Slaves ( or ) were members of rival tribes which were taken prisoner during warfare and made to work on activities which were not . The term was also used to denote something abhorrent and signifies the complete loss of of slaves. There is little direct information on Māori slaves before the Musket Wars. Oral tradition records that slavery was practised, but early European explorers speculated that it must be rare or even absent. During the Musket Wars, however, the number of slaves taken as prisoners increased immensely and became an import part of some tribes social structure.