"ment: you cannot therefore say, why do we "listen to the prattle of a boy? Recollect, I speak the sentiments of Toe Oomoo, Ooloo

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valoo, Afoo, Alo, Fotoo, and all the elders "of Vavaoo. But I again observe, that if any "among you have possessions at Hapai, or are "not content with your present situation, now "is the only opportunity to depart, for hence"forth there shall be no intercourse whatever "either with Hapai or Tonga: choose then "now your places of abode! There are Fiji,

Hamoa, Tonga*, Hapai, Fotoona, and Lo"tooma, for none shall remain at Hafoolo "How but those whose minds agree in keeping a lasting peace-not that I wish to

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suppress the courage of any warlike spirit, "Behold! the islands of Tonga and Fiji "are constantly at war; let him there display "his courage. Arise! go to your respective "habitations; and recollect, that to-morrow "the canoes depart for Hapait."

Finow, having finished his speech, got up and went to his house, accompanied by the * Meaning the island of Tonga, properly so called.

It is to be observed, that no phrase is used in this translation of Finow's speech but what is consistent with his own language: all the figures are the same; and as to the word behold, it is truly a proper translation of their phrase vacky' angi, look towards! and is most frequently used as an interjection, like our word behold!

sons of his chiefs and matabooles, who, together with his warriors, formed his retinue. After a repast, provided beforehand, he again. made an address, but in a more familiar and conversational way, on the advantages of cultivating land for one's own food, and eating the produce of one's own labour; and to strengthen his argument, he observed, that, hitherto in Tonga†, it had been the custom for those who formed the retinue of chiefs to subsist on the provision which those chiefs thought proper to share out to them from their own store and during the great famine (which happened many years before, while he was yet but a boy), he had remarked that more of these men (chiefs' dependants), had died than of the lower orders, who tilled the ground for their own support, as well as that of their chiefs, because they always found means to reserve food for themselves, however great might be the tax; while those who depended on the bounty of their chiefs got but a very scanty allowance. He then went on, "You do not "know how much pleasure such men feel

They often have cava rings where little is eaten, which was the case with that where he made the above speech; those who are fond of cava seldom eat much with it, conceiving that food destroys the genuine taste of it.

By Tonga, he here means the Friendly Islands at large.

“ when they view the work of their own hands “ thriving daily; and, whilst eating, when they "reflect that their labour has been repaid by "the increase of their stores: therefore let us "(chiefs, and attendants of chiefs), apply our“selves, as we have nothing else to do, to agri“culture: follow my example; I will order a “piece of ground to be cleared, and, during "the next rain, I will assist in planting it with "hiabo."

No other circumstances worthy of note happened during the twenty days concluding the burial ceremony. On the tenth day, those who were not relations of the deceased, nor constituted his household, wore a sort of half mourning; that is to say, under their mats they wore a piece of gnatoo, not to be seen, but merely to be more comfortable to the skin than the mats, which, on these occasions, are not of the finest texture. After the twentieth day they wore their ordinary dress, and went to their proper habitations; so did also the relations of the deceased, but then these wore mats for about two months afterwards, though with gnatoo under them.

We now come to speak of the transactions of the twentieth day, which concludes the whole ceremony.

Early in the morning of this day, all the relations of the deceased chief, together with those who formed his household, and also the women who were tabooed by having touched his dead body, whilst oiling and preparing it, went to the back of the island (without any particular order or ceremony) to procure a number of flat pebbles, principally white, but a few black, for which they made baskets on the spot to carry them in as before mentioned, when they went to procure sand. With these they returned to the grave, and strewed the inside of the house with the white ones, as also the outside about the fytoca, as a decoration to it: the black pebbles they strewed only upon the white ones, which covered the ground directly over the body, to about the length and breadth of a man, in the form of a very eccentric ellipsis. After this, the house over the fytoca was closed up at both ends with a reed fencing, reaching from the eaves to the ground, and, at the front and back, with a sort of basket-work, made of the young branches of the cocoa-nut tree, split and interwoven in a very curious and ornamental way, which remain till the next burial, when they are taken down, and, after the conclusion of the ceremony, new ones are put up in like manner. A large quan

tity of provisions was now sent to the marly by the chiefs of the different districts of the island, ready prepared and cooked; as also a considerable quantity prepared by Finow's own household: among these provisions was a good supply of cava root. After the chiefs, matabooles, and others, were all assembled, the provisions and cava were served out in the usual way. During this time no speech was made, nor did any particular occurrence take place. The company afterwards repaired each to his respective house, and got ready for a grand wrestling-match and entertainment of dancing the Méë too Buggi (literally, the dance, standing up with paddles. See second volume).

During the intervals of the dances, several matabooles, warriors, and others, ran before the grave, bruising and cutting their heads with clubs, axes, &c., as proofs of their fidelity to the late chief: among them, two boys, one about twelve, the other about fourteen years of age (sons of matabooles), made themselves very conspicuous in this kind of self infliction; the youngest in particular, whose father was killed in the service of the late chief, during the great revolution at Tonga, after having given his head two or three hard knocks, ran

VOL. I.

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