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The Maori Race
Tapu
Tapu.
Tapu is the word which has been adopted into the English language as “taboo,” when we say that such and such subjects are tabooed. Its proper sense seems to be neither “sacred” nor “defiled” although it may take either meaning, and that medial expression “prohibited” perhaps translates it best—“prohibited” for sacred reasons, “prohibited” for objectionable reasons. The true inwardness of the word tapu is that it infers the setting apart of certain persons or things on account of their having become possessed or infected by the presence of super-natural beings, particularly of the ancestral spirits who were guardian deities of the tribe. Great chiefs were by nature tapu on account of their divine birth, they being able to trace their genealogies up to the gods of heaven and earth. If such chiefs performed certain actions, such as entering a page 193 common house, leaning against a post, eating a portion of food, etc., the house, the post, or the remaining scraps of victuals were tapu to others. If the chief in question devoured the body of an enemy, in doing so he not only insulted the tribe of the fallen man, but, secure in the protection of his victorious gods, he was challenging in a daring way the guardian spirits of his foeman's tribe. If a common man partook of scraps left by his noble master he was then “eating the god” of his own tribe, and thus not only committing a terrible sacrilege against his protecting deity, but probably bringing down upon his leader the wrath of heavenly beings whose essential sacredness had been conveyed to the food by the touch of the chief. That is the reason why the chief himself would feel violent personal anger at his tapu being broken by the act of an inferior. If a chief made a thing tapu, a canoe, for instance, by touching it and saying “This is my head” such prohibition was only held binding on lesser men; if some more powerful noble came and wished for the canoe he would take it, disregarding the tapu of the other, very much as if he had said “This fellow's position in regard to he gods is nothing compared with mine,” but of course he might have to maintain such superiority at the point of the spear. It must not be inferred in all cases that this “Eating the god” was sacrilege. The act of partaking of the flesh and blood of the tribal deity is the soul of most savage religions, but such a communion must be a “Communion of saints,” that is, of people prepared by proper ceremonies page 194 and at a certain time to undertake the solemn office. It must not be done accidentally or carelessly, if so, such an act is sacrilege, that is, it is tapu.
Sometimes when travelling at night a Maori would carry in his hand either some cooked food or a firebrand from a cooking-fire as a protection, because spirits disliked cooked food very much. If a spirit was to touch such food and it was afterwards eaten it would be as though the spirit himself had been eaten. The priests, especially the priest-chiefs (Ariki) had the power of releasing from tapu and making things common (noa) again; if this could not have been done the laws of tapu would have been too heavy to be borne, and all social life must have ceased. As it was, it was almost impossible not to infringe this dreaded custom, even if scrupulous and pious care was taken. The annoyance was almost as great for the sacred person as for the sinner although not so unpleasant or perhaps fatal in its consequences. Thus, the chief must eat in the open air, whatever the weather, so as not to tapu a house; must not eat from a plate (really a little woven basket) that another shared or that another might afterwards use; must gather up all scraps and take them away to some tapu spot least another consume them. He could not drink from a vessel if it was probable that the lips of another would approach that vessel, so he had to hold his hand curved upwards below his lower lip whilst water was poured from a calabash into his mouth. The head and back of a chief were peculiarly sacred and he had to page 195 be careful not to leave his comb or hair-fillet or shoulder-mat in any place where a common person could touch them. If anyone touched the sacred head it was a dire offence (the god Rauru dwelt in the hair; rauru or laulu is a Polynesian word for “hair” or “head”) and even if another relative equally sacred was to do so (to comb or cut the hair of an aristocratic infant, for instance) he would be tapu till the next day when the purifying ceremony (horohoronga) would proceed. This ceremony was not complicated. A new sacred-fire was kindled by friction and fern-root cooked thereon by some “unprohibited” person. The food was then rubbed over the disqualified hands and afterwards eaten by the female head of the family. The children of well-born people often suffered much from vermin because the head of a chief's son could not be touched except by a person of rank. A tapu child might on no account be washed.
Mention has been made concerning the head of a chief being sacred and not to be touched, but, more than this, it could not even be mentioned or alluded to casually, nor could it pass under food. Touching the sacred head constituted one of the causes of the offences or sins called morimori, and would demand a taua or hostile demonstration (muru) in which goods would be plundered or land taken. A tapu could be broken by one's own son because he was of higher rank than his father.1 If the son of a chief went upon the roof of a house and was unrecognised his father would ask in horror and indignation “Who dares to get above my page 196 sacred head?” but if he found it was his son, it did not matter. A chief if invited to stay and have food at a village would probably do so if he was invited on his approach. If, however, the inhabitants had not seen him till he had passed the place and then sent a message asking him to return and eat he would feel insulted, saying that “they had invited the back of his head.” He fancied that such food would kill his people because it had been given to the sacred back of a chief's head and such food was fit for the gods or highly tapu people only.
