s not the case. The efficacy of a _karakia_ or invocation
depended in part on its method of delivery, and in part on the
_mana_ of the man who used it" (W. E. Gudgeon, _op. cit._ p.
50). Compare R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 172, 173; _Old New
Zealand_, by a Pakeha Maori, p. 100.

[106] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 147, 352. The soul was
thought to reside especially in the left eye; accordingly it was
the left eye of an enemy which was most commonly swallowed by a
victorious chief who desired to increase his spiritual power.
See J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage autour du Monde et a la
recherche de la Perouse, Histoire du Voyage_ (Paris, 1832-1833),
ii. 527; E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 118, 128
_sq._

Every such divine chief was under a permanent taboo; he was as it were
surrounded by an atmosphere of sanctity which attached to his person and
never left him; it was his birthright, a part of himself of which he
could not be divested, and it was well understood and recognised by
everybody at all times. And the sanctity was not confined to his person,
it was an infection which extended or was communicated to all his
movable property, especially to his clothes, weapons, ornaments, and
tools, indeed to everything which he touched. Even the petty chiefs and
fighting men, everybody indeed who could claim the title of _rangatira_
or gentleman, possessed in some degree this mysterious quality.[107]
However, in young people of rank the sanctity which appertained to them
by virtue of their birth was supposed to be only latent; it did not
develop or burst into full bloom till they had reached mature age and
set up house on their own account. Hence noble boys and lads were under
none of the irksome restrictions to which in their adult years they were
afterwards bound to submit; they mixed freely with the profane vulgar
and did not even disdain to carry fuel or provisions on their backs, a
thing which no man of any standing could possibly do; at all events, if
he did so demean himself, the food was thereby rendered taboo and could
accordingly be used by nobody but himself. "If he went into the shed
used as a kitchen (a thing, however, he would never think of doing
except on some great emergency), all the pots, ovens, food, etc., would
be at once rendered useless--none of the cooks or inferior people could
make use of them, or partake of anything which had been cooked