In  these  desperate  circumstances  a  bright
thought  struck  him.  He  would,  by  a  bold
and  ingenious  device,  give  the  tapu  the  slip.
He  ran  to  the  back  of  the  house,  made  with
some  difficulty  a  hole  in  the  padded  raupo
wall,  and  squeezed  his  head  through  it.  The
elastic  wall  of  raupo  closed  again  around  his
neck ;  the  tapu  was  fairly  beaten  !  No  one
could  say  he  was  in  the  house.  He  was  cer-
tainly more  out  than  in,  and  there,  seemingly
hanging  from  or  stuck  against  the  wall,  re-
mained for  hours,  with  open  mouth  and
wondering  eyes,  this  brazen  head,  till  at  last
the  shades  of  night  obstructing  its  vision,  a
rustling  noise  in  the  wall  of  flags  and  reeds
announced  the  departure  of  my  bodyless
admirer.
Some  of  the  forms  of  the  tapu  were  not  to
be  played  with,  and  were  of  a  most  virulent
kind.  Of  this  kind  was  the  t«pu  of  those
who  handled  the  dead,  or  conveyed  the  body
to  its  last  resting-place.  This  tapu  was,  in
fact,  the  uncleanness  of  the  old  Jewish  law,


134  OLD    NEW   ZEALAND.
and  lasted  about  the  same  time,  and  was
removed  in  almost  the  same  way.  It  was  a
most  serious  affair.  The  person  who  came
under  this  form  of  the  tap  it  was  cut  off  from
all  contact,  and  almost  all  communication,
with  the  human  race.  He  could  not  enter
any  house,  or  come  in  contact  with  any  person
or  thing,  without  utterly  bedeviling  them.
