century (the year would be about 1808). The little girl was removed from her father's house to another inside a fencing consecrated to Talie Tabu, the patron god of the kings of Tonga.

'Almost every morning a hog was killed, dressed, and presented before the house as an offering to the god, that he might spare her life for the sake of Finoo.' The divinity was thus invoked: 'Here thou seest assembled Finoo and his chiefs, and the principal matabooles of thy favoured land: thou seest them humbled before thee. We pray thee not to be merciless, but spare the life of the woman for the sake of her father who has always been attentive to every religious ceremony; but if thy anger is justly excited by some crime or misdemeanour committed by any other of us who are here assembled, we entreat thee to inflict on the guilty one the punishment he merits, and not to let go thy vengeance on one who was born but as yesterday. For our own parts, why do we wish to live but for the sake of Finoo? But if his family is afflicted, we are all afflicted, innocent as well as guilty. How canst thou be merciless? Dost thou not see here Finoo? And is not Afoo here, who descended from ancient Tonga chiefs, now in Bolotoo (or paradise)? And is not Fotoo here, and did he not descend from Moumoua, formerly king (or Tua) of Tonga? And is not A'lo here, and Nine'apo, and Too'bo?-then why art thou merciless? Have regard for Finoo, and save the life of his daughter.'

The funeral ceremonies of this child were remarkable for rejoicing signs instead of mourning being adopted at the conclusion of the rites, Mariner thinks

to insult the god who had robbed Finoo of his dearly loved one. After the body had been laid out and washed with oil and water, it was anointed with sandal-wood and oil, and then wrapped in fourteen or fifteen yards of fine East India muslin, which had belonged to the officers of the wrecked English ship which brought Mariner to Tonga. It was next laid in a large cedar chest, and over the body were strewn wreaths of bright flowers. The corpse lay in state for twenty days, after which it was deposited inside a house at the top of the grave, where the grieving father could always gaze at it. Combats of men and women, with the usual extravagant banquets of kava-drinking, wound up the first attempt at funeral reform in Tonga, for though the wives were rarely strangled at great persons' deaths as in Fiji, there was as a rule any quantity of demonstrative howling, and mutilations of arms, fingers, and toes were very common.

Finoo being taken ill himself shortly after the funeral, one of his illegitimate children was strangled as a sacrifice to the gods; but all in vain. He followed his little daughter in a very few days.

The ceremonies at his obsequies were of the usual South Pacific character. The chiefs paraded up and down with a wild and agitated step, spinning and whirling the club about, striking themselves with the edge of it two or three times violently upon the top and back of the head (the natives of Coral Lands know very well how to avoid the chief arteries), and then suddenly stopping, looking steadfastly at the instrument spattered with blood, and exclaiming :

'Alas, my club! who could have said that you would have done this kind office for me, and enabled me thus to evince a testimony of my respect for Finoo. Never, no, never, can you tear open the brains of his enemies! Alas! what a great and mighty warrior has fallen! O Finoo! cease to suspect my loyalty! be convinced of my fidelity! But what absurdity am I talking? If I had appeared treacherous in your sight, I should have met the fate of those numerous warriors who have fallen victims to your just revenge, but do not think, Finoo, that I reproach you: no, I wish only to convince you of my innocence, for who that has thoughts of harming his chiefs shall grow white-headed like me. O cruel gods! to deprive us of our father, of our only hope, for whom alone we wished to live! We have, indeed, other chiefs; but they are only chiefs in rank, and not like you, alas, great and mighty in war!'

Finoo was reckless and ambitious, a born ruler of men. Mariner says he would frequently burst out in speeches like the following:

'Oh that the gods would make me King of England! There is not an island in the whole world, however small, but what I would then subject to my power. The King of England does not deserve the dominions he enjoys; possessed of so many great ships, why does he suffer such petty islands as those of Tonga continually to insult his people with acts of treachery? Were I he, would I send tamely to ask for yams and pigs? No! I would come down with the front of battle, and with the thunder of Botolane [a Tongan name for the noise of the cannon]. I

would show who ought to be the chief. None but men of enterprising spirits should be in possession of guns. Let such rule the earth, and be those their vassals who can bear to submit to such insults unrevenged.'

Finoo would never listen to the arguments in favour of Christianity. He said its precepts would interfere with his absolute despotism. The first missionaries who landed in Tonga were all killed by the natives, the majority by order of the King, in consequence of an English runaway convict, who had settled in the island, having quarrelled with them over an iron pot, denouncing them to the natives as witchdoctors, and having introduced a mortality, then raging, for their own ends. This mission-hating murderer was as fine a specimen of the advanced anti-clerical party as I have ever heard of.

In the days of heathen Tonga, great importance was attached to the invocation of the gods and the inspiration of the priests. The night previous to the consultation of the oracle, the chief ordered his cooks to kill and prepare a hog, and procure a basket of yams, and two bunches of ripe plantains. These things being got ready, the next morning they were carried to the place where the priest resided. The chiefs and matabooles clothed themselves in mats, and repaired to the place where the priest was to be found; if at a house, the priest seated himself just within the eaves (the Tongan houses resemble the Samoan in being open all round, about four feet from the ground); if at a distance, he seated himself on any convenient

spot of ground, with the matabooles on either hand, so as to form a sort of a circle. In this space, at the bottom of the circle, sat the man who prepared the kava, the root being previously chewed by the cooks, attendants, and others who sat behind him; behind these again sat the chiefs among the people. The chiefs occupied this retired and humble station on account of the sacredness of the occasion, conceiving that such modest demeanour must be acceptable to the gods.

As soon as they were all seated, the priest was considered inspired, the god being supposed to exist within him, and speak through him from that minute. He sat for a considerable time in silence, with his hands clasped before him; his eyes were cast down, and he remained perfectly still. During the time that the victuals were being shared out, and the kava prepared, the matabooles sometimes used to begin to consult him; sometimes he would answer them, at other times not. In any case, he used to remain with his eyes cast down. Frequently he would not answer a word till the repast was finished and the kava also. When he did speak, he would begin in a very low and unnatural voice, which used gradually to rise to its natural pitch, and now and again a little above it. All that he said was supposed to be the inspiration of the god, and he spoke in the first person as if he were the god.

All this was done generally without any apparent emotion, but sometimes his countenance became fierce and his whole frame agitated with inward feeling: he was seized with a universal trembling, the per

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