KINSHIP IN POLYNESIA. 395 



seizing whatever may take his fancy, regardless of its value or 

 the owner's inconvenience in its loss. Resistance is not thought 

 of, and objection only offered in extreme cases. Thokonauto, a 

 Rewa chief, during a quarrel with an uncle, used the right of 

 Vasu, and actually supplied himself with ammunition from his 

 enemy's stores." * 



It can not be denied that this great power of the sister's son is 

 very remarkable, and at the first glance it seems only possible to 

 explain it by assuming that there was a peculiar sanctity in the 

 tie of kinship between the man and his sister's son. The extent 

 of the claim is astonishing — a claim which no son would venture 

 to put forward ; and this is the more remarkable since the sister's 

 son is not the uncle's heir. In all other cases in which the female 

 line divides father and son, in order to tighten the bond between 

 the mother's brother and sister's son, the analogy with the male 

 line is maintained ; that is, the uncle exerts his authority over the 

 sister's son, whereas in this instance their positions are reversed. 

 This arouses a suspicion that ideas unconnected with the female 

 line may have produced the Vasu rights. 



On examining more closely the whole institution of the Vasu, 

 we are first struck by the fact that no legitimate rights belong to 

 the common Vasu. These claims can only be made by the Vasu 

 whose mother's brother possesses people and land. It may be as- 

 sumed that the power of the Vasu in its extreme development was 

 first directed against the mother's brother after it had become an 

 integral part of the political machinery of Fiji, since we are told 

 that the Vasu right becomes an instrument in the king's hand for 

 ruthlessly plundering the land. The king makes use of the Vasu, 

 and shares the plunder with him.f There can be no doubt that 

 the institution of Vasu arose out of the natural reverence with 

 which the subjects regarded the king's sister's son when he visited 

 his uncle. They honored the king through his kinsfolk. The 

 king and his sons ruled after no gentle fashion, and the ruler was 

 entitled to commit all sorts of acts of violence. In this way the 

 honor paid to the king's sister's son enabled him to rob the people 

 freely. The Vasu right was gradually transformed into a funda- 

 mental institution, and that which was at first serviceable to the 

 king was now turned against him. It certainly affords no indica- 

 tions of a mystical and religious belief in any special sacred bond 

 between the mother's brother and sister's son. 



The Russian observers of the solar eclipse of August 19, 1887, have expressed 

 the conclusion that the corona has a real existence, and is not merely an optical 

 phenomenon ; it having maintained its shape during the whole of the eclipse at each 

 spot where it was observed, and also at spots as far as six thousand miles apart. 



* Williams and Calvert, p. 27. f Ibid., p. 27. Appendix xxviii. 



