208 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



to which due regard is paid. The principal chiefs 

 have great authority, and exercise penal justice, 

 according to the principles of the strictest retali- 

 ation J *' An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.** 



According to Cantova, criminals are only pu- 

 nished by banishment. We will relate a story, 

 according to our friend Kadu, in which it is evi- 

 dent with what great lenity crimes are less sought 

 to be revenged than repressed. We fancy we hear 

 the national tale of the Fin-voleur from the mouths 

 of our nurses. 



On an island of Mogemug the trees were regu- 

 larly robbed of their best fruit, without the people^ 

 who carefully watched each other, being able for 

 a long time to discover the thief. They were at 

 last aware, that an apparently well-disposed boy 

 got up every night and committed the robbery. 

 They chastised him, and watched him. He how- 

 ever deceived their vigilance, and did not leave off 

 his practice. They shut him up during the night; 

 they tied his hands on his back, but the sly thief 

 knew how to frustrate all these precautions, and 

 continued as before. They brought him to a re- 

 mote, uninhabited island of the group, which 

 barely afforded food for one man. Here they left 

 him alone. They, however, soon perceived that 

 it had been of no avail, and their trees were still 

 robbed as before. Several persons rowed over to 

 the desert island, and found the young man feast- 

 ing in great abundance on the fruits of their pro- 



