122 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
service, but a portion of the produce of their lands, 
and personal labour whenever required. 
Whenever a measure affecting' the whole of the 
inhabitants was adopted, the king’s vea , or mes¬ 
senger, was despatched with a bundle of niaus , or 
leaflets. On entering a district, he repaired to the 
habitation of the principal chiefs, and, presenting 
a cocoa-nut leaf, delivered the orders of the king. 
The acceptance of the leaf was a declaration of 
their compliance with the requisition, and to 
decline taking it was regarded as an intima¬ 
tion of hostility to the measure proposed.— 
Hence the messenger or herald, when he had 
travelled round the island, reported to the king, 
who had received and who had refused the niau. 
When the chiefs approved of the message, they 
sent their own messengers to their respective 
tenants and dependants, with a cocoa-nut leaf for 
each, and the orders of the king. 
The niau, or leaflet of the cocoa-nut tree, was 
the emblem of authority throughout the whole of 
the Georgian and Society Islands; and requisi¬ 
tions for property or labour, preparations for war, 
or the convocation of a national assembly, were 
formerly made by sending the cocoa-nut leaf to 
those whose service or attendance was required. 
To return or refuse the niau was to offer an insult 
to the king, and to resist his authority. 
If the king felt himself strong enough, he would 
instantly banish such an individual, and send 
another to take possession of his lands, and oc¬ 
cupy his station as chief of the district. Should 
the offender have been guilty of disobedience to 
the just demands of the king, though the lands 
might be his hereditary property, he must leave 
them, and become, as the people expressed it, a 
