Good old rule, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.
In practice it consisted in commanding, or, as we might say, "commandeering" anything one fancied to one's own use.
Indicating the desired object, the claimant would observe, "That club"—or tree, or canoe, or whatever it happened to be, "is tapa to me. It is my skull," or "my eye," or "my backbone. I command it to myself."
The article thus denominated was held to belong to the claimant, since no one could justly urge that a man's skull, eye or backbone was not his own. Yet, if the practice were abused, an appeal could be made, and a chief had power to undo the tapa and order restitution of the property claimed. After a battle, disputes frequently arose between those who claimed priority in having applied the tapa to articles in possession of a foe whom they had then still to vanquish.
This was the law of muru, which the Maori accepted philosophically enough, because, though vexatious, it fell with equal severity upon all.
If a man committed an offence against the community, he was punished by the community, his fellow-tribesmen adjusting the fine and collecting it with a generous appreciation of their individual requirements.
For example, if one accidentally killed another, he was punished for depriving the community of a useful member. If a man carelessly damaged public property, he was punished by the loss of his own. Even if the damage done merely affected another private person, compensation was assessed by means of muru, and, as no money circulated in those days, the fine was exacted in goods.
The victim of his own indiscretion, sighing at the crookedness of fate, always made provision against the day of reckoning and, having politely inquired on what day muru was to be enforced, issued instructions to the ladies of his family to prepare the best feast possible in the time at their command.
On the appointed day the avengers arrived, yelling "Murua! Murua!" An idea of the justice of what followed may be gathered when it is stated that muru means "plunder."
Each member of the party is armed, and so is the rueful sinner who awaits developments with sensations much resembling those of the Jew in presence of King John and his rough-and-ready dentists.