If the shadow of a great ariki fell across a food-store (whata) or a food-pit (rua) the contents became tapu and had to be destroyed, therefore his presence in a village was watched with great anxiety. If a chief blew on a fire with his breath the fire became tapu, if he went into a cooking-shed the action would make it useless and it would have to be destroyed. Of course such an action as that last spoken of would have its counter effect on the chief, and have to be atoned for. Sometimes this power of tapu would be used benignantly as in the case of a chief throwing his mat over a prisoner, who would thereupon become tapu and his life spared. Priests were especially sacred, and should a priest in drinking let fall some of the water from his hand (he never used a cup, always being tapu) that place was tapu and the length of time it so remained depended on the quantity of water spilt. Anything given to him had to be laid before him, not handed to him, lest the proferring hand might have held cooked page 197 food. He would not eat food cooked in a large oven, nor light his fire from a large fire—these were common (noa). If people travelling came across a shed wherein a priest had stopped they would take some of the firebrands left by him and make a fire therewith, then in this fire the sticks of the shed could be used as firewood, but only thus could the tapu be removed. No one would pass behind a priest; that would make the offender tapu. It was only in war that a priest would lead his men and the tapu of his god was supposed to be in front.
A tapu person not being allowed to feed himself sometimes great mischief was wrought by disobedience to this rule. When Tutanekai, the celebrated lover of Hinemoa was baptised, his father called upon the priest Te Murirangaranga to perform the duty. This was done, but before the priest had completed his purification he was seen one day gathering and eating poro-poro berries. This was a deadly insult to the baby he had baptised, therefore the child's father, Whakaue, had the priest (tohunga) drowned, it not being lawful to shed a priest's blood. Of the arm-bone of the victim a flute was made and given to Tutanekai who became very proficient thereon, and afterwards charmed the heart of the celebrated beauty Hinemoa with the melody evoked from the arm-bone of Te Murirangaranga.
Of course a chief's house was tapu, and on one occasion the people of a village became tapu from eating the wild cabbage which had grown on the site once occupied by a chief's house. If rain from the roof of a sacred page 198 dwelling, such as a chief's house, fell into a vessel and anyone drank the water he would die unless a certain invocation (tupeke) was recited by a priest. The tapu was a very convenient thing, spite of its immense drawbacks and constrictions, in making private small personal effects such as ornaments, dress, etc. Often if an ariki or other person of eminence got tired of an old garment it was burnt or thrown into some inaccessible place lest a common person should get hold of it and become tapu. Each village had a piece of ground (wahitapu) reserved for placing thereon tapu property, such as scraps of a chief's food, clothing, etc.
Beside what one might call the lesser or closely personal tapu there was another kind which carried an assertion of rights such as “lords of the manor” might exert with us. The right to stop traffic on a river or through a forest would often be exercised, apparently as an outward show of authority, though at great inconvenience to other people. The person who could do this, by such act showed himself a great lord, whereas without the tapu power he would be a mere common fellow. This variety of tapu appeared to be not so much a religious force, appertaining to chiefs as descended from the gods, as it was an evidence of territorial power showing that they were nobles and aristocrats. Often this was done by means of a rahui, that is by putting up a pole with a bunch of rags or leaves fastened thereon. A road was made tapu by placing a stick or branch across it. A bit of flax tied to a door secured it and the valuables within.
page 199All fruit, roots, etc., growing in sacred places were tapu. In great fishing expeditions all those engaged in making or mending nets were tapu, so also was the ground on which the nets were made, and the river on whose banks work went on—no canoe being allowed to pass on it. No fire might be lighted for cooking purposes within a prescribed distance from net-workers, and it was not until the regulation ceremonies were finished, the net wetted, and a fish taken and eaten by the owner of the net, that the tapu was lifted. Generally throughout this book many instances of tapu are mentioned, in regard to almost every variety of occupation and action.
Not only was the chief's house tapu on account of his sacredness—so that he could not even eat food himself therein, but every house was to be avoided in reference to some of its parts. A person could become tapu by sitting on the inner threshold (paepae-poto) of a house. The walls of a house were particularly shunned as a support or leaning - place by natives of any standing, and great care was taken to keep a space between a chief's back and the wall. This was not only on account of the house thereby being rendered useless through their sacredness, but because they themselves would acquire the unclean tapu. The walls of a house were apt to be infected by malignant infant spirits (kahukahu). 2 If a chief of exalted rank entered an ordinary house the passage of his sacred head beneath the door - lintel would probably ensure the page 200 destruction of the house, but if the building was of value it could be redeemed by certain ceremonies being performed to make it “common” once more.
