234 APIAN COURTIEKS. 



was destined to fill. Who would have thought that a people, 

 possessed of such an elixir for making perfect sovereigns, 

 could ever have been tempted to disregard or pervert a gift so 

 unheard of? or, that not contented with the modelling power 

 thus put into their hands, they should ever have desired to 

 exercise it to a greater extent, and after a different fashion ? 

 Yet so, in the course of ages, it was destined to happen ; and 

 the rise of this extraordinary spirit of innovation among the 

 people of Apia, occurred at the epoch when our relation com- 

 mences, namely, that of the royal demise. 



Amidst the general demonstrations of respect and grief for 

 her late Apian majesty, only one class of her subjects wore an 

 appearance of indifference, and that was the very class wherein 

 a stranger to courts might have least expected to find it, 

 namely, amongst the deceased queen's favourites, or candidates 

 for her favour ; for having been cut off in the spring-time of 

 her age, it was not yet known that she had selected a prince- 

 consort from amongst her suitors, who (rivalling in number 

 those of Penelope) amounted to no less than 400. Already 

 indeed, had she been suspected by the jealous eyes of 339 to 

 look with favour upon one, and in any other state, it might 

 possibly have happened that in the failure of natural heirs, 

 this favourite might have made a venture for the crown. But 

 as already said, the succession in Apia was in the female line ; 

 nor was this a wonder, for the entire masculine population was 

 always comprised in the suitors of royalty aforesaid, than whom, 



