on pain of death, was permitted to trespass near the spot. The houses were all
fastened up, and on most of the doors were inscriptions denoting that the
property of such an one remained there. An utter silence pervaded the place.
After ascertaining,” says Mr. Angas, “that no natives were in the vicinity of the
forbidden spot, I landed, and trod the sacred ground; and my footsteps were
probably the first, since the desertion of the village, that had echoed along its
palisaded passages.
“On arriving at the tomb, I was struck with the contrast between the monument
of the savage and that of the civilised European. In the erection of the latter,
marble and stone and the most durable of metals are employed, while rapidly-
decaying wood, red ochre, and feathers form the decorations of the Maori tomb.
Huriwonua having been buried only six weeks, the ornaments of the waki-tapu,
or sacred place, as those erections are called, were fresh and uninjured. The
central upright canoe was thickly painted with black and red, and at the top was
written the name of the chief; above which there hung in clusters bunches of
kaka feathers, forming a large mass at the summit of the canoe. A double fence
of high palings, also painted red, and ornamented with devices in arabesque
work, extended round the grave, and at every fastening of flax, when the
horizontal rails were attached to the upright fencing, were stuck two feathers of
the albatross, the snowy whiteness of which contrasted beautifully with the
sombre black and red of the remainder of the monument.”
We have entered at some length into an explanation of the system of Tapu, or
Taboo, in our remarks on the religion of the Polynesians. It prevails, as we have
already stated, in New Zealand; and though its disadvantages are many, and it is
capable of great abuse, it serves nevertheless as a substitute for law, and to a
large extent protects both life and property. For, supported and enforced as it is
by the superstitious feelings of the people, it erects an insuperable barrier
between possession and acquisition; it plays the part of a social police; it
maintains the moral standard; it shields the feeble from the oppression of the
strong. A man quits his dwelling for his day’s work: he places the tapu mark on
his door, and thenceforward his dwelling is inviolate. Or he selects a tree which
will fashion into a good canoe; he distinguishes it with the tapu mark, and it
becomes his own. Civilisation has designed no more effectual protection.
But like all restrictive and prohibitive systems, it is easily pushed to an
inconvenient excess, and made an instrument of extortion or oppression in the
hands of the chief or priest. It is much in favour, says Mr. Williams, among the
chiefs, who adjust it so that it sits easily on themselves, while they use it to gain