CHAP. XI.
EMPLOYMENTS OF THE WOMEN AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.—OF THE MEN.—AGRICULTURE.—CONSTRUCTION OF THEIR HOUSES.—THEIR WORKING TOOLS.—CORDAGE, AND FISHING IMPLEMENTS.—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.—WEAPONS.—FOOD AND COOKERY.—AMUSEMENTS.—MARRIAGE.—MOURNING CEREMONIES FOR THE DEAD.—THEIR DIVINITIES.—NOTIONS ABOUT THE SOUL AND A FUTURE STATE.—THEIR PLACES OF WORSHIP.—GOVERNMENT.—MANNER OF PAYING OBEISANCE TO THE KING.—ACCOUNT OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.—REMARKS ON THEIR LANGUAGE, AND A SPECIMEN OF IT.—NAUTICAL AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS.
Their domestic life is of that middle kind, neither so laborious as to be disagreeable, nor so vacant as to suffer them to degenerate into indolence. Nature has done so much for their country, that the first can hardly occur, and their disposition seems to be a pretty good bar to the last. By this happy combination of circumstances, their necessary labour seems to yield in its turn to their recreations, in such a manner, that the latter are never interrupted by the thoughts of being obliged to recur to the former, till satiety makes them wish for such a transition.
The employment of the women is of the easy kind, and, for the most part, such as may be executed in the house. The manufacturing their cloth, is wholly consigned to their care. Having already described the process, I shall only add, that they have this cloth of different degrees of fineness. The coarser sort, of which they make very large pieces, does not receive the impression of any pattern. Of the finer sort they have some that is striped and chequered, and of other patterns differently coloured. But how these colours are laid on, I cannot say, as I never saw any of this sort made. The cloth in general will resist water for some time; but that which has the strongest glaze will resist longest.
The manufacture next in consequence, and also within the department of the women, is that of their mats, which excel every thing I have seen at any other place, both as to their texture and their beauty. In particular, many of them are so superior to those made at Otaheite, that they are not a bad article to carry thither by way of trade. Of these mats, they have seven or eight different sorts, for the purposes of wearing or sleeping upon, and many are merely ornamental. The last are chiefly made from the tough membraneous part of the stock of the plantain tree; those that they wear from the pandanus, cultivated for that purpose, and never suffered to shoot into a trunk; and the coarser sort, which they sleep upon, from a plant called evarra. There are many other articles of less note, that employ the spare time of their females; as combs of which they make vast numbers; and little baskets made of the same substance as the mats, and others of the fibrous cocoa-nut husk, either plain or interwoven with small beads; but all finished with such neatness and taste in the disposition of the various parts, that a stranger cannot help admiring their assiduity and dexterity.
The province allotted to the men is, as might be expected, far more laborious and extensive than that of the women. Agriculture, architecture, boat-building, fishing, and other things that relate to navigation, are the objects of their care. [205] Cultivated roots and fruits being their principal support, this requires their constant attention to agriculture, which they pursue very diligently, and seem to have brought almost to as great perfection as circumstances will permit. The large extent of the plantain fields has been taken notice of already; and the same may be said of the yams; these two together being at least as ten to one with respect to all the other articles. In planting both these, they dig small holes for their reception, and afterward root up the surrounding grass, which, in this hot country is quickly deprived of its vegetating power, and soon rotting, becomes a good manure. The instruments they use for this purpose, which they call hooo, are nothing more than pickets or stakes of different lengths, according to the depth they have to dig. These are flattened and sharpened to an edge at one end; and the largest have a short piece fixed transversely, for pressing it into the ground with the foot. With these, though they are not more than from two to four inches broad, they dig and plant ground of many acres in extent. In planting the plantains and yams, they observe so much exactness, that whichever way you look, the rows present themselves regular and complete.
The cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees are scattered about without any order, and seem to give them no trouble after they have attained a certain height. The same may be said of another large tree which produces great numbers of a large roundish compressed nut, called eeefee; and of a smaller tree that bears a rounded oval nut two inches long, with two or three triangular kernels, tough and insipid, called mabba, most frequently planted near their houses.
The kappe is commonly regularly planted, and in pretty large spots; but the mawhaha is interspersed amongst other things, as the jeejee and yams are; the last of which, I have frequently seen in the interspaces of the plantain trees at their common distance. Sugar-cane is commonly in small spots, crowded closely together; and the mulberry, of which the cloth is made, though without order, has sufficient room allowed for it, and is kept very clean. The only other plant, that they cultivate for their manufactures, is the pandanus; which is generally planted in a row close together at the sides of the other fields; and they consider it as a thing so distinct in this state, that they have a different name for it; which shows that they are very sensible of the great changes brought about by cultivation.
