SINGULAR ORDER OE PRECEDENCE. 99 
union was invariably destroyed, to preserve the 
distinction of the reigning families. 
The king was supreme, and next to him the 
queen. The brothers of the king, and his parents, 
were nearest in rank, the other members of the 
family taking precedence according to their de¬ 
grees of consanguinity. The regal office is here¬ 
ditary, and descends from the father to the eldest 
son: it is not, however, confined to the male sex ; 
these islands have often been governed by a queen. 
Oberea was the queen of Tahiti when it was dis¬ 
covered by Wallis; and Aimata, the daughter of 
Pomare II., now exercises the supreme authority in 
Tahiti and Eimeo : the daughter of the king of 
Raiatea is also the nominal sovereign of the island 
of Huahine. 
The most singular usage, however, connected 
with the established law of primogeniture, which 
obtained in the islands, was the father’s abdication 
of the throne on the birth of his son. This was an 
invariable, and it appears to have been an ancient 
practice. If the rank of the mother was inferior / 
to that of the father, the children, whether male or 
female, were destroyed ; but if the mother origi¬ 
nally belonged to the hui arii, or had been raised 
to that elevation on her marriage with the king, 
she was regarded as the queen of the nation. 
Whatever might be the age of the king, his in¬ 
fluence in the state, or the political aspect of affairs 
in reference to other tribes, as soon as a son was 
born, the monarch became a subject—the in¬ 
fant was at once proclaimed the sovereign of the 
people—the royal name was conferred upon him, 
and his father was the first to do him homage, by 
saluting his feet, and declaring him king. The 
herald of the nation was then despatched round 
h 2 
