he man was killed by the chief's taboo would have been
listened to by the Maoris with feelings of contempt for his ignorance
and inability to understand plain and direct evidence.[118]

[113] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 165.

[114] E. Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 101; R.
Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 164 _sq._

[115] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 165.

[116] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, pp. 164 _sq._

[117] W. Brown, _New Zealand and its Aborigines_ (London, 1845),
p. 76.

[118] _Old New Zealand_, by a Pakeha Maori, pp. 95-97.

In order that a thing should be consecrated or tabooed to the exclusive
use and possession of a chief, it was not necessary that his sacred
blood should flow on it, or that he should merely touch it; he had only
to call it his head, or his back-bone, or any other part of his body,
and at once the thing, by a legal fiction, became his and might be
appropriated by nobody else under pain of violating the taboo which the
chief had laid upon it. For example, when a chief desired to prevent a
piece of ground from being cultivated by any one but himself, he often
resorted to the expedient of calling it his back-bone; after that if any
man dared to set foot on the land so consecrated, the transgression was
equivalent to a declaration of war. In this simple and easy fashion a
chief might acquire anything that took his fancy from an axe or a canoe
to a landed estate, and the rightful owner of the property dared not
complain nor dispute the claim of his superior.[119]

[119] E. Shortland, _Traditions and Superstitions of the New
Zealanders_, p. 111; _Old New Zealand_, by a Pakeha Maori, pp.
137 _sqq._; R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 168.

Nevertheless in daily life even ordinary people used the taboo to secure
their property or to acquire for themselves what had hitherto been
common to all. For example, if a man found a piece of drift timber, he
could make it his own by tying something to it or giving it a chop with
his axe; he thereby set his taboo on the log, and as a general rule the
taboo would be respected. Again, with a simple piece of flax he might
bar the door of his house or his store of food; the contents of the
house or store were thus rendered inviolable, nobody would meddle with
them.[120]

[120] R. Taylor, _Te Ika A Maui_, p. 171.

It is easy to see that this form of taboo must have greatly contributed
to create and c