It is remarkable that these people, who in many things show much taste and ingenuity, should show little of either in building their houses; though the defect is rather in the design, than in the execution. Those of the lower people are poor huts, scarcely sufficient to defend them from the weather, and very small. Those of the better sort are larger and more comfortable; but not what one might expect. The dimensions of one of a middling size are about thirty feet long, twenty broad, and twelve high. Their house is, properly speaking a thatched roof or shed, supported by posts and rafters disposed in a very judicious manner. The floor is raised with earth smoothed, and covered with strong thick matting, and kept very clean. The most of them are closed on the weather side (and some more than two-thirds round), with strong mats or with branches of the cocoa-nut tree, platted or woven into each other. These they fix up edgewise, reaching from the eaves to the ground; and thus they answer the purpose of a wall. A thick strong mat about two and one half or three feet broad, bent into the form of a semi-circle, and set upon its edge, with the ends touching the side of the house, in shape resembling the fender of a fire-hearth, encloses a space for the master and mistress of the family to sleep in. The lady, indeed, spends most of her time during the day within it. The rest of the family sleep upon the floor, wherever they please to lie down; the unmarried men and women apart from each other; or, if the family be large, there are small huts adjoining to which the servants retire in the night; so that privacy is as much observed here, as one could expect. They have mats made on purpose for sleeping on; and the clothes that they wear in the day, serve for their covering in the night. Their whole furniture consists of a bowl or two, in which they make kava; a few gourds; cocoa-nut shells; some small wooden stools which serve them for pillows; and, perhaps, a large stool for the chief or master of the family to sit upon.
The only probable reason I can assign for their neglect of ornamental architecture in the construction of their houses, is their being fond of living much in the open air. Indeed, they seem to consider their houses, within which they seldom eat, as of little use but to sleep in, and to retire to in bad weather. And the lower sort of people who spend a great part of their time in close attendance upon the chiefs, can have little use for their own houses, but in the last case.
They make amends for the defects of their houses, by their great attention to, and dexterity in naval architecture, if I may be allowed to give it that name. But I refer to the narrative of my last voyage for an account of their canoes, and their manner of building and navigating them. [206]
The only tools which they use to construct these boats, are hatchets, or rather thick adzes, of a smooth black stone that abounds at Toofoa; augres, made of shark’s teeth, fixed on small handles; and rasps of a rough skin of a fish, fastened on flat pieces of wood thinner on one side, which also have handles. The labour and time employed in finishing their canoes, which are the most perfect of their mechanical productions will account for their being very careful of them. For they are built and preserved under sheds; or they cover the decked part of them with cocoa-leaves, when they are hauled on shore to prevent their being hurt by the sun.
The same tools are all they have for other works; if we except different shells, which they use as knives. But there are few of their productions that require these, unless it be some of their weapons; the other articles being chiefly their fishing materials, and cordage.
The cordage is made from the fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, which, though not more than nine or ten inches long, they plat about the size of a quill or less, to any length that they please, and roll it up in balls; from which the larger ropes are made, by twisting several of these together. The lines that they fish with are as strong and even as the best cord we make, resembling it almost in every respect. The other fishing implements are large and small hooks. The last are composed entirely of pearl-shell; but the first are only covered with it on the back; and the points of both commonly of tortoise-shell; those of the small being plain, and the others barbed. With the large ones they catch bonnetos and albicores, by putting them to a bamboo rod twelve or fourteen feet long, with a line of the same length, which rests in a notch of a piece of wood, fixed in the stern of the canoe for that purpose, and is dragged on the surface of the sea, as she rows along, without any other bait than a tuft of flaxy stuff near the point. They have also great numbers of pretty small seines, some of which are of a very delicate texture. These they use to catch fish with, in the holes on the reefs when the tide ebbs.
