nd
chief: born one of the great ones of his clan, he was sometimes
appointed its chief officer and conventional father; was loved, and
respected, and served, and fed, and died for implicitly, if he gave
loyalty a chance; and yet if he sufficiently outraged clan sentiment,
was liable to deposition. As to authority, the parallel is not so close.
Doubtless the Samoan chief, if he be popular, wields a great influence;
but it is limited. Important matters are debated in a fono, or native
parliament, with its feasting and parade, its endless speeches and
polite genealogical allusions. Debated, I say--not decided; for even a
small minority will often strike a clan or a province impotent. In the
midst of these ineffective councils the chief sits usually silent: a
kind of a gagged audience for village orators. And the deliverance of
the fono seems (for the moment) to be final. The absolute chiefs of
Tahiti and Hawaii were addressed as plain John and Thomas; the chiefs of
Samoa are surfeited with lip-honour, but the seat and extent of their
actual authority is hard to find.

It is so in the members of the state, and worse in the belly. The idea
of a sovereign pervades the air; the name we have; the thing we are not
so sure of. And the process of election to the chief power is a mystery.
Certain provinces have in their gift certain high titles, or _names_, as
they are called. These can only be attributed to the descendants of
particular lines. Once granted, each _name_ conveys at once the
principality (whatever that be worth) of the province which bestows it,
and counts as one suffrage towards the general sovereignty of Samoa. To
be indubitable king, they say, or some of them say,--I find few in
perfect harmony,--a man should resume five of these names in his own
person. But the case is purely hypothetical; local jealousy forbids its
occurrence. There are rival provinces, far more concerned in the
prosecution of their rivalry than in the choice of a right man for king.
If one of these shall have bestowed its name on competitor A, it will be
the signal and the sufficient reason for the other to bestow its name on
competitor B or C. The majority of Savaii and that of Aana are thus in
perennial opposition. Nor is this all. In 1881, Laupepa, the present
king, held the three names of Malietoa, Natoaitele, and Tamasoalii;
Tamasese held that of Tuiaana; and Mataafa that of Tuiatua. Laupepa had
thus a majority of suffrages; he held perhap