is sure to be made the cook, and as it were servant to the rest.

The following then will be the order in which the different professions stand as to the respect they may command in society. All individuals are not, however, esteemed according to their profession, but according to their abilities in it; for a clever man in one art will be sometimes more esteemed than a man of moderate abilities in a higher. In this arrangement the cooks are placed before the peasants, because the cooks of chiefs generally have to overlook them.

Property in these islands, as may easily be conjectured, consists principally in plantations, houses, and canoes; and the right of succession to it is regulated by the order of relationship, as

given under the head of Nobles, so in like manner is the right of succession to the throne.

Having now given a view of the rank of individuals in society, with reference to religion, civil government, and professional occupations, we have now to consider it in respect to old age, sex, and childhood.

Old persons of both sexes are highly reverenced on account of their age and experience, insomuch that it constitutes a branch of their first moral and religious duty, viz. to reverence the gods, the chiefs, and aged persons; and, consequently, there is hardly any instance in these islands of old age being wantonly insulted. Women have considerable respect shown to them on account of their sex, independent of the rank they might otherwise hold as nobles. They are considered to contribute much to the comforts and domestic happiness of the other sex, and, as they are the weaker of the two, it is thought unmanly not to show them attention and kind regard; they are therefore not subjected to hard labour, or any very menial work. Those that are nobles rank like the men according to the superiority of their relationship. If a woman, not a noble, is the wife or daughter of a mataboole, she ranks as a mataboole; if she be a noble, she is superior in rank to him, and so are the children, male and female; but in domestic matters she submits entirely to his arrangements. Notwithstanding this, however, she never loses the respect from her husband due to her rank, that is to say, he is obliged to perform the ceremony of móë-moë before he can feed himself. If the husband and wife are both nobles of equal rank, the ceremony of moë-moë is dispensed with; but where there is

standing. Thus, Mafi Habe, one of the wives of Finow, father of the present king, was Mr Mariner's foster-mother, appointed by the king, her husband. To this person Mr Mariner feels himself greatly indebted for a considerable portion of his intimate knowledge of the language and true customs of Tonga, in contradistinction to words and customs introduced from other islands. She would frequently take the greatest pains in teaching him the correct Tonga pronunciation, and would laugh him out of all little habits and customs, in dress, manners, and conversation, that were not strictly according to the Tonga fashion, or not considered sufficiently polished and becoming an, egi (noble). In all respects, and on every occasion, she conducted herself towards him with maternal affection, modesty, and propriety. She was a woman of great understanding, personal beauty, and amiable manners.

If a young girl is betrothed, or set apart to be the wife or concubine of a noble higher in rank than herself, she derives more respect on that account, independent of what is due to her own proper rank. The women employ themselves (particularly nobles) in making a variety of articles, chiefly ornamental; these employments, however, are considered accomplishments, not professions. Some of the higher class of women not only make these employments an amusement, but actually make a sort of trade of it, without prejudice to their rank; which is what the lower class of women could not do, because what they make is not their own property, but is done by the order of their superiors. The highest accomplishments

any difference, the inferior must perform this ceremony, to be freed from the taboo. If a woman marries a man higher in rank than herself, she always derives additional respect on that account; but a man having a wife who is a greater noble than himself, acquires no additional respect from this source, but he has the advantage of her larger property.

It is a custom in the Tonga islands for women to be what they call mothers to children or grown up young persons who are not their own offspring, for the purpose of providing them, or seeing that they are provided with all the conveniences of life. This is often done, although their own natural mothers be living, and residing near the spot, -no doubt for the sake of greater care and attention, or to be afterwards a substitute for the true parent, in the event of her premature death; but the original intention seems not now understood; for it happens sometimes, that a young man having both his natural mother and a wife living, will take it in his head to have an adopted mother, whom he regards the same as his natural parent. If a woman is the foster-mother to a person superior to herself, which is mostly the case, she acquires no additional respect from this source in society, though the adopted person be ever so great a noble; but if a woman be an attendant upon a person of consequence, some respect always accrues to her on that account, because it is a thing publicly known, she forming a part of the retinue of the chief, and accompanying him every where; whereas, the relation in which a woman stands to her adopted son or daughter, is more a a matter of private agreement and mutual under