104 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
before their subjects, whenever they left their 
hereditary district. The effect must have been 
somewhat imposing, when, on public occasions, 
vast multitudes were assembled, and their sove¬ 
reign, thus elevated above every individual, ap¬ 
peared among them. Of the dignity it conferred, 
the natives themselves appear to have formed no 
inferior idea. It is said that Pomare II. once 
remarked, that he thought himself a greater man 
than king George, who only rode a horse, while 
he rode on a man. 
In our different journeys and voyages among 
the islands, where there have been but few means 
of crossing a stream without fording it, or of land¬ 
ing from a boat or canoe without wading some dis¬ 
tance in the water, we have often been glad to be 
carried, either across a river, or from the boat to 
the shore. On these occasions they have requested 
us to mount in ancient regal style. Though we 
generally preferred riding on their backs, and 
throwing our arms round their necks, we have, 
nevertheless, when the river has been deep, seated 
ourselves upon their shoulders, and in this position 
have passed the stream, without any other incon¬ 
venience than that which has arisen from the ap¬ 
prehension of losing our balance, and falling head¬ 
long into the water.—The inhabitants of Rurutu 
have a singular and less pleasant method of con¬ 
veying their friends from a boat, &c. to the shore. 
On the arrival of strangers, every man endeavours 
to obtain one as a friend, and carry him off to his 
own habitation, where he is treated with the 
greatest kindness by the inhabitants of the dis¬ 
trict ; they place him on a high seat, and feed him 
with abundance of the finest food. After an 
arrival from a strange island, when a man sees his 
