786 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this especial purpose. Such death orders were looked upon as 

 sacred commands. Vengeance, or propitiation by bloodshed, could 

 be obtained by assaulting a tribe which had nothing to do with the 

 cause of quarrel ; but, generally, the tribe or family of the mur- 

 derer was singled out and a vendetta was declared. 



While all of a man's movable property was his own, in conse- 

 quence of the law of muru or plunder, a chief had little he could 

 really call his own, except his personal ornaments, weapons, etc., 

 which were tapu by touching his sacred body. A chief could tapu 

 a certain thing by saying, " That canoe is my backbone," etc. 

 Then, unless one was of greater power than he, it was untouched, 

 and became really, for all practical purposes, the chief's bodily 

 part. Fire was obtained by friction of wood, and when used for 

 " common fire," was kept lighted as long as possible. Fire-sticks 



were carried to start 

 new fires Avith, and 

 new fires were made 

 on all solemn occa- 

 sions. A chief, too, 

 must have his own 

 sacred fire to sit by, 

 lest some inferior per- 

 son may have used it, 

 or have used some of 

 his fire to light an- 

 other on which food 

 was cooked. This 

 would be metaphori- 

 cally cooking the chief 

 himself. The women 

 and men ate apart, 

 and generally each 

 man ate apart ; and 

 eating was all done in 

 the open air, because 

 food would tapu the 

 house, and so tapu any 

 one entering it. Can- 

 nibalism was common 

 formerly, and was accounted for by the desire for revenge — cook- 

 ing and eating his body being the greatest of insults that could be 

 put upon an enemy. If the person eaten had been a redoubtable 

 enemy, his head was dried as a trophy, and his thigh bones were 

 made into flutes ; otherwise the bones were thrown away. Hunt- 

 ing was of but little account, for there were no large animals, but 

 fishing was invested with a network of ceremonies and tapus. 



Maori Ktng with his Greenstone Cli'b. 