The other manual employments consist chiefly in making musical reeds, flutes, warlike weapons, and stools, or rather pillows, to sleep on. The reeds have eight, nine, or ten pieces placed parallel to each other, but not in any regular progression; having the longest sometimes in the middle, and several of the same length; so that I have seen none with more than six notes; and they seem incapable of playing any music on them that is distinguishable by our ears. The flutes are a joint of bamboo, close at both ends, with a hole near each, and four others; two of which, and one of the first only, are used in playing. They apply the thumb of the left hand to close the left nostril, and blow into the hole at one end with the other. The middle finger of the left hand is applied to the first hole on the left, and the fore-finger of the right to the lowest hole on that side. In this manner, though the notes are only three, they produce a pleasing, yet simple music, which they vary much more than one would think possible with so imperfect an instrument. Their being accustomed to a music which consists of so few notes, is perhaps the reason why they do not seem to relish any of ours, which is so complex. But they can taste what is more deficient than their own; for we observed that they used to be well pleased with hearing the chant of our two young New Zealanders, which consisted rather in mere strength than in melody of expression.
The weapons which they make are clubs of different sorts (in the ornamenting of which they spend much time), spears, and darts. They have also bows and arrows; but these seemed to be designed only for amusement, such as shooting at birds, and not for military purposes. The stools are about two feet long, but only four or five inches high, and near four broad, bending downward in the middle, with four strong legs and circular feet; the whole made of one piece of black or brown wood, neatly polished, and sometimes inlaid with bits of ivory. They also inlay the handles of fly-flaps with ivory, after being neatly carved; and they shape bones into small figures of men, birds, and other things, which must be very difficult, as their carving instrument is only a shark’s tooth.
Yams, plantains, and cocoa-nuts, compose the greatest part of their vegetable diet. Of their animal food, the chief articles are hogs, fowls, fish, and all sorts of shell-fish; but the lower people eat rats. The two first vegetable articles, with bread-fruit, are what may be called the basis of their food, at different times of the year, with fish and shell-fish; for hogs, fowls, and turtle, seem only to be occasional dainties reserved for their chiefs. The intervals between the seasons of these vegetable productions must be, sometimes, considerable, as they prepare a sort of artificial bread from plantains, which they put under ground before ripe, and suffer them to remain, till they ferment, when they are taken out, and made up into small balls; but so sour and indifferent, that they often said our bread was preferable, though somewhat musty.
Their food is generally dressed by baking, in the same manner as at Otaheite; and they have the art of making, from different kinds of fruit, several dishes, which most of us esteemed very good. I never saw them make use of any kind of sauce; nor drink any thing at their meals but water, or the juice of the cocoa-nut; for the kava is only their morning draught. I cannot say that they are cleanly either in their cookery or manner of eating. The generality of them will lay their victuals upon the first leaf they meet with, however dirty it may be; but when food is served up to the chiefs, it is commonly laid upon green plantain leaves. When the king made a meal, he was, for the most part, attended upon by three or four persons. One cut large pieces of the joint, or of the fish; another divided it into mouthfuls; and others stood by with cocoa-nuts, and whatever else he might want. I never saw a large company sit down to what we should call a sociable meal, by eating from the same dish. The food, be what it will, is always divided into portions, each to serve a certain number; these portions are again subdivided; so that one seldom sees above two or three persons eating together. The women are not excluded from eating with the men; but there are certain ranks or orders amongst them, that can neither eat nor drink together. This distinction begins with the king; but where it ends I cannot say.
They seem to have no set time for meals; though it should be observed, that, during our stay amongst them, their domestic economy was much disturbed by their constant attention to us. As far as we could remark, those of the superior rank only drink kava in the forenoon, and the others eat perhaps a bit of yam; but we commonly saw all of them eat something in the afternoon. It is probable that the practice of making a meal in the night is pretty common; and their rest being thus interrupted, they frequently sleep in the day. They go to bed as soon as it is dark, and rise with the dawn in the morning. [207]
They are very fond of associating together; so that it is common to find several houses empty, and the owners of them convened in some other one, or rather upon a convenient spot in the neighbourhood, where they recreate themselves by conversing, and other amusements. Their private diversions are chiefly singing, dancing, and music performed by the women. When two or three women sing in concert, and snap their fingers, it is called oobai; but when there is a greater number, they divide into several parties, each of which sings on a different key, which makes a very agreeable music, and is called heeva or haiva. In the same manner, they vary the music of their flutes, by playing on those of a different size; but their dancing is much the same as when they perform publicly. The dancing of the men (if it is to be called dancing), although it does not consist much in moving the feet, as we do, has a thousand different motions with the hands, to which we are entire strangers; and they are performed with an ease and grace which are not to be described, nor even conceived, but by those who have seen them. But I need add nothing to what has been already said on this subject, in the account of the incidents that happened during our stay at the islands. [208]
Whether their marriages be made lasting by any kind of solemn contract, we could not determine with precision; but it is certain, that the bulk of the people satisfied themselves with one wife. The chiefs, however, have commonly several women [209] ; though some of us were of opinion that there was only one that was looked upon as the mistress of the family.
