Their orders are, earee rahie, which answers to king; earee, baron; manahouni, vassal; and toutou, villain.  The earee rahie, of which there are two in this island, one being the sovereign of each of the peninsulas of which it consists, is treated with great respect by all ranks, but did not appear to us to be invested with so much power as was exercised by the earees in their own districts; nor indeed did we, as we have before observed, once see the sovereign of Obereonoo while we were in the island.  The earees are lords of one or more of the districts into which each of the peninsulas is divided, of which there may be about one hundred in the whole island; and they parcel out their territories to the manahounies, who cultivate each his part which he holds under the baron.  The lowest class, called toutous, seem to be nearly under the same circumstances as the villains in feudal governments:  These do all the laborious work, they cultivate the land under the manahounies, who are only nominal cultivators for the lord, they fetch wood and water, and, under the direction of the mistress of the family, dress the victuals; they also catch the fish.

Each of the eares keeps a kind of court, and has a great number of attendants, chiefly the younger brothers of their own tribe; and among these some hold particular offices, but of what nature exactly we could not tell.  One was called the Eowa no l’Earee, and another the Whanno no l’Earee, and these were frequently dispatched to us with messages.  Of all the courts of these eares, that of Tootahah was the most splendid, as indeed might reasonably be expected, because he administered the government for Outou, his nephew, who was earee rahie of Obereonoo, and lived upon his estate.  The child of the baron or earee, as well as of the sovereign or earee rahie, succeeds to the title and honours of the father as soon as it is born:  So that a baron, who was yesterday called earee, and was approached with the ceremony of lowering the garments, so as to uncover the upper part of the body, is to day, if his wife was last night delivered of a child, reduced to the rank of a private man, all marks of respect being transferred to the child, if it is suffered to live, though the father still continues possessor and administrator of his estate:  Probably this custom has its share, among other inducements, in forming the societies called Arreoy.[35]

[Footnote 35:  What renders this opinion the more probable, is the circumstance of these societies being generally made up of the nobles.  But it is certain, that the inhuman practice of child-murder is not confined to the Arreoys.  “It is the common practice,” says the missionary account, “among all ranks, to strangle infants the moment they are born,” To the same work we are indebted for some particulars respecting the division of ranks in Otaheite, which do not quite accord with the statement in the text.  The difference is indeed very immaterial,