724 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



ill preference to all others his sister's son, who by the law of 

 the naltawaga is considered nearer and dearer to him than 

 his own son, and to be his proper heir. The reason is that 

 his sister's son is of the same nahainaga as he, being of his 

 mother's (his sister's"*), whereas his son is of a different 

 nahainaga, being- of the same as his mother (his wife's). The 

 power and authority of a chief can only be exercised within 

 certain defined hmits. In matters involving religious con- 

 siderations the chief's power is limited by the priest, or 

 natnmole tabu, and in purely civil or political matters by the 

 council of the old men and influential men of the community. 

 There was of course no written constitution or laws, but 

 the customs handed down from antiquity were rigidly adhered 

 to. To the question, " Is there a tribal council? " it must be 

 replied that this word tribal has to be defined before the 

 question can be answered. The tribe, i.e., the nakainaga, 

 is a family, all the members of which are considered as closely 

 related to each other, and bound to treat each other well. 

 All the members of a nakainaga in a particular place were to 

 a large extent responsible for the conduct of any one member ; 

 for instance, they had to pay a fine incurred by him, if he 

 could not pay it himself. Hence, as above said, a boy was 

 carefully instructed by, not his father (who belonged necessarily 

 to another nakainaga), but by his aloana (his maternal uncle) 

 his mother's full brother, who was necessarily of the same 

 tribe and who regarded him as his heir. Now the older 

 members of the nakainaga were the fathers, so to speak, of 

 the family nakainaga, and exercised a kind of parental 

 authority over it. But if by " tribe " be meant the whole 

 people of a village, no definite statement can be framed 

 applying to all such communities. But generally the chief 

 had to consult the' leading men in the village, that is virtually 

 all the people, before taking action, as otherwise they might 

 not support him in it. As to infractions of tribal law, the 

 mind of the tribe having been ascertained, its chief declared 

 the sentence, which might be a fine or death. 



Social and Domestic. 



The huts were built by erecting a wooden framework and 

 covering it with thatch. The thatch might be reeds or long 

 (sword) grass and cocoa-nut leaves plaited, or the former 

 alone. The usual shape of the hut was that of a ship turned 



* That is, his sister by the mother's sister. 



