that
"laws, if not _made_, will _grow_."

I must now take some little notice of the other great institution, the
_tapu_. The limits of these flying sketches of the good old times will
not allow of more than a partial notice of the all-pervading _tapu_.
Earth, air, fire, water, goods and chattels, growing crops, men, women,
and children,--everything, absolutely, was subject to its influence;
and a more perplexing puzzle to new pakehas, who were continually from
ignorance infringing some of its rules, could not be well imagined. The
natives, however, made considerable allowance for this ignorance; as
well they might, seeing that they themselves, though from infancy to
old age enveloped in a cloud of _tapu_, would sometimes fall into
similar scrapes.

The original object of the ordinary _tapu_ seems to have been the
preservation of property. Of this nature in a great degree was the
ordinary personal _tapu_. This form of the _tapu_ was permanent, and
consisted in a certain sacred character which attached to the person of
a chief, and never left him. It was his birthright: a part, in fact, of
himself, of which he could not be divested; and it was well understood
and recognized at all times, as a matter of course. The fighting men
and petty chiefs, and every one, indeed, who could by any means claim
the title of _rangatira_--which, in the sense I now use it, means
gentleman--were all in some degree more or less possessed of this
mysterious quality. It extended or was communicated to all their
movable property; especially to their clothes, weapons, ornaments, and
tools, and to everything, in fact, which they touched. This prevented
their chattels from being stolen or mislaid, or spoiled by children, or
used or handled in any way by others. And as in the old times, as I
have before stated, every kind of property of this kind was precious,
in consequence of the great labour and time necessarily, for want of
iron tools, expended in the manufacture, this form of the _tapu_ was of
great real service. An infringement of it subjected the offender to
various dreadful imaginary punishments; of which deadly sickness was
one, as well as to the operation of the law of _muru_ already
mentioned. If the transgression was involuntary, the chief, or a
priest, or _tohunga_, could, by a certain mystical ceremony, prevent or
remit the doleful and mysterious part of the punishment, if he chose;
but the civil action, or the robbery by law of _mur