Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia

by Edward Ellis Morris

"He seeks treasures which to us are tapu."

<hw>Tapu</hw>, <i>n</i>. the state of being consecrated or forbidden.

1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 25:

"We found no natives, the cove being under tapu, on account of its being the burial-place of a daughter of Te Pehi, the late chief of the Kapiti, or Entry Island, natives."

1847. A. Tennyson, `Princess,' canto iii. l. 261:

". . . Women up till this
Cramp'd under worse than South-Sea-Isle taboo,
Dwarfs of the gynaeceum."

1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 24:

"But chiefly thou, mysterious Tapu,
From thy strange rites a hopeful sign we draw."

1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 281:

"The tapu, which either temporarily or permanently renders sacred an object animate or inanimate, is the nearest approach to the Hindoo religious exclusive-ism."