shall only mention, in a general way, in what these ceremonies chiefly consist. 1. The grand ceremony of ina'chi, which is performed once a year, (about the month of October,) and consists in offering the first fruits of the year to Tooitonga. It was supposed that if this ceremony were neglected, the vengeance of the gods would fall in a signal manner upon the people. 2. Peculiarity of his marriage ceremony. 3. Peculiarity of his burial ceremony. 4. Peculiarity of the mourning for his de cease. 5. Tooitonga is not circumcised, as all the other men are, unless he goes to foreign islands to undergo this ceremony; nor is he tattowed. 6. Peculiarities of speech, used in regard to Tooitonga; for instance, if the king or any chief but Tooitonga be sick, they say he is ténga tángi, but Tooitonga being sick, he is said to be booloo'hi: so with many other words that are used exclusively for him, and which will be noticed hereafter. These things are mentioned in this place, merely to afford an idea of the high veneration in which Teoitonga is held; for to whom but the greatest personage can such peculiari ties belong? Notwithstanding his high rank, however, he has comparatively but very little absolute power, which extends in a direct and positive manner only to his own family and attendants: as to his property, he has somewhat more than the generality of the nobles, but much less than the king, who by his arbitrary sovereignty can lay claim to almost any thing. Thus all that can be said in this place of Tooitonga is, that he is by far the greatest egi, having the credit of a high divine original, and that all respect and veneration is therefore due to him. VEACHI', as mentioned before, is another egi of divine original, but far from being equal to Tooitonga. The king, indeed, avoids his presence, the same as he would that of Tooitonga, and always pays him the usual obeisance when he happens to meet him: but he has no peculiar marks of high respect shewn to him, as are shewn to Tooitonga; that is to say, no ceremonies that are, in themselves, peculiar and different from what are shewn to other chiefs by their inferiors. There is this one universal acknowledgment, however, viz. that he is a great chief descended from a god, that he is next in rank to Tooitonga, and superior to every other chief. His name has no known literal meaning that Mr. Mariner can discover. PRIESTS OF FAHE-GEHE. The term fahe-gehe means split off, separate, or distinct from, and is applied to signify a priest, or man, who has a peculiar or distinct sort of mind or soul, differing from that of the generality of mankind, which disposes some god occasionally to inspire him. These inspirations, of which an account has been given vol. i. p. 105, frequently happen, and on such occasions the priest has the same deference and respect shewn to him as if he were the god himself; if the king happen to be present, he retires to a respectful distance, and sits down among the body of the spectators, so would Veachi', and so would even the high divine chief Tooitonga, because a god is believed to exist at that moment in the priest, and to speak from his mouth: but at other times a priest has no other respect paid to him than what his own proper family rank may require. They generally belong to the lower order of chiefs, or to the matabooles, though sometimes great chiefs are thus visited by the gods, and the king himself has been inspired by Tali-y-toobo, the chief of the gods. During the time a priest is inspired he is looked on with more or less veneration, according to the rank of the god that inspires him. But more upon this subject under the head of religion. The civil ranks of society may be thus divided; How, or KING; EGI, or NOBLES; MATABOOLES; MOOAS, and TooAs. The How, or KING, is an arbitrary monarch, deriving his right to the throne partly from hereditary succession, and partly from military power, which latter he is occasionally obliged to exert to secure himself in the former. His power and influence over the minds of the people is derived from the following circumstances; viz., hereditary right; supposed protection of the gods, if he is the lawful heir; his reputation as a warrior; the nobility of his descent; and lastly, but not leastly, the strength and number of his fighting men. He, of course, possesses the greatest power of any individual but, in respect to rank, as before observed, he is differently circumstanced. In this last particular, not only Tooitonga, Veachi, and priests actually inspired, are superior to him, but even several other nobles are higher in rank, not as to office or power, but as to blood, or descent, for nobility consists in being related either to Tooitonga, Veachi, or the How, and the nearer any family is related to them, the nobler it is; those related to Tooitonga being nobler than those equally related to Veachi, and those related to this latter being more noble than those equally related to the How. Hence it appears that there must be many egies more noble even than the king himself, and to such the king, meeting them, must shew the same marks of respect as are usual from an inferior to a superior and if he were to touch any thing personally belonging to the superior chief, as himself, or his garments, or the mat on which he sleeps, he becomes tabooed, as it is termed, or under the prohibition to feed himself with his own hands; or, if he does, it is at the risk of becoming diseased, or suffering some other calamity from the gods as a punishment: but from this taboo he can readily free himself, by performing the ceremony of móe"-móe, which consists in touching, with both hands, the feet of the superior chief, or of one equal to him: but more of these ceremonies in their proper place. EGI, or NOBLES. All those persons are egi, or nobles, or chiefs (for we have used these terms synonymously), who are any way related either to the family of Tooitonga, or Veachi, or the How and all, and nobody else but chiefs, have the privilege of freeing people from the taboo, under circumstances, and in the manner related in the above paragraph, Tooitonga |