Chapter I
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many elements and such shifting materials that nothing except the symbols could be reckoned upon as permanent. The name of Arii, or Ariirahi (head-chief) was much; the wearing of the Maro-tea or the Maro-ura was more; the seat in the Maraes was of great importance; the right to impose a Rahui or Taboo was essential; the power of calling the Tevas to conference or war was peculiar to the Papara head-chief; the military strength of the Tevas was irresistible if it could be united; but perhaps the most decisive part of every head-chief's influence was his family connection. Nowhere in the world was marriage a matter of more political and social consequence than in Tahiti. Women played an astonishing part in the history of the island. In the absence of sons, daughters inherited chieferies and property in the lands that went with the chief's names or titles, and these chiefesses in their own right were much the same sort of personages as female sovereigns in European history; they figured as prominently in island politics as Catherine of Russia, or Maria Theresa of Austria, or Marie Antoinette of France, or Marie Louise of Parma, in the politics of Europe. A chief-ess of this rank was as independent of her husband as of any other chief; she had her seat, or throne, in the Marae even to the exclusion of her husband; and if she were ambitious she might win or lose crowns for her children, as happened with Wallis's friend Oberea, our great-aunt Purea, and with her niece Tetuanui reiaiteatea, the mother of the first King Pomare.
The family connections of Papara extended almost round the island. The eight Teva districts, over which Papara had a sort of clan-headship, stretched from the Palisade of Taiarapu, at the extreme south of the island, to the border of Teoropaa, a large district lying next to Papara on the west coast. Teoropaa contained two divisions, now called Paea and Punaauia, covering some twenty miles of coast. Over these the family influence of Papara extended more decisively than over the outer Tevas of Taiarapu. Next beyond Punaauia came Faaa or Tefana i Ahurai, a very narrow district (the tail of the fish) and independent, though commonly allied with Papara. Turning the tail of the fish, the northwest corner of the island, next to Faaa came Pare, in
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Indigenous Histories |  |
© Derived from the revised Paris edition of 1901 page 10, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
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