It seems that the practice of cannibalism must have had a close connexion with such a system of belief. To eat an enemy was the greatest degradation to which he could be subjected, and so it must have been regarded as akin to blasphemy to eat anything containing a particle of divine essence. Everything not included under the class _tapu_ was called _noa_, meaning free or common. Things and persons _tapu_ could, however, be made _noa_ by means of certain ceremonies, the object of which was to extract the _tapu_ essence, and restore it to the source whence it originally came. It has been already stated that every tribe and every family has its own especial _Atua_. The _Ariki_, or head of a family, in both male and female lines, are regarded by their own family with a veneration almost equal to that of their _Atua_.¹⁷ They form, as it were, the connecting links between the living and the spirits of the dead; and the ceremonies required for releasing anything from the _tapu_ state cannot be perfected without their intervention. ¹⁷ It is observable that Homer attributes special honor to a few of his heroes, who appear to have been the male representatives of their race,—as to Agamemnon of the race of Pelops, and to Aeneas of the race of Assaracus. With respect to each of them, it is mentioned that he was honored as a God by his people. “Θεὸς δ’ ὣς τίετο δήμῳ.” Among the Maori these chiefs would have been distinguished by the title of _Ariki_. Homer gives them the title “ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν,” the old meaning of which words has been a matter of much inquiry. Mr Gladstone (Homer and Homeric Age, vol. I. p. 456) says, “It seems to me that this restraint in the use of the name ‘ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν’ was not unconnected with a sense of reverence towards it;” and he suggests the word chieftain as its fit representative. Might not its original meaning have been similar to that of _Ariki_?