Caste-system.—The list of the inhabitants of Bolotoo stops at a certain line of nobility. The people are the servants of the chiefs, and the servants of the chiefs have no share of enjoyment after death.
At this point, the mythology and the social constitution of the Polynesians act and react upon each other. Those who have no political rights in life, have no existence after death (or vice versâ); and the result is a system half caste, and half feudalism.
Whether the king or priest be paramount, depends upon their respective individual characters. There is room for the subtle brain as well as for the strong hand. So it is, as between king and chief. The vassalage is perfect or imperfect according to the strength of the parties. Whatever, however, may be the relative position of the king, the priest, or the chiefs, the people are sure of their thraldom; a thraldom to their immediate superior, the chief.
Add to these elements of social subordination and insubordination, the existence of tribes and the influence of descent. A family may be descended from some god that took an earthly island for his residence. This will give it a precedence even over the kings.
From the feeling of pedigree, and from the belief that the nobler families become spirits after death, we have the belief in ghosts, and the reverence for the dead. Whoever studies the details of the Polynesian creeds and traditions will find abundant instances of this; and in such detail they should be studied. To exhibit them (as has just been attempted) in a general point of view, can only be done by applying terms adapted to a different system, and, as such, only partially appropriate. It can only be done at the sacrifice of those special elements which give life and individuality to a description. Such, however, as it is, the previous sketch is the only one that could be admitted into a work like the present.
Beginning with the fourteenth degree S. L., the distribution of the Polynesian islands runs off in three different directions.
1. From west to east; i.e. from the Navigators' Islands to Easter Island.
2. North-east; to the Sandwich Islands in 20° N. L.
3. South-west; to New Zealand in 35° S. L.