ls: to fate, and not old Hurlo-thrumbo there, I yield--so
here goes." Let me not dwell upon the humiliating concession to the
powers of _tapu_. Suffice it to say, I disrobed, and received
permission to enter my own house in search of other garments.

When I came out again, my old friend was sitting down with a stone in
his hand, battering the last pot to pieces, and looking as if he was
performing a very meritorious action. He carried away all the smashed
kitchen utensils and my clothes in baskets, and deposited them in a
thicket at a considerable distance from the house. (I stole the knives,
forks, and spoons back again some time after, as he had not broken
them.) He then bid me good-by; and the same evening all my household
came flocking back: but years passed before any one but myself would go
into the kitchen, and I had to build another. And for several years
also I could observe, by the respectable distance kept by young natives
and servants, and the nervous manner with which they avoided my pipe in
particular, that they considered I had not been as completely purified
from the _tapu tango atua_ as I might have been. I now am aware, that
in consideration of my being a pakeha--and also, perhaps, lest, driven
to desperation, I should run away entirely, which would have been
looked upon as a great misfortune to the tribe--I was let off very
easy, and might therefore be supposed to retain some tinge of the
dreadful infection.

Besides these descriptions of _tapu_, there were many other. There was
the _war tapu_, which in itself included fifty different "sacred
customs," one of which was this. Often when the fighting men left the
pa or camp, they being themselves made _tapu_--or sacred, as in this
particular case the word means--all those who remained behind, old men,
women, slaves, and all non-combatants, were obliged strictly to fast
while the warriors were fighting; and, indeed, from the time they left
the camp till their return, even to smoke a pipe would be a breach of
this rule. These war customs, as well as other forms of the _tapu_, are
evidently derived from a very ancient religion, and did not take their
rise in this country. I shall, probably, some of these days, treat of
them at more length, and endeavour to trace them to their source.

Sacrifices were often made to the war demon, and I know of one instance
in which, when a tribe were surrounded by an overwhelming force of
their enemies, and had nothing bu