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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: fell in abeyance, and he was dubbed instead by the expressive
byword, Taipi-Kikino - HIGHWATER MAN-OF-NO-ACCOUNT - or, Englishing
more boldly, BEGGAR ON HORSEBACK - a witty and a wicked cut. A
nickname in Polynesia destroys almost the memory of the original
name. To-day, if we were Polynesians, Gladstone would be no more
heard of. We should speak of and address our Nestor as the Grand
Old Man, and it is so that himself would sign his correspondence.
Not the prevalence, then, but the significancy of the nickname is
to be noted here. The new authority began with small prestige.
Taipi has now been some time in office; from all I saw he seemed a
person very fit. He is not the least unpopular, and yet his power
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