{"id":"01KG8AM5Y0K8GEY678PEB6XFCV","cid":"bafkreietdf3xy3ws2amf7mbe343la43edyi5xogzqounldubfc5dpf7ice","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8229,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.203Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":8170,"text":"venture to assert; but from all I saw during my stay in the valley, I\r\nwas induced to believe that in matters concerning the general welfare\r\nit was very limited. The required degree of deference towards them,\r\nhowever, was willingly and cheerfully yielded; and as all authority is\r\ntransmitted from father to son, I have no doubt that one of the effects\r\nhere, as elsewhere, of high birth, is to induce respect and obedience.\r\n\r\nThe civil institutions of the Marquesas Islands appear to be in this,\r\nas in other respects, directly the reverse of those of the Tahitian and\r\nHawaiian groups, where the original power of the king and chiefs was far\r\nmore despotic than that of any tyrant in civilized countries. At Tahiti\r\nit used to be death for one of the inferior orders to approach, without\r\npermission, under the shadow, of the king’s house; or to fail in paying\r\nthe customary reverence when food destined for the king was borne past\r\nthem by his messengers. At the Sandwich Islands, Kaahumanu, the gigantic\r\nold dowager queen--a woman of nearly four hundred pounds weight, and\r\nwho is said to be still living at Mowee--was accustomed, in some of her\r\nterrific gusts of temper, to snatch up an ordinary sized man who had\r\noffended her, and snap his spine across her knee. Incredible as this\r\nmay seem, it is a fact. While at Lahainaluna--the residence of this\r\nmonstrous Jezebel--a humpbacked wretch was pointed out to me, who, some\r\ntwenty-five years previously, had had the vertebrae of his backbone very\r\nseriously discomposed by his gentle mistress.\r\n\r\nThe particular grades of rank existing among the chiefs of Typee, I\r\ncould not in all cases determine. Previous to the Feast of Calabashes\r\nI had been puzzled what particular station to assign to Mehevi. But the\r\nimportant part he took upon that occasion convinced me that he had no\r\nsuperior among the inhabitants of the valley. I had invariably noticed a\r\ncertain degree of deference paid to him by all with whom I had ever seen\r\nhim brought in contact; but when I remembered that my wanderings had\r\nbeen confined to a limited portion of the valley, and that towards\r\nthe sea a number of distinguished chiefs resided, some of whom had\r\nseparately visited me at Marheyo’s house, and whom, until the Festival,\r\nI had never seen in the company of Mehevi, I felt disposed to believe\r\nthat his rank after all might not be particularly elevated.\r\n\r\nThe revels, however, had brought together all the warriors whom I had\r\nseen individually and in groups at different times and places. Among\r\nthem Mehevi moved with an easy air of superiority which was not to be\r\nmistaken; and he whom I had only looked at as the hospitable host of the\r\nTi, and one of the military leaders of the tribe, now assumed in my eyes\r\nthe dignity of royal station. His striking costume, no less than his\r\nnaturally commanding figure, seemed indeed to give him pre-eminence over\r\nthe rest. The towering helmet of feathers that he wore raised him\r\nin height above all who surrounded him; and though some others were\r\nsimilarly adorned, the length and luxuriance of their plumes were\r\ninferior to his.\r\n\r\nMehevi was in fact the greatest of the chiefs--the head of his clan--the\r\nsovereign of the valley; and the simplicity of the social institutions\r\nof the people could not have been more completely proved than by the\r\nfact, that after having been several weeks in the valley, and almost in\r\ndaily intercourse with Mehevi, I should have remained until the time of\r\nthe festival ignorant of his regal character. But a new light had now\r\nbroken in upon me. The Ti was the palace--and Mehevi the king. Both the\r\none and the other of a most simple and patriarchal nature: it must be\r\nallowed, and wholly unattended by the ceremonious pomp which usually\r\nsurrounds the purple.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJR1YH02P9Q4PCAN5J7F8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM5Y8HMHH9RQH5PVC0KTW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM5Y0CNRBK21H0J1DEQM9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:28.608Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:41.475Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}