POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
449 
nuisance in most of the settlements. Disputes are not 
frequent among the natives, but they arise as often on 
account of the depredations of their dogs and hungry 
pigs, as from any other cause. Neither their dogs nor 
swine are confined, but prowl about the districts, destroy¬ 
ing numbers of fowls, kids, and young pigs. Several 
instances have occurred, in which children have been 
attacked and injured by savage and hungry swine. 
Under such circumstances formerly, redress would have 
been sought, or vengeance taken, with the club or the 
spear. To diminish the number of useless animals, and 
to secure greater care over others, the twenty-first regu¬ 
lation was made, which rendered the owners in some 
degree responsible for any mischief they might occasion. 
Such was the population of the islands formerly, that 
every bread-fruit and cocoa-nut tree had its respective 
owner; and a single tree, it is said, had sometimes two 
proprietors. Subsequently, however, extensive clusters 
or groves of trees were to be met with, having no other 
owner than the chief of the district in which they grew. 
The fruit of these, it was formerly their practice to gather 
in its season, wdthout asking the consent of any one. 
The proprietor of the land could at any time appropriate 
to his own use any number of the trees, by affixing 
such marks as were indications that they were rahueia, 
or prohibited. This practice being connected with cer¬ 
tain idolatrous ceremonies, was discontinued with the 
abolition of the system. As the population increased, 
the people became more careful of their trees, and the 
practice of gathering promiscuously the fruit from 
those trees not enclosed, appeared generally undesirable. 
There are, however, a number of persons at most of the 
. settlements, who have scarcely any other sources whence 
n. 3 M 
