y of the most civilized nations have
ever exceeded this people in the great order observed on all occasions,
in ready compliance with the commands of their chiefs; and in the
harmony that subsists throughout all ranks, and unites them, as if they
were all one man, informed with, and directed by the same principle.
Such a behaviour is remarkably obvious, whenever it is requisite that
their chiefs should harangue any body of them collected together, which
is frequently done. The most profound silence and attention is observed
during the harangue, even to a much greater degree than is practised
amongst us, on the most interesting and serious deliberations of our
most respectable assemblies. And whatever might have been the subject of
the speech delivered, we never saw an instance, when any individual
present shewed signs of his being displeased, or that indicated the
least inclination to dispute the declared will of a person who had a
right to command. Nay, such is the force of these verbal laws, as I may
call them, that I have seen one of their chiefs express his being
astonished, at a person's having acted contrary to such orders, though
it appeared, that the poor man could not possibly have been informed in
time to have observed them.[190]

[Footnote 190: Cantava gives us the same account of the profound
submission of the Caroline islanders, to the orders of the _Tamole_.
"Ils recoivent ses ordres avec le plus profond respect. Ses paroles sont
autant d'oracles, qu' on revere."--_Lettres Edifiantes & Curieuses_,
tom. xv. p. 312.--D.]

Though some of the more potent chiefs may vie with the king in point of
actual possessions, they fall very short in rank, and in certain marks
of respect, which the collective body have agreed to pay the monarch. It
is a particular privilege annexed to his sovereignty, not to be
punctured nor circumcised, as all his subjects are. Whenever he walks
out, every one whom he meets must sit down till he has passed. No one is
allowed to be over his head; on the contrary, all must come under his
feet, for there cannot be a greater outward mark of submission, than
that which is paid to the sovereign, and other great people of these
islands, by their inferiors. The method is this; the person who is to
pay obeisance, squats down before the chief, and bows the head to the
sole of his foot, which, when he sits, is so placed, that it can be
easily come at, and having tapped, or touched it with the under