mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i5-014

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caught in an affair with her countryman, death was her inev-
itable destiny.

During our stay, polygny was almost a general practice,
especially amond the nobles. The king had seven wives, the
governor of the island, a splendid man no older than 22 years,
the same number. No matter how much the missionaries opposed
this custom, it remained in force as before, although they
set themselves up as an example, assuring the inhabitants
that they lived extremely happily with one wife.

It was strange that the nobles of these islands differed
strikingly in their physique from the common people. The
common people were more of a middle size and lean. The nobles
were almost all of a gigantic height, and corpulent. To what
can be attributed this difference? To the laziness in which
they spend their life, or a completely unworried life?

The people were divided into only two classes, the no-
bility and the common people. The first descended from the
relatives of katsikoi or kings of former dynasties as well as
the present. Until Tameamea I, every island had its own king,
independent of the others, ruling the people in a completely
despotic way. Tameamea united all the islands under one scepter
and names the governors of the islands except one, Atosa,
which kept its king, who only paid tribute. The people con-
stituting the second class, although they were not real slaves,
however, had to work for the first ones without remuneration;
from them were taken sailors and soldiers constituting the
military force of these islands.