368 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
pal chiefs^ and, presenting a cocoa-nut leaf, delivered the 
orders of the king. The acceptance of the leaf was a 
declaration of their compliance with the requisition, 
and to decline taking it was regarded as an intimation of 
their refusal to accede to the measure proposed. Hence 
the messenger or herald, when he had travelled round the 
island, reported to the king, who had received and who 
had refused the niau. When the chiefs approved of the 
message, they sent their own messengers to their respec¬ 
tive tenants and dependants, with a cocoa-nut leaf for 
each, and the orders of the king. 
The maw, or leaflets of the cocoa-nut tree, was the 
emblem of authority throughout the whole of the Geor¬ 
gian and Society Islands; and requisitions for property 
or labour, preparations for war; or the convocation of a 
national assembly, were formerly made by sending the 
cocoa-nut leaf to those whose services or attendance was 
required. To return or refuse the niau was to offer an 
insult to the king, and to resist his authority. 
If the king felt himself strong enough, he would 
instantly banish such an individual, and send another to 
take possession of his lands, and occupy his station as 
chief of the district. Should the offender have been 
guilty of disobedience to the just demands of the king, 
though the lands might be his hereditary property, he 
must leave them, and become, as the people expressed it, 
a wanderer ^^upon the road;” but if the king’s conduct 
was considered arbitrary, and the individual justified in 
his refusal by the other chiefs, they would tapea, or detain 
him, and protest to the king against his removal. The 
parties generally knew each other’s strength and influ¬ 
ence, and those who had little hopes of succeeding by an 
appeal to arms, usually conceded whatever was required. 
