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369 
Personal security, and the rights of private property, 
were unknown; and the administration of justice by 
the chiefs in the several districts, and the king over 
the whole, was regulated more by the relative power 
and influence of the parties, than by the merits of their 
cause. 
They had no regular code of laws, nor any public 
courts of justice, and, excepting iii offences against the 
king and chiefs, the rulers were seldom appealed to. 
The people in general avenged their own injuries. 
Death or banishment was the punishment usually in¬ 
flicted by the chiefs, and frequently the objects of their 
displeasure were marked out as victims for sacrifice. 
Destitute, however, as they were of even oral laws or 
institutes, there were many acts, which by general 
consent, were considered criminal, and deserving punish¬ 
ment. These were orure hau, rebellion, or shaking the 
government, withholding supplies, or even speaking con¬ 
temptuously of the king or his administration. So 
heinous was this offence, that the criminal was not only 
liable to banishment, or the forfeiture of his life, but a 
human sacrifice must be offered, to atone for the guilt, 
and appease the displeasure of the gods against the people 
of the land in which it had been committed. Lewdness 
was not regarded as a crime, but adultery was sometimes 
punished with death. Those among the middle or 
higher ranks who practised polygamy, allowed their 
wives other husbands. It is reported that brothers, or 
members of the same family, sometimes exchanged their 
wives, while the wife of every individual was also the 
wife of his taio or friend. 
Their character in this respect presents a most unna¬ 
tural mixture of brutal degradation, with infuriated and 
n. 3 B 
