POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
367 
usually regarded it as binding. The king kept no armed 
force, neither was there any regular police for the main¬ 
tenance of public order. The chief of each district was 
accountable for the conduct of the people under his own 
jurisdiction. The chieftains who were in attendance on 
the king, with the servants of his establishment, were the 
agents usually employed to carry his measures into effect. 
Tlie servants of the raatiras performed the same duty in 
their respective localities, and the king often sent his 
order to the district chief, who employed his own men in 
its execution. 
Notwithstanding the many acts of homage paid to the 
liead and other branches of the reigning family, and their 
imagined connexion with the gods, the actual influence of 
the king over the haughty and despotic district chieftains, 
was neither powerful nor permanent, and he could seldom 
confide in their fidelity in any project which would not 
advance their interests as well as. his own. Every mea¬ 
sure was therefore planned with the most cautious de¬ 
liberation, the approval and aid of a number of these 
nobility of the country being essential to carry it into 
effect; but when the interests of the reigning family 
and those of the chieftains were opposed, it produced no 
small embarrasment. These raatiras, who resembled the 
barons of the feudal system, kept the people under them 
in a state of the greatest subjection, and received from 
them not only military service, but a portion of the 
produce of their lands, and personal labour whenever 
required. 
Whenever a measure affecting the whole of the inhabi¬ 
tants was adopted, the king’s vea, or messenger, was 
despatched with a bundle of niaus, or leaflets. On enter¬ 
ing a district, he repaired to the habitation of the princi- 
