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, 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, 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 skull shall be the
baler to bale 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 "skull" should be a vessel to bale 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 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.