As female chastity at first sight seemed to be held in no great estimation, we expected to have found frequent breaches of their conjugal fidelity; but we did them great injustice. I do not know that a single instance happened during our whole stay. [210] Neither are those of the better sort, that are unmarried, more free of their favours. It is true there was no want of those of a different character; and, perhaps, such are more frequently met with here, in proportion to the number of people, than in many other countries. But it appeared to me that the most, if not all of them, were of the lowest class; and such of them as permitted familiarities to our people, were prostitutes by profession.
Nothing can be a greater proof of the humanity of these people, than the concern they show for the dead. [211] To use a common expression, their mourning is not in words but deeds. For, besides the tooge mentioned before, and burnt circles and scars, they beat the teeth with stones, strike a shark’s tooth into the head until the blood flows in streams, and thrust spears into the inner part of the thigh, into their sides below the arm-pits, and through the cheeks into the mouth. All these operations convey an idea of such rigorous discipline, as must require either an uncommon degree of affection or the grossest superstition, to exact. I will not say that the last has no share in it; for, sometimes, it is so universal, that many could not have any knowledge of the person for whom the concern is expressed. Thus we saw the people of Tongataboo mourning the death of a chief at Vavaoo; and other similar instances occurred during our stay. It should be observed, however, that the more painful operations are only practised on account of the death of those most nearly connected with the mourners. When a person dies, he is buried, after being wrapped up in mats and cloth, much after our manner. The chiefs seem to have the fiatookas appropriated to them as their burial-places; but the common people are interred in no particular spot. [212] What part of the mourning ceremony follows immediately after, is uncertain; but, that there is something besides the general one, which is continued for a considerable length of time, we could infer, from being informed, that the funeral of Mareewagee’s wife, as mentioned before, was to be attended with ceremonies that were to last five days; and in which all the principal people were to commemorate her.
Their long and general mourning, proves that they consider death as a very great evil. And this is confirmed by a very odd custom which they practise to avert it. When I first visited these Islands, during my last voyage, I observed that many of the inhabitants had one or both of their little fingers cut off; and we could not then receive any satisfactory account of the reason of this mutilation. [213] But we now learned that this operation is performed when they labour under some grievous disease, and think themselves in danger of dying. They suppose that the deity will accept of the little finger, as a sort of sacrifice efficacious enough to procure the recovery of their health. They cut it off with one of their stone hatchets. There was scarcely one in ten of them whom we did not find thus mutilated in one or both hands; which has a disagreeable effect, especially as they sometimes cut so close, that they encroach upon the bone of the hand which joins to the amputated finger. [214]
From the rigid severity with which some of these mourning and religious ceremonies are executed, one would expect to find that they meant thereby to secure to themselves felicity beyond the grave; but their principal object relates to things merely temporal. For they seem to have little conception of future punishment for faults committed in this life. They believe, however, that they are justly punished upon earth; and, consequently, use every method to render their divinities propitious. The Supreme Author of most things they call Kallafootonga; who, they say, is a female residing in the sky, and directing the thunder, wind, rain; and, in general, all the changes of weather. They believe, that when she is angry with them, the productions of the earth are blasted; that many things are destroyed by lightning; and that they themselves are afflicted with sickness and death, as well as their hogs and other animals. When this anger abates, they suppose that every thing is restored to its natural order; and it should seem, that they have a great reliance on the efficacy of their endeavours to appease their offended divinity. They also admit a plurality of deities, though all inferior to Kallafootonga. Amongst them, they mention Toofooa-boolootoo, God of the clouds and fog; Talleteboo, and some others, residing in the heavens. The first in rank and power, who has the government of the sea and its productions, is called Futtafaihe, or, as it was sometimes pronounced, Footafooa; who, they say, is a male, and has for his wife Fykava kajeea; and here, as in heaven, there are several inferior potentates, such as Vahaa fonooa, Tareeava, Mattaba, Evaroo, and others. The same religious system, however, does not extend all over the cluster of the Friendly Isles; for the supreme god of Hapaee, for instance, is called Alo Alo; and other isles have two or three, of different names. But their notions of the power and other attributes of these beings, are so very absurd, that they suppose they have no farther concern with them after death.
