tended with very anxious care.

When the "Prince Regent" schooner, which accompanied the "Dromedary,"
lay at anchor in the river Shukehanga,[Y] a chief named Moodooi,[Z]
greatly to the comfort of the captain, came one day on deck and
"tabooed" the vessel, or made it a crime for any one to ascend the side
without permission, which injunction was strictly attended to by the
natives during his stay in the harbour.

So, when any land is purchased, it is secured to the purchaser by being
"tabooed."

Marsden states that upon one occasion he found a great number of canoes
employed in fishing, and all the fish which they took were immediately
"tabooed," and could not be purchased. These fish were probably intended
to be cured and preserved as part of the common stock of the tribe.

The principal inconveniences sustained by the person who is "tabooed"
seem to be that he must have no communication with any who are not in
the same condition as himself, and that in eating he must not help
himself to his food with his hands. The chiefs are in such a case fed
by their attendant; but the absurd prohibition is a serious punishment
to the common people, who have nobody to assist them.

Nicholas relates an amusing incident illustrative of this. "On going
into the town," says he, "in the course of the day, I beheld several of
the natives sitting round some baskets of dressed potatoes; and being
invited to join them in their meal, I mingled with the group, when I
observed one man stoop down with his mouth for each morsel, and
scrupulously careful in avoiding all contact between his hands and the