The tapu for touching a dead body (except in case of war) was the worst kind of the defiling tapu. There was generally in every village some person (kai tango atua) who was almost continuously unclean from handling the dead; silent, solitary, daubed with red ochre, he lived as an outcast, almost as a leper. He took the displeasure of deities or malignant spirits upon himself, and so was victim or scapegoat for the whole community.
The infringement of tapu was not only a spiritual offence, but sometimes produced actual physical consequences. Thus it is related that on account of common men taking some palm (nikau) leaves from the sleeping-shed of a priest who was engaged in important funeral obsequies an epidemic disease broke out that carried off two hundred warriors. Consumption or a wasting (kaikoiwi) of bodily strength was a sign of having offended the gods. The physical consequences of broken tapu have been noted in numberless individual instances. Death would almost certainly ensue if a common man found, for instance, that he had cooked his food with timber from some tapu place, whether it was a fragment of a house once dwelt in by a chief, or twigs from a tree in among the branches of which the bones of a dead person had once been deposited. The story is told that a certain tribe killed and ate the favourite dog of the chief's wife; the way
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the tapu punished them was that thereafter the members of the tribe became doglike in speech, and that when they are talking it sounds like the au, au, au of a barking dog. A slave when cooking birds for his master burnt his fingers and foolishly put them in his mouth. This was a wicked action and was instantly punished.3 If a person was struck by lightning it was a sign that some rule of tapu had been broken, and that the god Tupai (one of the lightning deities) had punished the offender.
The variety of tapu called tapa consisted in transferring personal sanctity to an inanimate thing by calling it after a part of oneself. Thus if a chief said, “That mountain is my backbone,” or, “That canoe is my head,” the mountain or canoe would acquire the sanctity of the part named. Sometimes a mountain or river would be “named” (tapa) for an ancestor, and thus become sacred. The name (or a syllable of a name) belonging to a chief was not allowed to be used in common conversation lest a reference should be inferred to the chief himself. Thus if a chief's name was Upokoroa, “Long-head,” the word upoko for “head” would be dropped by his followers, or by those who had reason to be careful, and synonyms such as pane or uru or mahunga used instead. If a chief had a long life the tapu word would almost drop out of recollection, and this accounts for much of the difference in dialects found between certain tribes.4
If one fell ill and could not remember having committed an action that had broken the tapu, then he had to make enquiries as page 202 to whom had secretly thus caused him to offend, for an old way of paying out a grudge was to make the person you hated annoy the gods unwillingly. Generally this was done by one in an inferior position, or one who did not openly dare to show his animosity. To discover the malicious person recourse had to be taken to a Seer (matakite) who by means of his art could find out the offender and nullify the evil effects.
When Christianity was introduced sacred things were made “common” by the effects of food—thus by washing the head in water heated in a cooking-vessel.
Closely connected with the subject of tapu is that of sanctuaries or “Cities of Refuge.” At Mohoaonui on the Upper Waikato River stood a fortress that received its name from Hine* the daughter of Maniapoto. Hine was a woman so highly thought of by her tribe that her home was held for ever inviolable and sacred. Even her foes respected her so greatly that when the fort in which she lived was attacked it was sufficient for her father to say to the storming party “Do not intrude on the courtyard of Hine!” to make them stay their steps and retire. No human being was allowed to be killed on that spot, and “the courtyard of Hine” became a synonym for “sanctuary.” Thence arose the widely known proverb “The Courtyard of Hine must not be trodden by a war party,” and if one tribe was asked to assist page 203 another in battle and made answer “Come to the courtyard of Hine” it was understood as a refusal and a message of peace. It is a beautiful thought that even among such ruthless warriors as the old Maori the memory of one good woman could be kept so sacred that for generations after her death her name and that of her house were equivalent for “Sanctuary” and “Peace.”
A very sacred spot for centuries was the temple and courtyard (marae) at Taporapora in the Kaipara Harbour. The place on which it stood has no residential existence now, for it became covered by the sea and appears as a sand-bank, but it exists in Maori legend as the “Kingdom of Lyonesse” does in the Arthurian legends of Cornwall. The temple, and all the sacred property therein which had been brought to New Zealand by the immigrants in the “Mahuhu” canoe, were swallowed up beneath the waves.