also at Hamoa (the Navigator's Island). Some of the Fiji people believe it: the Hamoa people. doubt it very much; and the generality of the Tonga people deny it altogether.

The natives of the Tonga Islands have a traditionary story respecting the origin of turtles; and as we are here discoursing about their notions of the world, which in some measure involve their knowledge of natural history, it ought properly to be told in this place. A considerable time after the existence of mankind at Tonga, a certain god, who lived in the sky, and whose name was Langi, received a command from the superior gods of Bolotoo to attend a grand conference, shortly to be held at the latter place, on some point of universal importance. Now it happened that the god Langi had several children; * among others, two daughters, beautiful young goddesses, who were of an age in which vanity and the desire to be admired was beginning to be a very strong passion, and consequently they had often expressed their wish to see the islands of Tonga, and to visit the people that dwelt there; but their father was too wise readily to give his consent. Business of importance, however, now demanded his absence from the sky; but being fearful that his inexperienced daughters might in the mean time descend to Tonga, he gave them the strictest commands not to leave their celestial residence till his return; and as a motive for their obedience, he promised

* It would appear from this that the gods are supposed to have children; nevertheless Mr Mariner believes that this is not consistent with the general opinion of the natives.

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to conduct them, when he came back, to Tonga, and gratify their wish with safety to themselves. With a view to strengthen his injunctions, and better to ensure their compliance, he represented in lively colours the many dangers they would subject themselves to, by infringing upon his commands. In the first place, he told them that the Hotooa Pow, who resided at Tonga, would take every opportunity to molest them, and to throw difficulties and dangers in their way. Besides which, there were other evils of greater consequence to fear, for they were so beautiful (he told them) that the men of Tonga would furiously fight among themselves to obtain them for their wives, and that the quarrels occasioned by them would, no doubt, offend the superior gods of Bolotoo, and he (Langi) should thereby get into disgrace. The two goddesses having promised obedience to their father's orders, he descended with speed to Bolotoo. He had scarcely left the sky, when they began to reason together on what he had told them. One said to the other, our father has only promised to take us to Tonga that he may keep us here till he come back; for has he not often promised us the same thing, and never fulfilled his word? True, said the other; let us go to Tonga by ourselves for a little time, just to look at the máma people and we will return before he shall know any thing of it; besides, (said both of them together) has he not told us that we are more beautiful than the women of Tonga? Yes! let us go immediately to Tonga and be admired, for in the sky there are many other goddesses nearly as beautiful as ourselves, and we are scarcely noticed. Upon this they descended together to the island

of Tonga, and, having alighted in a lonely place, they walked towards the mooa, discoursing as they went on the homage that was soon to be paid to their charms. When they arrived at the mooa, they found the king and all his chiefs and principal people engaged in some grand ceremony of rejoicing, and were 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 showing 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 al 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 immediately, with great indignation, charged poor Langi with being the cause of these disturbances. This god said in his de

* It is not the least remarkable trait in the character of the Tonga people, that on almost all occasions they show 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.

fence, 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, severed her head from her body. The head he threw into the sea, then 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, 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 are 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 n 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 attribute 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 aeriform 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 etherial part of man. As to the word loto, though it may be sometimes used for this purpose, 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