460 cook's voyage to july, 



principle. Such a behaviour is remarkably obvious, 

 whenever it is requisite that their chief should 

 harangue any body of them collected together, 

 which is frequently done. The most profound 

 silence and attention is observed during the 

 harangue, even to a much greater degree than is 

 practised amongst us, on the most interesting and 

 serious deliberations of our most respectable as- 

 semblies. And whatever might have been the sub- 

 ject of the speech delivered, we never saw an instance 

 when any individual present showed signs of his being 

 displeased, or that indicated the least inclination to 

 dispute the declared will of a person who had a 

 right to command. Nay, such is the force of these 

 verbal laws, as I may call them,, that I have seen 

 one of their chiefs express his being astonished 

 at a person's having acted contrary to such orders ; 

 though it appeared that the poor man could not 

 possibly have been informed in time to have 

 observed them.* 



Though some of the more potent chiefs may vie 

 with the king in point of actual possessions, they 

 fall very short in rank, and in certain marks of 

 respect, which the collective body have agreed to 

 pay the monarch. It is a particular privilege an- 

 nexed to his sovereignty, not to be punctured nor 

 circumcised as all his subjects are. Whenever he 

 walks out, every one whom he meets must sit down 

 till he has passed. No one is allowed to be over 

 his head ; on the contrary, all must come under his 

 feet ; for there cannot be a greater outward mark 

 of submission, than that which is paid to the 

 sovereign, and other great people of these islands, 

 by their inferiors. The method is this ; the person 



* Cantova gives us the same account of the profound sub- 

 mission of the Caroline Islanders to the orders of the Tamole. 

 * l lis rec,oivent ses ordres avec le plus profond respect. Ses pa- 

 roles sont autant d'oracles qu'on revere." 



Lettrcs Edijiantcs et Curieuscs, torn. xv. p. 312. 



