The latter is not without a sense of his own abilities or of
the great service he has rendered to his native land. He felt himself
neglected; at the very moment when the cry for his elevation rang
throughout the group he thought himself made little of on Mulinuu; and he
began to weary of his part. In this humour, he was exposed to a
temptation which I must try to explain, as best I may be able, to
Europeans.
The bestowal of the great name, Malietoa, is in the power of the district
of Malie, some seven miles to the westward of Apia. The most noisy and
conspicuous supporters of that party are the inhabitants of Manono. Hence
in the elaborate, allusive oratory of Samoa, Malie is always referred to
by the name of _Pule_ (authority) as having the power of the name, and
Manono by that of _Ainga_ (clan, sept, or household) as forming the
immediate family of the chief. But these, though so important, are only
small communities; and perhaps the chief numerical force of the Malietoas
inhabits the island of Savaii. Savaii has no royal name to bestow, all
the five being in the gift of different districts of Upolu; but she has
the weight of numbers, and in these latter days has acquired a certain
force by the preponderance in her councils of a single man, the orator
Lauati.
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