ance, and if
I made a step towards them, they all ran as if I had been infected by
the plague. This was an awkward state of things, but as it could not be
helped, I voted myself _tapu_, and kept clear of my friends till night.

At night when they camped, I was obliged to take my solitary abode at a
distance under shelter of a rock. When the evening meal was cooked,
they brought me a fair allowance, and set it down at a respectful
distance from where I sat; fully expecting, I suppose, that I should
bob at it as Maori _kai tango atua_, or undertakers, are wont to do. I
had, however, no idea of any such proceeding; and, pulling out my
knife, proceeded to operate in the usual manner. I was checked by an
exclamation of horror and surprise from the whole band--"Oh, what are
you about? You are not going to touch food with your _hands_!" "Indeed,
but I am," said I, and stretched out my hand. Here another scream--"You
must not do that: it's the worst of all things. One of us will feed
you: it's wrong, wrong, very wrong!" "Oh, bother," said I, and fell too
at once. I declare, positively, I had no sooner done so than I felt
sorry. The expression of horror, contempt, and pity, observable in
their faces, convinced me that I had not only offended and hurt their
feelings, but that I had lowered myself greatly in their estimation.
Certainly I was a pakeha, and pakehas will do most unaccountable
things, and may be, in ordinary cases, excused; but this, I saw at
once, was an act which, to my friends, seemed the _ne plus ultra_ of
abomination. I now can well understand that, while sitting there eating
my potatoes, I must have appeared to them a ghoul, a vampire; worse
than even one of their own dreadful _atua_, who, at the command of a
witch, or to avenge some breach of the _tapu_, enters into a man's body
and slowly eats away his vitals. I can see it now, and understand what
a frightful object I must have appeared.

My friends broke up their camp at once, not feeling sure, after what I
had done, but I might walk in amongst them, in the night, when they
were asleep, and bedevil them all. They marched all night, and in the
morning came to my house, where they spread consternation and dismay
amongst my household by telling them in what a condition I was coming
home. The whole of my establishment at this time being natives, ran off
at once; and when I got home next evening, hungry and vexed, there was
not a soul to be seen. The house and ki