but great care was taken as to communication with the people of the village. Thus when food was prepared for the woman in the whare kohanga in which the expectant mother was lodged, it was conveyed to a place at some distance from the hut, where the bearer deposited it and withdrew. After the withdrawal, the personal attendant would proceed from the hut and fetch the food, thus avoiding contact with persons not under tapu. In some cases, we are told, such food was conveyed to the hut in three stages, that is by three different bearers.

European influence has gradually broken down the institution of tapu, but even now it lingers in native communities, albeit in a much modified form. Superstitious beliefs are not swept away in a few generations; they persist, grimly tenacious, in spite of introduced faiths and teachings. Many old natives look with distrust upon these modern teachings. They observe the decay of the native race and believe that the abandonment of old-time habits and usages, including tapu, has been the cause of such decay. Thus at various times natives have obtained the services of experts to free from tapu certain places and objects that were believed to be specially dangerous to life.

In his little book, In the Beginning, the Rev. T. G. Hammond tells us of the ravages of influenza in the Taranaki district in the forties of the nineteenth century. Then a certain native proposed page 28that all tapu places should be made common. "He contended that afflictions such as influenza came by disregard of the tapu, and that the only way to be relieved from these constantly recurring maladies was to remove the causes." (In the Beginning, p. 55).

The act of lifting or abolishing the condition of tapu is expressed by the verb whakanoa, a causative prefix attached to the word noa, which means free from tapu, in an ordinary or common condition. The terms horohoro and huhu bear a similar meaning. The word tamaoa denotes the pollution of tapu by the agency of food. Thus should any person carry food into a tapu forest, then that forest would be tamaoatia or polluted, and hence its food products would suffer, or cease to flourish.

In performances conducted for the purpose of removing tapu, some tapu destroying influence was employed, and this was generally represented by cooked food and the female sex. One or both of these agents would be employed. A very frequent practice was to cook a small article of food, and this was eaten by the person who was to be freed from tapu, or by the medium engaged in removing it. Some of these performances were of a very singular nature. Thus Nicholas describes a prolonged performance carried out by three persons in order to free from tapu a comb that Nicholas had purchased. The food item used on this occasion was a piece of dried fish (Nicholas, Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, vol. 2, p. 119).

Another early writer described a simple tapu-lifting performance. A native had cut his finger with a knife, and the flowing blood had rendered the knife tapu. A companion took the knife, peeled a cooked potato with it, stuck the potato on the knife point, and so put it into the mouth of the wounded person, who ate it. As a rule such ceremonies were accompanied by the recital of a charm. In some cases a remover of tapu would employ his saliva in the performance.

The term pure is generally held to denote the removal of tapu, but such is certainly not the primary meaning of the word. It denotes a certain form of rite, and in many cases it had nothing to do with the removal of tapu; in some cases it had the effect of rendering a person tapu. The pure rangi, for example, was a ceremony performed in order to cause rain to cease. Again, the expression pure mahunga denotes a certain old-time ceremony, and in many cases ceremonial hair cutting formed a part of such performances, but the above expression does not mean to cut hair. At Easter Island pure as a noun denotes an invocation; as a verb, "to supplicate".

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When the pure ceremony was being performed over an infant of parents of rank a part of the performance was the maioha or greeting, when the infant was greeted by the assembled people with speeches and wailings. In this case, however, the lachrymose salutations were not alluded to by the term tangi, but as whakaingo; the word ingo carrying the meaning of "to desire, to yearn for", and whakaingoingo that of "to sob". The word "tangi also carries this latter meaning, but is commonly employed to denote wailing for the dead, hence it was not considered a proper term to apply to the greeting of an infant. Thus whakaingo is said to have been a tapu expression as employed for the above purpose. (He ingoa tapu tēnei mo nga tamariki rangatira; mehemea kakiia he tangi ka kiia e te iwi he tangi tupapaku.)

When a priestly expert employed the services of a woman in tapu-lifting ceremonial, the vital part of the performance usually consisted of his roasting a single sweet potato at a specially generated tapu fire. The cooked potato was then eaten by the woman. When a woman was so employed in these ceremonies she was termed a ruahine. A woman of a leading family was usually selected to act as the ruahine, in some cases one who was past child-bearing. In ceremonial feasts there was often a special steam oven set aside in which a portion of food for this woman was cooked. The term ruahine came to be used as a synonym for whakanoa.

Of all these symbolic cleansing operations perhaps none are more interesting than those performed with the help of water, as in aspersion and immersion. These peculiar lustral rites have already been dealt with in the chapter on ritual (Dominion Museum Bulletin 10, 1976 reprint, pp. 343-346). Tapu-removing ceremonies were of varying degrees of importance among the Maori. In cases of minor importance they were simple ceremonies, but in connection with the serious matters of life they were elaborate rites. These more solemn and vital occasions were those concerning birth, death, sickness, war, the School of Learning.

A ceremony performed in order to rectify the serious error of infringing the rules of tapu, and restore normal conditions, was a similar one to the above. Captain Mair tells us of a case in which a serious epidemic of sickness was caused by chips of wood from a tapu house in course of erection having been used in cooking food. This fatal sickness was termed a mate ruahine. The daughter of the principal man Apanui, was employed as a ruahine in this case. In her account of the performance she said: "A small page 30fire was made of chips from the carvings, and two potatoes roasted therein, which were offered me to eat. I trembled with fear, lest death should come to me also. The old men said: 'Fear not. You are equal in mana to your father, Apanui, and you alone can remove this affliction.' I then ate the roasted food, and the epidemic ceased."

So many illustrations of this institution of tapu are given in other chapters that it is not considered necessary to deal further with it here. As a final word it may be said that anything described by us as being sacred would, by the Maori, be termed tapu. Divers writers have told us that tapu does not mean "sacred", and in most cases it does not, but it is the only word by means of which the Maori can define sacredness, and to say that he had no conception of such a condition as sacredness would be wrong. Tapu is the only word wherewith to describe the sacredness pertaining to the Supreme Being and the conditions obtaining in the uppermost of the twelve heavens.