University of Virginia Library

THE KING EXERCISED ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY

over the lives and property of his subjects. He could place a "taboo" (we get that word from the Hawaiian) upon land, or article, or person, and it was death for any man to walk on the ground or touch the article, or speak to the person "tabooed." And this King, Kamehameha, who died the other day, never had ceased to chafe at the restrictions on the unusual power of his ancestors, as brought about by and through the laws and constitution promulgated by the American missionaries.

Next after the King, at least in authority, came the priests of the old superstitions. And they regulated "Church affairs"—that is, they declared the human sacrifices, they captured the victims and butchered them.