CHAP. VII.] OF NEW ZEALANDERS. 113 



consideration, and in particular cases, where he 

 boasts of being related to a great number of tribes, his 

 life, even in battle, is spared. To the ariki presents 

 are sent from distant friends or relations, a tribute 

 as it were, although, as already observed, the ho- 

 nours paid to him are voluntary and complimentary, 

 rather than compulsory ; and are not numerous. 

 The rest of the men are either rangatira, free men, 

 or taua-reka-reka, slaves. There are distinctions 

 amongst the free men according to the importance 

 of their relations and ancestors, or their proficiency 

 in war or council. But with them, as with the 

 chiefs, their influence depends rather upon their 

 mental superiority than upon the exercise of any legal 

 claim. The ariki, as well as the rangatira, possesses 

 land with well-defined boundaries ; and, in disposing 

 of the land of the tribe, every one can sell or retain 

 his own as he likes. Of the sons of a rangatira, the 

 first and the last inherit the greatest dignity, and are 

 called the Ngako-o-te-wenua, the fat of the earth. 

 The slaves, taua-reka-reka, are the prisoners of war, 

 male or female, and such of their children as are 

 born in slavery. They have to perform the greater 

 part of the work of the field, and are the property 

 of their master, who can do with them as he pleases. 

 If they escape to their own tribe, they are either 

 sent back or fetched back without resistance, as the 

 right to a captured slave is acknowledged. Many 

 wars have been carried on merely for the purpose 

 of getting slaves, and this was the avowed object of 



VOL. II. I 



