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to take off the taboo which his superior rank has imposed upon his inferior associates: in some of his country excursions, he, perhaps, meets with two or three of the sons of tooas, who by their strength and agility in wrestling, or bravery in boxing, or some other ostensible quality, recommend themselves to his notice, and therefore become also his companions. Thus they grow up in years together, and as the young chief approaches towards manhood, he does not exact, but he receives, with more or less affability, the respect and attention which his inferior associates readily pay him, and who now may be termed his cow-tangata, i. e. associates, supporters and defenders of his cause. He has not yet, however, any matabooles in his train, for all these are in the immediate service of the old chief, and the son of a mataboole cannot be a mataboole till his father is dead, and then he would not perform the functions of a mataboole, unless he were grown to man's estate, and even then he would not be in the service of the younger chief, but of the elder. By and by the old chief dies, and the young one succeeds to his authority, and all the matabooles of his father become his matabooles, and the inferior chiefs and mooas also enter his service in addition to those he

had before; and though several of them upon this change may choose to retire to their plantations, they are, nevertheless, in his service whenever he may call upon them. In this order of things it happens, generally, that young superior chiefs have, for the most part, old matabooles, and, as they grow older, they begin to have younger matabooles, who succeed their deceased fathers.

In respect to the tooas, they may be subdivided into three ranks, viz. those few who are warriors, and are part of the cow-tangata of chiefs; those who are professed cooks, in the service of chiefs; and those who till the ground. The latter live entirely in the country with their wives and families, and occupy themselves wholly in cultivating the land: their wives and daughters make gnatoo, mats, &c., but never till the ground, nor do any hard work.

The natives of Fiji, Hamoa, and the Sandwich islands, who were resident at Tonga, used to say that it was not a good practice of the people of the latter place to let their women lead such easy lives; the men, they said, had enough to do in matters of war, &c. and the women ought therefore to be made to work hard and till the ground: no, say the Tonga

men, it is not gnále fafi'ne (consistent with the feminine character), to let them do hard work; women ought only to do what is feminine: who loves a masculine woman? besides, men are stronger, and therefore it is but proper that they should do the hard labour. It seems to be a peculiar trait in the character of the Tonga people, when compared with that of the other natives of the South Seas*, and with savage nations in general, that they do not consign the heaviest cares and burdens of life to the charge of the weaker sex; but, from the most generous motives, take upon themselves all those laborious or disagreeable tasks which they think inconsistent with the weakness and delicacy of the softer sex. Thus the women of Tonga, knowing how little their own sex in other islands are respected by the men, and how much better they themselves are treated by their countrymen, and feeling at the same time, from this and other causes, a patriotic

• If there is any exception to this in the South Seas, it is with the natives of Otaheite, but there neither men nor women work hard: the natives of the latter place appear altogether a soft effeminate race, strongly addicted to voluptuous habits; whilst in Tonga the men are of a more noble and manly character, and the women considerably more reserved..

sentiment joined to their natural reserve, seldom associate with foreigners. Thus when

the Port au Prince arrived at the Sandwich islands, the ship was crowded with women ready to barter their personal favours for any trinkets they could obtain; but how different at Lefooga! where only one woman came on board, and she was one of the lower order, who was in a manner obliged to come by order of a native, to whom she belonged as a prisoner of war, and who had been requested by one of the officers of the ship to send a female on board. Captain Cook, also, strongly notices the reserve and modesty of the females of these islands; and the observations of this accurate narrator will serve to corroborate what we have been stating. We have already noticed the humane character of the Tonga females, and in addition we beg to observe, that their behaviour as daughters, wives, and mothers, is very far from being unworthy of imitation: children, consequently, are taken the utmost care of; they are never neglected either in respect to personal cleanliness or diet: as they grow older, the boys are made to exercise themselves in athletic sports; the girls are made occasionally to attend to the acquirement of suitable arts and manufactures, and of a

number of little ornamental accomplishments which tend to render them agreeable companions, and proper objects of esteem: they are taught to plait various pretty and fanciful devices in flowers, &c. which they present to their fathers, brothers, and superior chiefs, denoting respect for those who fill higher circles than themselves. There is still one observation to be made in respect to females, and which is not of small importance, since it tends to prove that the women are by no means slaves to the men; it is, that the female chiefs are allowed to imitate the authority of the men, by having their cow-fafi'ne, as the male chiefs have their cow-tangata: their cow-fafi'ne consists of the wives and daughters of inferior chiefs and matabooles, and it may be easily conceived that such an association tends to support their rank and independence.

The subject we are now treating of naturally leads us to speak of the more domestic habits and manners of the people; but these may be considered in two points of view; first, on the grand and extensive scale, such as they are presented to foreigners, by way of shewing themselves off to the best advantage; and secondly, in their more familiar, true, and unreserved state. In respect to the first, it would

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