SACREDNESS OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. 101 
It is not easy to trace the origin or discover the 
design of a usage so singular, and apparently of 
such high antiquity, among a people to whom it is 
almost peculiar. Its advantages are not very 
apparent, unless we suppose it was adopted by the 
father to secure to his son undisputed succession 
to his dignity and power. If this was the design, 
the plan was admirably adapted to its accomplish¬ 
ment ; for the son was usually firmly fixed in the 
government before the father's decease, and was 
sometimes called to act as regent for his own son, 
before, according to ordinary usage, he would him¬ 
self have been invested with royal dignity. 
Considering the inhabitants of the South Sea 
Islands as but slightly removed from barbarism, we 
are almost surprised at the homage and respect 
they paid to their rulers. The difference between 
them and the common people was, in many 
respects, far greater than that which prevails be¬ 
tween the rulers and the ruled in most civilized 
countries. Whether, like the sovereigns of the 
Sandwich Islands, they were supposed to derive 
their origin by lineal descent from the gods, or 
not, their persons were regarded as scarcely less 
sacred than the personifications of their deities. 
Every thing in the least degree connected with 
the king or queen—the cloth they wore, the 
houses in which they dwelt, the canoes in which 
they voyaged, the men by whom they were borne 
when they journeyed by land, became sacred— 
and even the sounds in the language, composing 
their names, could no longer be appropriated to 
ordinary significations. Hence, the original names 
of most of the objects with which they were 
familiar, have from time to time undergone con¬ 
siderable alterations. The ground on which they 