They have, however, very proper sentiments about the immateriality and the immortality of the soul. They call it life, the living principle, or, what is more agreeable to their notions of it, an Otooa; that is, a divinity, or invisible being. They say, that, immediately upon death, the souls of their chiefs separate from their bodies, and go to a place called Boolootoo; the chief, or god of which is Goleho. This Gooleho seems to be a personification of death; for they used to say to us, “You, and the men of Feejee (by this junction, meaning to pay a compliment, expressive of their confession of our superiority over themselves,) are also subject to the power and dominion of Gooleho.” His country, the general receptacle of the dead, according to their mythology, was never seen by any person; and yet, it seems, they know that it lies to the westward of Feejee; and that they who are once transported thither, live for ever; or, to use their own expression, are not subject to death again; but feast upon all the favourite products of their own country, with which this everlasting abode is supposed to abound. As to the souls of the lower sort of people, they undergo a sort of transmigration; or, as they say, are eaten up by a bird called loata, which walks upon their graves for that purpose.
I think I may venture to assert, that they do not worship any thing that is the work of their own hands, or any visible part of the creation. They do not make offerings of hogs, dogs, and fruit, as at Otaheite, unless it be emblematically; for their morais were perfectly free from every thing of the kind. But that they offer real human sacrifices, is with me beyond a doubt. Their morais or fiatookas (for they are called by both names, but mostly by the latter), are, as at Otaheite and many other parts of the world, burying-grounds, and places of worship; though some of them seemed to be only appropriated to the first purpose; but these were small, and in every other respect inferior to the others.
Of the nature of their government, we know no more than the general outline. A subordination is established among them, that resembles the feudal system of our progenitors in Europe. But of its subdivisions, of the constituent parts, and in what manner they are connected, so as to form a body politic, I confess myself totally ignorant. Some of them told us that the power of the king is unlimited, and that the life and property of the subject is at his disposal. But the few circumstances that fell under our observation, rather contradicted than confirmed the idea of a despotic government. Mareewagee, old Tooboo, and Feenou, acted each like petty sovereigns, and frequently thwarted the measures of the king; of which he often complained. Neither was his court more splendid than those of the two first, who are the most powerful chiefs in the islands; and next to them, Feenou, Mareewagee’s son, seemed to stand highest in authority. But, however independent on the despotic power of the king the great men may be, we saw instances enough to prove, that the lower order of people have no property, nor safety for their persons, but at the will of the chiefs to whom they respectively belong.
Tongataboo is divided into many districts; of above thirty of which we learned the names. Each of these has its particular chief, who decides differences, and distributes justice within his own district. But we could not form any satisfactory judgment about the extent of their power in general, or their mode of proportioning punishments to crimes. Most of these chiefs have possessions in other islands, from whence they draw supplies. At least, we know this is so with respect to the king, who, at certain established times, receives the product of his distant domains at Tongataboo; which is not only the principal place of his residence, but seemingly of all the people of consequence amongst these isles. Its inhabitants, in common conversation, call it the Land of Chiefs; while the subordinate isles are distinguished by the appellation of Lands of Servants.
These chiefs are, by the people, styled not only lords of the earth, but of the sun and sky; and the king’s family assume the name of Futtafaihe, from the god so called, who is probably their tutelary patron, and perhaps their common ancestor. The sovereign’s peculiar earthly title is, however, simply Tooee Tonga.
There is a decorum observed in the presence of their principal men, and particularly of their king, that is truly admirable. Whenever he sits down, whether it be in a house or without, all the attendants seat themselves at the same time, in a semicircle before him; leaving always a convenient space between him and them, into which no one attempts to come, unless he has some particular business. Neither is any one allowed to pass or sit behind him, nor even near him, without his order or permission; so that our having been indulged with this privilege, was a significant proof of the great respect that was paid us. When any one wants to speak with the king, he advances and sits down before him, delivers what he has to say in a few words, and having received his answer, retires again to the circle. But if the king speaks to any one, that person answers from his seat, unless he is to receive some order, in which case he gets up from his place and sits down before the chief with his legs across; which is a posture to which they are so much accustomed, that any other mode of sitting is disagreeable to them. [215] To speak to the king standing would be accounted here as striking a mark of rudeness, as it would be with us, for one to sit down and put on his hat, when he addresses himself to his superior, and that superior on his feet, and uncovered.
