is goods. Divine vengeance in one or other
form would swiftly fall upon him--probably in the practical shape of
the entry into his body of an evil spirit to gnaw him to death with
cruel teeth. Men whose terror of such punishment as this, and whose
vivid faith in the imminence thereof, were strong enough to kill them
were much more, or less, than secularists.

The well-known principle that there is no potent, respected, and
lasting institution, however strange, but has its roots in practical
usefulness, is amply verified in the case of _tapu_. By it authority
was ensured, dignity hedged about with respect, and property and
public health protected. Any person, place or thing laid under _tapu_
might not be touched, and sometimes not even approached. A betrothed
maiden defended by _tapu_ was as sacred as a vestal virgin of Rome; a
shrine became a Holy Place; the head of a chief something which it was
sacrilege to lay hands on. The back of a man of noble birth could not
be degraded by bearing burdens--an awkward prohibition in moments when
no slave or woman happened to be in attendance on these lordly beings.
Anything cooked for a chief was forbidden food to an inferior. The
author of _Old New Zealand_ tells of an unlucky slave who unwittingly
ate the remains of a chiefs dinner. When the knowledge of this
frightful crime was flashed upon him, he was seized with internal
cramps and pains and, though a strong man, died in a few hours. The
weapons and personal effects of a chief were, of course, sacred even
in the opinion of a thief, but _tapu_ went further. Even the fire a
chief had lit might not be used by commoners. As for priests, after
the performance of certain ceremonies they for a time had perforce to
become too sacred to feed themselves with their hands. Food would be
laid down before them and kneeling, or on all-fours like dogs, they
had to pick it up with their teeth. Perhaps their lot might be so far
mitigated that a maiden would be permitted to convey food to their
mouths on the end of a fern-stalk--a much less disagreeable process
for the eater. Growing fields of the sweet potato were sacred for
obvious reasons, as were those who were working therein. So were
burial-places and the bones of the dead. The author above-mentioned
chancing one day on a journey to pick up a human skull which had been
left exposed by a land-slide, immediately became an outcast shunned by
acquaintances, friends and his own household, as t