Loose the tapu,
The god of strength;
Let the ancient gods dismiss the tapu,
O ... o ... o ... the tapu is taken away!”
When they went to war, they were separated from their wives, and did not again approach them until peace was proclaimed. Hence, during a period of long-continued warfare, they remarked that their wives were widows.
When a party attacking a pa had forced an entrance, they generally killed all within it. At the time of the slaughter the victors pulled off a lock of hair from each victim, and also from those they saved as slaves, which they stuck in their girdles. When the carnage was over, they assembled in ranks, generally three deep, each party being headed by its own tohunga, to thank their gods, and also to propitiate their favour for the future. When all the necessary arrangements were made, they each gave the tohunga a portion of the hair they had collected, which he bound on two small twigs; these he raised above his head, one in each hand, the people doing the same, except that they used twigs without any hair. They remained in this posture whilst the priest offered a prayer for the future welfare of the tribe. He then cast the twigs with the hair bound to them from him, as did the warriors with theirs, and all joined in a puha or war song. Then, standing quite naked, they clapped their hands together and struck them upon their thighs in order to take off the tapu from their hands which had been imbued in human blood. When they arrived within their own pa, they marched slowly, and in order, towards the house of the principal tohunga, who stood in his waho tapu or sacred grove ready to receive them. As soon as they were about one hundred yards from him, he called out, “Whence comes the war party of Tu?” Whereupon he was answered by the tohunga of the party. “The war party of Tu comes from the search.” “From whence comes the war-party of Tu?” “The war party of Tu comes from the stinking place.” “From whence comes the war party of Tu?” “It comes from the south; it comes from the north; it comes from the thicket where birds congregate; it comes from the fortifications: it made speeches there; it heard news there.”
New Zealand Arms.
When they got near the principal tohunga, the warriors gave the remaining locks of hair to their own priests, who went forward and presented them to the chief one: he offered them to the god of war, with many prayers. They then performed the tupeke, or war dance, and clapped their hands a second time. The slave of the tohunga belonging to the war party then made three ovens, in which he cooked a portion of the hearts of the principal warriors of the conquered party. “When they were done, the chief tohunga took a portion, over which he uttered a harakia, and then threw it towards his god as an offering. Having eaten all the food of the three ovens, he took the tapu off the warriors, and they were permitted to “tangi,” or cry with their relations. The women came out armed, and if any of the attacking party had been lost in the assault, they fell upon the slaves and killed as many as they could. Among the Taupo tribes it was not lawful for women and girls to eat human flesh, though this restriction does not appear to have extended to other parts of the island.
