MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 May 1939, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

TAPU TANGATA. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The most deadly and virulent form of Tapu known to the Maori race was that which applied to persons whose duty it was to touch the body of a dead person, whether in the capacity of a regular undertaker or in an emergency. This strange form of superstition bears intimate relation to the most ancient Jewish belief and custom in regard to “unclean” persons or things, and undoubted evidence of some association with the Semitic race in past ages. Its duration under varying circumstances was for the same period and was removed in almost the same way. In the Maori form of Tapu, the person concerned was cut off from all contact with others. He could not enter a house or touch a person or thing, especially food without defilement. • His food was placed on the ground or passed to his mouth without actually touching him. Neither must he himself touch it with his own hands.

In every village the Kaitapuke (undertaker) was so strictly Tapu that no one would undertake to feed him nor could he feed himself except “like a hog or a dog” off the ground.

Even the Maori war customs had forms of Tapu which were derived from the same source as those of the Old Testament. On one occasion a Waikato tribe was surrounded by a much stronger force and in imminent danger of being destroyed. Without a moment’s hesitation their war chief sacrificed his best beloved son and presented his heart as an offering to the God of victory. Then, in the courage of despair and fanaticism, they rushed upon the foe and defeated them with great slaughter.