of Pomare.

"Sometimes after a battle the vanquished sent heralds to signify their
yielding and to know the wish of the victor; they disbanded their
troops, left their arms on the field, and the war was over. Usually
the defeated warriors were allowed to return home without more ado
after their confession of failure, but when the rage was great, the
victors, with furious cries, gave the signal of carnage, and slew
all they met. If the prince beaten escaped the first consequences
of the rout, he was safe and lost only a portion of his territory,
and in some wars only his prestige. He remained respected, and his
privileges were about the same as before. The Arii were all of the
same tribe, all related, and though they ruled different districts
and valleys, and fought one another, they would not degrade one of
their own family and rank. Thus power remained in the same families,
princes, chiefs, and priests, and only the Raatira and the Manahune,
the bourgeoisie and the commoners, really suffered.

"We copied you in Europe," I interposed. "There the kings, kaisers,
and czars took care not to lower the dignity of monarchy, and are
virtually all related. None of them ever deposed another of long
enthroning, and none of them has been killed in a battle in centuries."

"Aue!" exclaimed the chief. "Ioba said, 'Wisdom is no longer with
the old.'"

"Job talked like a revolutionist," I said. "That would be treason
among the diplomats and lawyers of Europe and America. How did women
get along in your father's day?"

Tetuanui got up to stretch his huge body. He had been squatting on
his haunches for an hour.

"Let Haamoura, my wife, say as to them," he returned laughingly. "She
knows all the old ways. I must see if the nets are to be stretched
to-day."

Mme. Tetuanui and I had a lengthy confabulation. No Tahitian was
better informed than she upon the former status of her sex in Tahiti,
and from her I gained a lively summary.

Woman was inferior among the old Tahitians. Man had here as everywhere
so ordained, and religion had fixed her position by taboos, as among
the Hebrews. She was often merely a servant, yet she maintained a
unique sex freedom. Her body was her own, and not her husband's as in
the English common law. She prepared the man's food and never sat at
meals with him. If she ate at the same time, which was seldom, she sat
at a distance, but near enough to hear his commands. It is so to-day
when Tahitian men gat