Page:Adventures of Kimble Bent.djvu/77

Rh "E noho ki raro" ("Sit down"), said Te Ua, pointing to the floor-mat in front of him.

By the prophet's side was a flax basket containing some potatoes and pork, with which he had been breaking his fast after his journey. This food being appropriated to his use was, of course, tapu in the eyes of the assemblage. Te Ua took a potato from the basket, broke it into two pieces, and gave one piece to Bent and told liim to eat it; the other half he ate himself.

"Now," said the prophet, "you are tapu—your life is safe; no man may harm you now that you have eaten of my sacred food. Men of Tangahoé! This pakeha is my pakeha; and if any other white men should come to us as this man has done, fleeing from their people and forsaking the pakeha camps for our pas, you must protect them, for the gods have sent them to us."

"You are a Maori now," added Te Ua to Bent, "and you must have a woman to cook your food for you."

Bent, in his imperfect Maori, informed the prophet that he had already been supplied with a wife by the Maoris, but, like a prudent man, made no comment on her imperfections.

"That's all right then," said the prophet. And he gave Bent a large cloak of dressed flax, called a tatara. "Wear this," he said; "it is a tapu garment and sacred to you; no other man may wear it."