It does not indeed appear that any of the most civilized nations, have ever exceeded this people in the great order observed on all occasions; in ready compliance with the commands of their chiefs; and in the harmony that subsists throughout all ranks, and unites them as if they were all one man, informed with and directed by the same principle. Such a behaviour is remarkably obvious, whenever it is requisite that their chief should harangue any body of them collected together, which is frequently done. The most profound silence and attention is observed during the harangue, even to a much greater degree than is practised amongst us, on the most interesting and serious deliberations of our most respectable assemblies. And whatever might have been the subject of the speech delivered, we never saw an instance when any individual present showed signs of his being displeased, or that indicated the least inclination to dispute the declared will of a person who had a right to command. Nay, such is the force of these verbal laws, as I may call them, that I have seen one of their chiefs express his being astonished at a person’s having acted contrary to such orders; though it appeared that the poor man could not possibly have been informed in time to have observed them. [216]
Though some of the more potent chiefs may vie with the king in point of actual possessions, they fall very short in rank, and in certain marks of respect, which the collective body have agreed to pay the monarch. It is a particular privilege annexed to his sovereignty, not to be punctured nor circumcised as all his subjects are. Whenever he walks out, every one whom he meets must sit down till he has passed. No one is allowed to be over his head; on the contrary, all must come under his feet; for there cannot be a greater outward mark of submission, than that which is paid to the sovereign, and other great people of these islands, by their inferiors. The method is this; the person who is to pay obeisance squats down before the chief, and bows the head to the sole of his foot; which, when he sits, is so placed that it can be easily come at; and having tapped, or touched it with the under and upper side of the fingers of both hands, he rises up and retires. It should seem, that the king cannot refuse any one who chooses to pay him this homage, which is called moe moea; for the common people would frequently take it into their heads to do it when he was walking; and he was always obliged to stop, and hold up one of his feet behind him, till they had performed the ceremony. This, to a heavy unwieldy man, like Poulaho, must be attended with some trouble and pain; and I have sometimes seen him make a run, though very unable, to get out of the way, or to reach a place where he might conveniently sit down. The hands, after this application of them to the chief’s feet, are, in some cases, rendered useless for a time; for, until they be washed, they must not touch any kind of food. This interdiction in a country where water is so scarce, would seem to be attended with some inconvenience; but they are never at a loss for a succedaneum; and a piece of any juicy plant, which they can easily procure immediately, being rubbed upon them, this serves for the purpose of purification, as well as washing them with water. When the hands are in this state, they call it taboo rema. Taboo, in general, signifies forbidden, and rema is their word for hand.
When the taboo is incurred by paying obeisance to a great personage, it is thus easily washed off. But in some other cases it must necessarily continue for a certain time. We have frequently seen women, who have been taboo rema, fed by others. At the expiration of the time, the interdicted person washes herself in one of their baths, which are dirty holes, for the most part, of brackish water. She then waits upon the king, and after making her obeisance in the usual way, lays hold of his foot and applies it to her breast, shoulders, and other parts of her body. He then embraces her on each shoulder; after which she retires purified from her uncleanness. I do not know that it is always necessary to come to the king for this purpose, though Omai assured me it was. If this be so, it may be one reason why he is, for the most part, travelling from island to island. I saw this ceremony performed by him two or three times; and once by Feenou, to one of his own women; but as Omai was not then with me, I could not ask the occasion.
Taboo, as I have before observed, is a word of an extensive signification. Human sacrifices are called tangata taboo; and when any thing is forbidden to be eaten, or made use of, they say that it is taboo. They tell us, that if the king should happen to go into a house belonging to a subject, that house would be taboo, and could never more be inhabited by the owner; so that wherever he travels, there are particular houses for his reception. Old Toobou, at this time, presided over the taboo; that is, if Omai comprehended the matter rightly, he and his deputies inspected all the produce of the island; taking care that every man should cultivate and plant his quota; and ordering what should be eaten, and what not. By this wise regulation they effectually guard against a famine; a sufficient quantity of ground is employed in raising provisions; and every article thus raised, is secured from unnecessary waste.
By another prudent regulation in their government, they have an officer over the police, or something like it. This department, when we were amongst them, was administered by Feenou; whose business we were told it was to punish all offenders, whether against the state or against individuals. He was also generalissimo, and commanded the warriors, when called out upon service; but, by all accounts, this is very seldom. The king frequently took some pains to inform us of Feenou’s office; and among other things, told us that if he himself should become a bad man, Feenou would kill him. What I understood by this expression of being a bad man, was, that if he did not govern according to law or custom, Feenou would be ordered, by the other great men, or by the people at large, to put him to death. There should seem to be no doubt, that a sovereign, thus liable to be controled and punished for an abuse of power, cannot be called a despotic monarch.
