Origin and Migrations of the Polynesian Nation. 81 



In the Friendly Islands, in which the Polynesian system seems 

 to have retained much more of its ancient features than in most 

 of the other groups, a similar, if not the same division of society 

 obtains. In these islands the highest caste is in like manner : — 



1. The priestly caste, the heads of which are supposed to be 

 descended from the gods : they receive presents from the lower 

 castes, and enjoy peculiar privileges ; and the other islanders 

 testify their respect towards them by addressing them in a sort 

 of Sanscrit or sacred language, which is not used on inferior 

 subjects. 



2. The egi, or nobles, whose office is to preside in war, and 

 to be the rulers of the country ; the king himself being of this 

 caste. 



3. The matabooles, or gentlemen, whose office it is to act as 

 companions and counsellors to the nobles, to be masters of cere- 

 monies and orators at public assemblies. Tbe cadets or younger 

 brothers and sons of this caste practice mechanical arts under 

 the name of mooas. 



4. The tooas, or lowest caste, consisting of common labourers, 

 cooks, servants. And, in like manner as in India, the repugnance 

 towards any intermingling of the castes is so strong that if an 

 individual of one of the higher castes has children by a wife or 

 concubine of one of the lower, the children must be put to death 

 to prevent the degradation of the family. 



II. The singular institution of taboo, which obtains universally 

 in the South Sea Islands, is evidently also of Asiatic origin. The 

 word taboo is nearly equivalent to the latin saccr and the Greek 

 anathema, signifying either sacred or accursed, holy or unclean. 

 Under the Levitical law, the show-bread was taboo, or forbidden 

 to all but the priests. The leper was also taboo, for his touch 

 communicated ceremonial pollution. The Jews pronounced the 

 former holy — the Romans would have said Sacer diis cmlestibus ; 

 the latter they pronounced unclean — the Romans would have 

 said, Sacer diis infernis. In short, the Polynesian taboo extends 

 to persons, places, and things ; and whatever is subjected either 

 to its temporary or to its permanent operation thereby acquires 

 a character of sacredness in the eye of the South Sea Islanders, 

 which it were death to disregard. In New Zealand, for instance, 

 a woman engaged in nursing is taboo, and forbidden, under pain 

 of death, to touch the food which she eats with her own hand ; 

 and I recollect the case of a woman who had violated this prohibi- 

 tion, about forty years since, by eating a piece of fern root in 

 the mode forbidden by the law, being killed and eaten. 



In some cases, indeed, the taboo appears to have been a wise 

 and politic institution. After those national festivals that are so 

 frequent in the South Sea Islands, and at which such vast 

 quantities of provisions are consumed, as to threaten a general 



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