When I consider the slight disparity
of condition among the islanders--the very limited and inconsiderable
prerogatives of the king and chiefs--and the loose and indefinite
functions of the priesthood, most of whom were hardly to be
distinguished from the rest of their countrymen, I am wholly at a loss
where to look for the authority which regulates this potent institution.
It is imposed upon something today, and withdrawn tomorrow; while its
operations in other cases are perpetual. Sometimes its restrictions only
affect a single individual--sometimes a particular family--sometimes
a whole tribe; and in a few instances they extend not merely over the
various clans on a single island, but over all the inhabitants of an
entire group. In illustration of this latter peculiarity, I may cite
the law which forbids a female to enter a canoe--a prohibition which
prevails upon all the northern Marquesas Islands.

The word itself (taboo) is used in more than one signification. It
is sometimes used by a parent to his child, when in the exercise
of parental authority he forbids it to perform a particular action.
Anything opposed to the ordinary customs of the islanders, although not
expressly prohibited, is said to be 'taboo'.

The Typee language is one very difficult to be acquired; it bears a
close resemblance to the other Polynesian dialects, all of which show a
common origin. The duplication of words, as 'lumee lumee', 'poee poee',
'muee muee', is one of their peculiar features. But another, and a more
annoying one, is the different senses in which one and the same word is
employed; its various meanings all have a certain connection, which
only makes the matter more puzzling. So one brisk, lively little word
is obliged, like a servant in a poor family, to perform all sorts of
duties; for instance, one particular combination of syllables expresses
the ideas of sleep, rest, reclining, sitting, leaning, and all other
things anywise analogous thereto, the particular meaning being shown
chiefly by a variety of gestures and the eloquent expression of the
countenance.

The intricacy of these dialects is another peculiarity. In the
Missionary College at Lahainaluna, on Mowee, one of the Sandwich
Islands, I saw a tabular exhibition of a Hawiian verb, conjugated
through all its moods and tenses. It covered the side of a considerable
apartment, and I doubt whether Sir William Jones himself would not have
despaired of mastering it.