When we consider the number of islands that compose this little state, and the distance at which some of them lie from the seat of government, attempts to throw off the yoke, and to acquire independency, it should seem, might be apprehended; but they tell us that this never happens. One reason why they are not thus disturbed, by domestic quarrels, may be this; that all the powerful chiefs, as we have already mentioned, reside at Tongataboo. They also secure the dependence of the other islands by the celerity of their operations; for if, at any time, a troublesome and popular man should start up in any of them, Feenou, or whoever holds his office, is immediately dispatched thither to kill him. By this means, they crush a rebellion in its very infancy.
The orders or classes amongst their chiefs, or those who call themselves such, seemed to be almost as numerous as amongst us; but there are few in comparison that are lords of large districts of territory, the rest holding their lands under those principal barons, as they may be called. I was indeed told that when a man of property dies, every thing he leaves behind him falls to the king; but that it is usual to give it to the eldest son of the deceased, with an obligation to make a provision out of it for the rest of the children. It is not the custom here, as at Otaheite, for the son, the moment he is born, to take from the father the homage and title; but he succeeds to them at his decease; so that their form of government is not only monarchical but hereditary.
The order of succession to the crown has not been of late interrupted; for we know from a particular circumstance, that the Futtafaihes (Poulaho being only an addition to distinguish the king from the rest of his family) have reigned in a direct line, for at least one hundred and thirty-five years. Upon inquiring whether any account had been preserved amongst them of the arrival of Tasman’s ships, we found that this history had been handed down to them from their ancestors, with an accuracy which marks that oral tradition may sometimes be depended upon. For they described the two ships as resembling ours, mentioning the place where they had anchored; their having staid but a few days; and their moving from that station to Annamooka. And by way of informing us how long ago this had happened, they told us the name of the Futtafaihe who was then king, and of those who had succeeded down to Poulaho, who is the fifth since that period; the first being an old man, at the time of the arrival of the ships.
From what has been said of the present king, it would be natural to suppose, that he had the highest rank of any person in the islands. But to our great surprise, we found it is not so; for Latoolibooloo, the person who was pointed out to me as king when I first visited Tongataboo, and three women, are, in some respects, superior to Poulaho himself. On our inquiring who these extraordinary personages were, whom they distinguish by the name and title of Tammaha [217] ? we were told that the late king, Poulaho’s father, had a sister of equal rank, and elder than himself; that she, by a man who came from the island of Feejee, had a son and two daughters; and that these three persons, as well as their mother, rank above Futtafaihe the king. We endeavoured, in vain, to trace the reason of this singular preeminence of the Tammahas; for we could learn nothing besides this account of their pedigree. The mother and one of the daughters, called Tooeela-kaipa, live at Vavaoo. Latoolibooloo, the son, and the other daughter, whose name is Moungoula-kaipa, reside at Tongataboo. The latter is the woman who is mentioned to have dined with me on the 21st of June. This gave occasion to our discovering her superiority over the king, who would not eat in her presence, though she made no scruple to do so before him, and received from him the customary obeisance, by touching her foot. We never had an opportunity of seeing him pay this mark of respect to Latoolibooloo; but we have observed him leave off eating, and have his victuals put aside, when the latter came into the same house. Latoolibooloo assumed the privilege of taking any thing from the people, even if it belonged to the king; and yet in the ceremony called Natche, he assisted only in the same manner as the other principal men. He was looked upon by his countrymen, as a madman; and many of his actions seemed to confirm this judgment. At Eooa, they showed me a good deal of land, said to belong to him; and I saw there a son of his, a child whom they distinguished by the same title as his father. The son of the greatest Prince in Europe could not be more humoured and caressed than this little Tammaha was.
The language of the Friendly Islands has the greatest affinity imaginable to that of New Zealand, of Wateeoo, and Mangeea; and, consequently, to that of Otaheite, and the Society islands. There are also many of their words the same with those used by the natives of Cocos Island, as appears from the vocabulary collected there by Le Maire and Schouten. [218] The mode of pronunciation differs, indeed, considerably, in many instances, from that both of New Zealand and Otaheite; but still a great number of words are either exactly the same, or so little changed, that their common original may be satisfactorily traced. The language, as spoken at the Friendly Islands, is sufficiently copious for all the ideas of the people; and we had many proofs of its being easily adapted to all musical purposes, both in song and in recitative; besides being harmonious enough in common conversation. Its component parts, as far as our scanty acquaintance with it enabled us to judge, are not numerous; and in some of its rules, it agrees with other known languages. As, for instance, we could easily discern the several degrees of comparison, as used in the Latin; but none of the inflections of nouns and verbs.
