g to think we must give up the expedition
altogether, and were very much disappointed accordingly, when a clever
fellow--who, had he been bred a lawyer, would have made nothing of
driving a mail coach through an act of parliament--set us all to rights
in a moment. "I'll tell you what we must do," said he, "we will not
carry (_pikau_) the provisions, we will _hiki_ them." (_Hiki_ is the
word in Maori which describes the act of carrying an infant in the
arms.) This was a great discovery! A huge handsome fellow seized on the
baked pig and dandled it, or _hiki'd_ it, in his arms like an infant;
another laid hold of a shark, others took baskets of potatoes, and
carrying them in this way deposited them in the canoe. And so, having
thus evaded the law, we started on our expedition.

I remember another amusing instance in which the inconvenience arising
from the _tapu_ was evaded. I must, however, notice that these
instances were only evasions of the ordinary kind of _tapu_,--what I
have called the personal _tapu_; not the more dangerous and dreadful
kind connected with the mystic doings of the _tohunga_, or that other
form of _tapu_ connected with the handling of the dead. Indeed, my
companions in the instance I have mentioned, though all _rangatira_,
were young men on whom the personal _tapu_ had not arrived at the
fullest perfection: it seemed, indeed, sometimes to sit very lightly on
them, and I doubt very much if the play upon the words _hiki_ and
_pikau_ would have reconciled any of the elders of the tribe to
carrying a roasted pig in their arms; or, if they did do so, I feel
quite certain that no amount of argument would have persuaded the
younger men to eat it: as for slaves or women, to _look_ at it would
almost be dangerous to them.

The other instance of dodging the law was as follows. I was the first
pakeha who had ever arrived at a certain populous inland village. The
whole of the inhabitants were in a great state of commotion and
curiosity, for many of them had never seen a pakeha before. As I
advanced, the whole juvenile population ran before me at a safe
distance of about a hundred yards, eyeing me, as I perceived, with
great terror and distrust. At last I suddenly made a charge at them,
rolling my eyes and showing my teeth; and to see the small savages
tumbling over one another and running for their lives was something
curious: and though my "demonstration" did not continue more than
twenty yards, I am sure s