POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
375 
a deficiency of food for his ordinary followers, or a large 
party that had arrived as his guests, a number of his 
servants went out to the settlements of the raatiras, or 
farmers, and, sometimes without even asking, tied up the 
pigs that were fed near the dwelling, and plundered the 
abode, ravaging, like a band of lawless robbers, the plan¬ 
tations or the gardens, and taking away every article of 
food the poor, oppressed people possessed. Sometimes 
they launched a fine canoe that might be lying near, and, 
loading it with their plunder, left the industrious pro¬ 
prietor destitute even of the means of subsistence; and, 
as they were the king’s servants, he durst not complain. 
When the king travelled, he was usually attended by a 
company of Areois, or a worthless train of idlers ; and 
often when they entered a district that was perhaps well 
supplied with provisions for its inhabitants, if they re¬ 
mained any length of time, by their plundering and 
wanton destruction, it was often reduced to a state of 
desolation. Sometimes the king sent his servants to 
take what they wanted from the fields or gardens of the 
people; but often, unauthorized by him, they used his 
name to commit the most lawless and injurious depre¬ 
dations upon the property of the inhabitants; whose 
lives were endangered, if they offered the least resist¬ 
ance. 
3 Iahamene, a native of Raiatea, gave, at a public meet¬ 
ing in that island, the following account of their lawless 
plunder. These teuteu,” (servants of the king,) said he, 
would enter a house, and commit the greatest depreda¬ 
tions. The master of the house would sit as a poor 
captive, and look on, without daring to say a word.— 
They would seize his bundle of cloth, kill his largest 
pigs, pluck the best bread-fruit, take the largest taro, 
