440 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
of the pig, that he may be tried according to Law III. The same course 
shall be adopted in all petty offences: but for murder, theft, rebellion, &c* 
and all great crimes, it is proper to secure (the offender.) Let not the 
confinement be long before the person is brought to trial. One, two, or 
three days will be sufficient. Let it not be longer. 
5. When petty offences are committed, the district magistrates shall try 
the offenders; but in all great crimes, the judges and the jury shall as¬ 
semble in one place for the trial. 
6. When a man is tried by a district magistrate, and sentenced by him, 
if the person sentenced think that the judge has been irritated with him^ 
and has increased his punishment; if (from these considerations) he shall 
say—1 will go to the chief-judge and the jury to be tried, it is right that 
he do so. They shall both go before the supreme judge and a jury, to be 
tried. 
7. When a man is tried, convicted, and sentenced by the jury and judge, 
he shall not be maltreated, as by beating with a stick, piercing with a 
spear, or enduring any other savage practice. It shall not be practised. 
The punishment appropriate shall be adjudged. 
8. When a man is convicted of any great crime by the judge and the 
jury, and they unanimously think that he deserves punishment; then the 
judge shall write on a paper his crime, and his own and the jury’s deci¬ 
sion on which he has been sentenced. This shall be taken to the king, 
and if the king approves of their decision, he shall write upon a paper 
brought by the judge. “ It is fully approved,” and write his own name 
underneath, then shall the punishment be inflicted on such offender. If 
the king desire to mitigate the sentence, he may do so, but cannot in¬ 
crease it. 
The names of the judges, magistrates, and messengers, 
or police officers, for Huahine and Sir Charles Sander’s 
Island, follow this last regulation, and close the first 
official document issued by the government of these 
islands-—and, next to the sacred writings, the most bene¬ 
ficial ever promulgated among the people. 
I have endeavoured to give a correct and even servile 
translation of this important publication. The idiom 
and peculiar phraseology of the original, I have almost 
invariably retained, rather than sacrifice fidelity to im¬ 
provement of style. In some respects I have wished 
