'mooas freely associate with the chiefs to whoni they belong; they are their necessary attendants at cava parties, &c. and form the bulk of their fighting men and followers: they not only associate freely with one another, but also with the followers of other high chiefs, and even with those high chiefs themselves, without any reserve, excepting the requisite ceremonies of respect which occasion may require.

Every high or governing chief has his cow nofo (those who settle or dwell with him), or, as they are sometimes called, cow-mea (adherents), who consist of inferior chiefs and matabooles: each of these inferior chiefs has his cow-tangata, or body of fighting men, consisting chiefly of mooas: the matabooles have no cow-tangata. The retinue, or cow-nofo, of a great chief, therefore, consists of inferior chiefs (with their cow-tangatas) and matabooles; and the retinue or cow-tangata of an inferior chief consists of mooas, and perhaps, also, a few tooas, who have been found brave fellows. A great number of these cow-nofo, perhaps about eighty or ninety, actually dwell in and near the superior chief's fencing (each fencing having many houses), whilst there are many others who sleep, and pass a great portion of their time at their own plantations; for

not only inferior chiefs, but also matabooles and mooas have plantations of their own: the matabooles, however, excepting, perhaps, two or three inspectors of the chief's plantations, dwell always in or near his fencing, as their presence is so often required by him for the regulation of different matters: with respect to the inferior chiefs, they generally live at their plantations; but the greater part, or, at least, about half of the mooas, dwell in the neighbourhood of the great chief, to whom they belong.

We shall now explain how these different individuals come to attach themselves to a particular chief. We will suppose that the present king or any other great chief has a son six or seven years of age, his playmates are the sons of the inferior chiefs, matabooles, and mooas of his father's establishment, who freely associate with him, accompany him upon excursions, and imitate, in many respects, the habits of their parents: he does not, however, designedly play the chief, and conduct himself with arrogance towards them; they know his superior rank without being reminded of it; and although they wrestle and box, and play all manner of games with him, they never fail before they eat to perform the ceremony of mo'e-mo'e,

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, aud 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,