ers; to do which they are nothing loth.) No
sooner did he hear the fatal news than he was seized with the most
extraordinary convulsions and cramps in the stomach, which never ceased
till he died, about sundown the same day. He was a strong man, in the
prime of life; and if any pakeha free-thinker should have said he was
not killed by the _tapu_ of the chief, which had been communicated to
the food by contact, he would have been listened to with feelings of
contempt for his ignorance and inability to understand plain and direct
evidence.

It will be seen at once that this form of the _tapu_ was a great
preserver of property. The most valuable articles might, in ordinary
circumstances, be left to its protection, in the absence of the owners,
for any length of time. It also prevented borrowing and lending in a
very great degree; and though much laughed at and grumbled at by
unthinking pakehas--who would be always trying to get the natives to
give it up, without offering them anything equally effective in its
place, or indeed knowing its real object or uses--it held its ground in
full force for many years; and, in a certain but not so very observable
a form, it exists still. This form of the _tapu_, though latent in
young folks of _rangatira_ rank, was not supposed to develope itself
fully till they had arrived at mature age, and set up house on their
own account. The lads and boys "knocked about" amongst the slaves and
lower orders, carried fuel or provisions on their backs, and did all
those duties which this personal _tapu_ prevented the elders from
doing; and which restraint was sometimes very troublesome and
inconvenient.

A man of any standing could not carry provisions of any kind on his
back; or if he did they were rendered _tapu_, and in consequence
useless to any one but himself. If he went into the shed used as a
kitchen (a thing, however, he would never think of doing except on some
great emergency), all the pots, ovens, food, &c., would be at once
rendered useless: none of the cooks or inferior people could make use
of them, or partake of anything which had been cooked in them. He might
certainly light a little fire in his own house; not for cooking, as
that never by any chance could be done in his house, but for warmth:
but that, or any other fire, if he should have blown upon it with his
breath in lighting it, became at once _tapu_, and could be used for no
common or culinary purpose. Even to light a pipe