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- 8229
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z
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- 8170
- text
- venture to assert; but from all I saw during my stay in the valley, I
was induced to believe that in matters concerning the general welfare
it was very limited. The required degree of deference towards them,
however, was willingly and cheerfully yielded; and as all authority is
transmitted from father to son, I have no doubt that one of the effects
here, as elsewhere, of high birth, is to induce respect and obedience.
The civil institutions of the Marquesas Islands appear to be in this,
as in other respects, directly the reverse of those of the Tahitian and
Hawaiian groups, where the original power of the king and chiefs was far
more despotic than that of any tyrant in civilized countries. At Tahiti
it used to be death for one of the inferior orders to approach, without
permission, under the shadow, of the king’s house; or to fail in paying
the customary reverence when food destined for the king was borne past
them by his messengers. At the Sandwich Islands, Kaahumanu, the gigantic
old dowager queen--a woman of nearly four hundred pounds weight, and
who is said to be still living at Mowee--was accustomed, in some of her
terrific gusts of temper, to snatch up an ordinary sized man who had
offended her, and snap his spine across her knee. Incredible as this
may seem, it is a fact. While at Lahainaluna--the residence of this
monstrous Jezebel--a humpbacked wretch was pointed out to me, who, some
twenty-five years previously, had had the vertebrae of his backbone very
seriously discomposed by his gentle mistress.
The particular grades of rank existing among the chiefs of Typee, I
could not in all cases determine. Previous to the Feast of Calabashes
I had been puzzled what particular station to assign to Mehevi. But the
important part he took upon that occasion convinced me that he had no
superior among the inhabitants of the valley. I had invariably noticed a
certain degree of deference paid to him by all with whom I had ever seen
him brought in contact; but when I remembered that my wanderings had
been confined to a limited portion of the valley, and that towards
the sea a number of distinguished chiefs resided, some of whom had
separately visited me at Marheyo’s house, and whom, until the Festival,
I had never seen in the company of Mehevi, I felt disposed to believe
that his rank after all might not be particularly elevated.
The revels, however, had brought together all the warriors whom I had
seen individually and in groups at different times and places. Among
them Mehevi moved with an easy air of superiority which was not to be
mistaken; and he whom I had only looked at as the hospitable host of the
Ti, and one of the military leaders of the tribe, now assumed in my eyes
the dignity of royal station. His striking costume, no less than his
naturally commanding figure, seemed indeed to give him pre-eminence over
the rest. The towering helmet of feathers that he wore raised him
in height above all who surrounded him; and though some others were
similarly adorned, the length and luxuriance of their plumes were
inferior to his.
Mehevi was in fact the greatest of the chiefs--the head of his clan--the
sovereign of the valley; and the simplicity of the social institutions
of the people could not have been more completely proved than by the
fact, that after having been several weeks in the valley, and almost in
daily intercourse with Mehevi, I should have remained until the time of
the festival ignorant of his regal character. But a new light had now
broken in upon me. The Ti was the palace--and Mehevi the king. Both the
one and the other of a most simple and patriarchal nature: it must be
allowed, and wholly unattended by the ceremonious pomp which usually
surrounds the purple.
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