grand ceremony of rejoicing, and were then drinking their cava. The moment they arrived all eyes were turned upon them, and all hearts, except those that envied, were filled with admiration and love. The young chiefs vied with each other in shewing them the most signal attentions; they already began to be jealous of each other; they left off drinking cava, and the whole assembly was put in confusion. At length the young men began to quarrel among themselves, but the king, to settle all disputes, by virtue of his superior power took them home to his own residence: the sun had scarcely set, however, before certain chiefs, with a strong armed force, rescued them from the king's house: the whole island was soon in a state of confusion and alarm, and early the following morning a bloody war was commenced. In the mean time the gods of Bolotoo heard what was going forward at Tonga, and they imme

*It is not the least remarkable trait in the character of the Tonga people, that on almost all occasions they shew very marked attention to females; and we believe that among all the different clusters of islands in the South Seas, the natives of these are singular in this respect. The women of Tonga are not obliged to labour to procure the necessaries of life for their idle husbands: the men work; the women do chiefly those offices that are requisite for domestic comfort, and for the promotion of health and cleanliness.

diately with great indignation charged poor Langi with being the cause of these disturbances: this god said in his defence, that he had ordered his daughters to remain at home, but unfortunately they were disobedient children. He immediately left the synod of gods, and flew with all speed to Tonga, where he found that one of his daughters, by having eaten of the productions of the place, had deprived herself of immortality, and was already dead. The loss of his daughter enraged him to the utmost extreme; he sought for the other, and, seizing her by the hair, he severed her head from her body: the head he threw into the sea, and flew, with rage and disappointment, back to the sky. The head in a short time turned into a turtle, and was the origin and source of all the turtle now found in the world.

This story obtains almost universal credit at the Tonga islands; in consequence, turtles are considered as almost a prohibited food, at least very few will venture to eat them without first offering a portion to some god, or sending some to any chief that may be at hand and there áre many that will not eat turtle on any account, being fearful of its producing enlarged livers, or some such visceral complaint. It is

not supposed, however, to be so likely to have a bad effect upon great chiefs, as they approach so near in rank and character to the gods themselves.

Such are their principal notions respecting the origin of things. As to the first formation of the solid sky (as they deem it), or the island of Bolotoo, or the gods themselves, they pretend to form no idea, and never think of agitating the question, whether they are eternal, or whether they had a beginning, deeming all such speculations as vain and fruitless; for who, say they, can remember, or who has been there to see? They have no legends or tales that seem to resemble those of the Society islands, as related by Captain Cook.

Respecting the earth, their notion is, that it has a flat surface, ending abruptly, which the sky overarches. If you ask them why the sea does not run over, the answer will be, "How "can I tell? I have never been there to see; "there are rocks, or something to border it,

probably." With regard to the sun and moon, they pass through the sky, and come back some way, they know not how. As to the spots in the moon, they are compared to the figure of a woman sitting down and beating

gnatoo: when the moon is eclipsed, they at-tribute the phenomenon to a thick cloud passing over it: the same with the sun.

Respecting the human soul, in particular, they imagine it to be the finer or more æriform part of the body, and which leaves it suddenly at the moment of death; and it may be conceived to stand much in the same relation to the body as the perfume and more essential qualities of a flower do to the more solid substance which constitutes the vegetable fibre. They have no proper word to express this fine ætherial part of man: as to the word loto, though it may be sometimes used for this purpose, yet it rather means a man's disposition, inclination, passion, or sentiment. The soul is rather supposed to exist throughout the whole extension of the body, but particularly in the heart, the pulsation of which is the strength and power of the soul or mind. They have no clear distinction between the life and the soul, but they will tell you that the fotomanava (the right auricle of the heart) is the seat of life. They form no idea respecting the use of the brain, unless it be, perhaps, the seat of memory; (they have a distinct word for memory, manatoo): they derive this notion from the natural action of putting the hand to the

forehead, or striking the head gently when trying to remember any thing. The liver they consider to be the seat of courage, and they pretend to have remarked (on opening dead bodies), that the largest livers (not diseased), belong to the bravest men. They also say they have made another observation respecting this viscus, viz. that, in left-handed people, it is situated more on the left than on the right side; and, in persons that are ambi-dexter, it is placed as much on one side as on the other. They are very well acquainted with the situation of all the principal viscera.

They acknowledge that the tooas, or lower order of people, have minds or souls; but they firmly believe that their souls die with their bodies, and, consequently, have no future existence. The generality of the tooas, themselves, are of this opinion, but there are some that have the vanity to think they have immortal souls as well as matabooles and chiefs, and which will live hereafter in Bolotoo. There seems to be a wide difference between the opinions of the natives in the different clusters of the South Sea islands respecting the future existence of the soul. Whilst the Tonga doctrine limits immortality to chiefs, matabooles, and, at most, to mooas, the Fiji doctrine, with