REVENUE AND LAWS, 
419 
enters it, the chiefs and the people of the neigh¬ 
bourhood repair thither, to pay their respects, and 
present their gifts. Custom obliges every chief to 
appear on such occasions, or expose himself to the 
imputation of being disaffected; and no one is 
allowed to enter without a present of money. The 
amount is proportioned to their rank, or the land 
they hold. Some chiefs, on such occasions, give 
sixty dollars, others ten or five, and some only 
one. 
A short time before his embarkation for Eng¬ 
land, a large native house was built for Rihoriho, 
at Honoruru, in the island of Oahu. During three 
days after the king went into it, the people came 
with their gifts. No individual, not even the 
queens, entered the house without presenting the 
king a sum of money; several gave upwards of fifty 
dollars; and we saw more than two thousand dol¬ 
lars received in one day. A similar tax was also 
levied by Kuakini, the governor at Kairua, when 
he first entered a handsome framed house, recently 
erected there. 
Until the establishment of a Christian Mission 
among them, the Sandwich Islanders had no re¬ 
cords, and, consequently, no written laws. There 
is, however, a kind of traditionary code, a number 
of regulations which have been either promulgated 
by former kings, or followed by general consent, 
respecting the tenure of lands, right of property, 
personal security, and exchange or barter, which 
are well understood, and usually acted upon. The 
portion of personal labour due from a tenant to his 
chief is fixed by custom, and a chief would be 
justified in banishing the person who should refuse 
it when required ; on the other hand, were a chief 
to banish a man who had lendered it, and paid 
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