The Tapa.--Instances of.--The Storming of Mokoia.--Pomare.--Hongi
Ika.--Tareha.--Honour amongst Thieves.
There was a kind of variation on the _tapu_, called _tapa_, of this
nature. For instance, if a chief said, "That axe is my head," the axe
became his to all intents and purposes; except, indeed, the owner of
the axe was able to break his "head," in which case, I have reason to
believe, the _tapa_ would fall to the ground. It was, however, in a
certain degree necessary to have some legal reason, or excuse, for
making the _tapa_; but to give some idea of what constituted the
circumstances under which a man could fairly _tapa_ anything, I must
needs quote a case in point.
When the Ngapuhi attacked the tribe of Ngati Wakawe, at Rotorua, the
Ngati Wakawe retired to the island of Mokoia in the lake of Rotorua,
which they fortified; thinking that, as the Ngapuhi canoes could not
come nearer than Kaituna on the east coast, about thirty miles distant,
that they in their island position would be safe. But in this they were
fatally deceived, for the Ngapuhi dragged a whole fleet of war canoes
over land. When, however, the advanced division of the Ngapuhi arrived
at Rotorua, and encamped on the shore of the lake, the Ngati Wakawe
were not aware that the canoes of the enemy were coming, so every
morning they manned their large canoes, and leaving the island fort,
would come dashing along the shore deriding the Ngapuhi, and crying,
"_Ma wai koe e kawe mai ki Rangitiki?_"--"Who shall bring you, or how
shall you arrive, at Rangitiki?" Rangitiki was the name of one of their
hill forts.
The canoes were fine large ornamented _totara_ canoes, very valuable,
capable of carrying from fifty to seventy men each, and much coveted by
the Ngapuhi. The Ngapuhi of course considered all these canoes as their
own already; but the different chiefs and leaders, anxious to secure
one or more of these fine canoes for themselves and people, and not
knowing who might be the first to lay hands on them in the confusion of
the storming of Mokoia, which would take place when their own canoes
arrived, each _tapa'd_ one or more for himself, or--as the native
expression is--_to_ himself. Up jumped Pomare, and standing on the lake
shore in front of the encampment of the division of which he was
leader, he shouts--pointing at the same time to a particular canoe at
the time carrying about sixty men--"That canoe is my back-bone." Then
Tareha, in bulk like a sea elephant, and sinking to the ankles in the
shore of the lake, with a hoarse croaking voice roars out, "That canoe!
my scull shall be the bailer to bail it out." This was a horribly
strong _tapa_. Then the soft voice of the famous Hongi Ika, surnamed
"The eater of men," of _Hongi kai tangata_, was heard, "Those two
canoes are my two thighs." And so the whole flotilla was appropriated
by the different chiefs.
Now it followed from this, that in the storming and plunder of Mokoia,
when a warrior clapped his hand on a canoe and shouted, "This canoe is
mine," the seizure would not stand good, if it was one of the canoes
which were _tapa-tapa_; for it would be a frightful insult to Pomare to
claim to be the owner of his "back-bone," or to Tareha to go on board a
canoe which had been made sacred by the bare supposition that his
"scull" should be a vessel to bail it with. Of course the first man
laying his hand on any other canoe and claiming it secured it for
himself and tribe; always provided that the number of men there present
representing his tribe or _hapu_ were sufficient to back his claim and
render it dangerous to dispossess him. I have seen men shamefully
robbed, for want of sufficient support, of their honest lawful gains;
after all the trouble and risk they had gone to in killing the owners,
of their plunder. But dishonest people are to be found almost
everywhere; and I will say this, that my friends the Maoris seldom act
against law, and always try to be able to say that what they do is
"correct"--(_tika_).
This _tapu_ is a bore, even to write about, and I fear the reader is
beginning to think it a bore to read about. It began long before the
time of Moses, and I think that steam navigation will be the death of
it; but lest it should kill my reader I will have done with it for the
present, and "try back," for I have left my story behind completely.