It will be seen at once that this form of the _tapu_ was a great preserver of property. The most valuable articles might, in ordinary circumstances, be left to its protection, in the absence of the owners, for any length of time. It also prevented borrowing and lending in a very great degree; and though much laughed at and grumbled at by unthinking pakehas--who would be always trying to get the natives to give it up, without offering them anything equally effective in its place, or indeed knowing its real object or uses--it held its ground in full force for many years; and, in a certain but not so very observable a form, it exists still. This form of the _tapu_, though latent in young folks of _rangatira_ rank, was not supposed to develope itself fully till they had arrived at mature age, and set up house on their own account. The lads and boys "knocked about" amongst the slaves and lower orders, carried fuel or provisions on their backs, and did all those duties which this personal _tapu_ prevented the elders from doing; and which restraint was sometimes very troublesome and inconvenient. A man of any standing could not carry provisions of any kind on his back; or if he did they were rendered _tapu_, and in consequence useless to any one 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, &c., 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 in them. He might certainly light a little fire in his own house; not for cooking, as that never by any chance could be done in his house, but for warmth: but that, or any other fire, if he should have blown upon it with his breath in lighting it, became at once _tapu_, and could be used for no common or culinary purpose. Even to light a pipe at it would subject any inferior person (and in many instances an equal) to a terrible attack of the _tapu morbus_; besides being a slight or affront to the dignity of the person himself.