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Polynesian Researches

II. Concerning Theft

II. Concerning Theft

If a man steal one pig, four shall he bring as a recompense; for the owner of the pig two, for the king two. If he have no pigs, two single canoes, for the owner of the pig one, for the king one. If (he have) no canoes, bales or bundles of native cloth, two of them, if the tusks of the pig were growing up out of its mouth. Each bale shall contain one hundred fathoms (200 yards) of cloth, four yards wide. If a half-grown pig, five fathoms. If a small pig, twenty fathoms in the bale. For the owner of the pig one half, and for the king the other. If he have no cloth, arrow-root. If the pig stolen was a large one, forty measures. For a half-grown pig twenty measures, and for a small one ten. For the owner of the pig one part, for the king the other. Let the arrow-root of the king, and the owner of the pig, be equal. If not arrow-root, some other property. Thus let every thing stolen be paid for. Let four-fold be returned as a recompense, double for the king, and double for the owner. If he (the thief) have no property, let him be set to work on the lands of the person he has robbed. If he refuse, his land shall be the king's, and he shall wander on the road for an unlimited period. If the king restore him, he shall return to his land, if not (thus) restored he shall not return. The magistrates or judges shall award the punishment annexed to this crime in the laws, and that only. The judge shall not demand the value of the property from the relatives of the thief.”

∗A full-grown hog, of the largest size, is thus denominated.

†A measure contains five or six pounds weight.

‡The figurative term for banishment.

page 178

To this law, in the revision of the laws which took place in 1826, two or three particulars were added; one increasing the punishment with the repetition of the crime, and another expressly referring to those depredations in which burglary was committed, and a chest or box broken open.