344 
polynp:sian researches. 
vators of the soil; and held their land, not from the gift 
of the king, but from their ancestors. The petty raatiras 
frequently possessed from 20 to 100 acres, and generally 
had''more than their necessities required. They resided 
on their own lands, and enclosed so much as was 
necessary for their own support. They were the most 
industrious class of the community, working their own 
plantations, building their own houses, manufacturing 
their own cloth and mats, besides furnishing these 
articles for the king. 
The higher class among the raatiras were those who 
possessed large tracts of land in one place, or a number 
of smaller sections in different parts. Some of them 
owned perhaps many hundred acres, parts of which were 
cultivated by those who lived in a state of dependence 
upon them, or by those petty raatiras who occupied their 
plantations on condition of rendering military service 
to the proprietors, and a portion of the produce. These 
individuals were a valuable class in the community, and 
constituted the aristocracy of the country. They were 
in general more regular, temperate, and industrious in 
their habits, than the higher ranks, and, in all the 
measures of government, imposed a considerable restraint 
upon the extravagance or precipitancy of the king, who, 
without their co-operation, could carry but few of his 
measures. In their public national assemblies, the 
speakers often compared the nation to a ship, of which 
the king was the mast; and whenever this figure was 
used, the raatiras were always termed the shrouds, or 
ropes by which the mast is kept upright. Possessing at 
all times the most ample stores of native provisions, the 
number of their dependents, or retainers, was great. 
The destitute and thoughtless readily attached themselves 
