372 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
away every article worth possessing, and destroying the 
rest. If the inhabitants of the house received previous 
intimation of their purpose, they generally removed or 
secreted their most valuable property, but seldom 
attempted to resist the seizure, even though every article 
of food and clothing, and the mats on which they slept, 
should be taken away. 
This mode of retaliation for theft, or other injury, 
was so generally recognized as just, that, although the 
party thus plundered might be more powerful than those 
who plundered them, they would not attempt to prevent 
the seizure: had they done so, the population of the 
district would have assisted those, who, according to 
established custom, were thus punishing the aggressors. 
Such was the usual method resorted to for punishing the 
petty thefts committed among themselves. They were 
generally satisfied with seizing whatever they could find 
in the houses, yards, or gardens of the offenders ; but 
when it was practised by order of the king or chiefs, the 
culprit was banished from his house or lands, and reduced 
to a state of complete destitution. 
Great difficulty was often experienced in discovering 
the thief, or the property stolen; and, on these occasions, 
they frequently resorted to divination, and employed the 
sorcerer to discover the offender. The thief, when 
detected, generally received summary punishment. Mr. 
Bourne states, that in one of the Harvey Islands, a man 
found a little boy, about eight years of age, stealing 
food; the man instantly seized the juvenile delinquent, 
and, tying a heavy stone to his leg, threw him into the 
sea. The boy sunk to the bottom, and would soon have 
paid for his crime with his life, had not one of the 
native teachers, who saw him thrown into the water. 
