Now there happened to be at a distance, an old gentleman engaged in clearing the weeds from a _kumera_ or sweet potato field, and as the kumera in the old times was the crop on which the natives depended chiefly for support, like all valuable things it was _tapu_, and the parties who entered the field to remove the weeds were _tapu pro tem._ also. One of the effects of this temporary extra _tapu_ was that the parties could not enter any regular dwelling-house, or, indeed, any house used by others. The breach of this rule would not be dangerous in a personal sense, but the effect would be that the crop of sweet potatoes would fail. The industrious individual I have alluded to, hearing the cry of "A pakeha! a pakeha!" from many voices, and having never had an opportunity to examine that variety of the species, or _genus homo_, flung down his wooden _kaheru_ or weed exterminator, and rushed towards the town house before mentioned. What could he do? The _tapu_ forbade his entrance, and the front was so completely blocked up by his admiring neighbours that he could not get sight of the wonderful guest. In these desperate circumstances a bright thought struck him: he would, by a bold and ingenious device, give the _tapu_ the slip. He ran to the back of the house, made with some difficulty a hole in the padded _raupo_ wall, and squeezed his head through it. The elastic wall of _raupo_ closed again around his neck; and the _tapu_ was fairly beaten! No one could say he was _in_ the house. He was certainly more out than in; and there, seemingly hanging from, or stuck against the wall, remained for hours, with open mouth and wondering eyes, this brazen head; till at last, the shades of night obstructing its vision, a rustling noise in the wall of flags and reeds announced the departure of my ingenious admirer.