MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 January 1941, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

TAPU. (Recorded by J.U.S., of Palmerston North, for the "Thnon-Ag<».") The origin of this distinctive Maori I law of Tapu is lost. Placed far above all human laws it became their sole i ■’Commandment" which derived its ’ authority from superstition, fear, or I even common sense. ! ■ The Maori word Tapu in its primary j sense means "Sacred.” Tabooi is Hin-i doo for "a coffin" or "the Ark of the! Covenant”; Ta is Sanscrit for “t<>| mark” and Pu to "purify." The Hebrew j and Brahman Menu and the Maori j Tapu seem ’.o indicate a common \ source. Unlike our literal (ire of everlasting! torture, the purpose of which was to i create fear-and prevent evil among i primitive rieople. Tapu was an inspirit j ticn for protective purposes, wherein; it was incomparably better than our: barbarous idea. The greatest mistake ! of our missionaries was that in ignorance of its sacred nature, they taught • the Maoris to reject it as an infidelity ! Under this law Tapu was ap|shed the protection of chiefs and priests wlm , had the right of imposing it on others j Human flesh, the dead, those planting! food stuff, and memorials were Tapu! without ceremony. Under this law ! Tapu person entering a house made it unfit tu occupy. Chiefs and priests I could not. therefore, hold social inter-’ course with their people—they thus maintained a sacred m'luence apart , Many Europeans in tlie eariy days ig- i norant of this mysterious law k><i | their lives through uneonseious viola- j lion of it among them being Marion de* Fresno in Now Zealand and Captain i Cook in the Sandwich Islands thr.mgi'j innocently intruding upon sacred! I .dace,s. Marriage was simply a Tapu imixiset j upon the wife by whom a violaiioc ( meant death This superstition was fm i more effective than our guillotine ■ hanging er eleetrie ehair