We were able to collect several hundreds of the words; and, amongst these, are terms that express numbers as far as a hundred thousand; beyond which they never would reckon. It is probable, indeed, that they are not able to go farther; for, after having got thus far, we observed that they commonly used a word which expresses an indefinite number. A short specimen, selected from the larger vocabulary, is here inserted, with the corresponding words, of the same signification as used at Otaheite, on the opposite column; which, while it will give, as we may say, ocular demonstration of their being dialects of the same language, will, at the same time, point out the particular letters by the insertion, omission, or alteration of which the variations of the two dialects from each other have been effected.
It must be observed, however, that our vocabularies of this sort must necessarily be liable to great mistakes. The ideas of those from whom we were to learn the words were so different from ours, that it was difficult to fix them to the object of inquiry. Or, if this could be obtained, to learn an unknown tongue from an instructor who did not know a single word of any language that his scholar was conversant with, could not promise to produce much. But even, when these difficulties were surmounted, there still remained a fruitful source of mistake. I mean, inaccuracy in catching exactly the true sound of a word to which our ears had never been accustomed, from persons whose mode of pronunciation was, in general, so indistinct, that it seldom happened that any two of us, in writing down the same word from the same mouth, made use of the same vowels in representing it. Nay, we even very commonly differed about consonants, the sounds of which are least liable to ambiguity. Besides all this, we found, by experience, that we had been led into strange corruptions of some of the most common words, either from the natives endeavouring to imitate us, or from our having misunderstood them. Thus, cheeto was universally used by us to express a thief, though totally different from the real word in the language of Tongataboo. The mistake arose from a prior one into which we had ran when at New Zealand; for though the word that signifies thief there, be absolutely the same that belongs to the dialect of the Friendly Islands (being kaeehaa at both places), yet, by some blunder, we had used the word teete first at New Zealand, and afterward at Tongataboo, on our arrival there. The natives, endeavouring to imitate us as nearly as they could, and so fabricating the word cheeto, this, by a complication of mistakes, was adopted by us as their own. All possible care has been taken to make the following table as correct as possible:
| English. | Friendly Islands. | Otaheite. |
| The sun, | Elaa, | Eraa. |
| Fire, | Eafoi, | Eahoi. |
| Thunder, | Fatoore, | Pateere. |
| Rain, | Ooha, | Eooa. |
| The wind, | Matangee, | Mataee. |
| Warm, | Mafanna, | Mahanna. |
| The clouds, | Ao, | Eao. |
| Land, | Fonooa, | Fenooa. |
| Water, | Avy, | Evy. |
| Sleep, | Mohe, | Moe. |
| A man, | Tangata, | Taata. |
| A woman, | Vefaine, | Waheine. |
| A young girl, | Taheine, | Toonea. |
| A servant, or person of mean rank, | Tooa, | Toutou, or teou. |
| The dawn, or day-break, | Aho, | Aou. |
| The hair, | Fooroo, | Eroroo. |
| The tongue, | Elelo, | Erero. |
| The ear, | Tareenga, | Tareea. |
| The beard, | Koomoo, | Ooma. |
| The sea, | Tahee, | Taee. |
| A boat, or canoe, | Wakka, | Evaa. |
| Black, | Oole, | Ere. |
| Red, | Goola, | Oora, oora. |
| A lance or spear, | Tao, | Tao. |
| A parent, | Motooa, | Madooa. |
| What is that? | Kohaeea? | Yahaeea? |
| To hold fast, | Amou, | Mou. |
| To wipe or clean any thing | Horo, | Horoee. |
| To rise up, | Etoo, | Atoo. |
| To cry or shed tears, | Tangee, | Taee. |
| To eat or chew, | Eky, | Ey. |
| Yes, | Ai, | Ai. |
| No, | Kaee, | Aee. |
| You, | Koe, | Oe. |
| I, | Ou, | Wou. |
| Ten, | Ongofooro, | Ahooroo. |
Having now concluded my remarks on these islands and people, I shall take my final leave of them, after giving some account of the astronomical and nautical observations that were made during our stay.
And first I must take notice, that the difference of longitude between Annamooka and Tongataboo, is somewhat less than was marked in the chart and narrative of my last voyage. This error might easily arise, as the longitude of each was then found without any connection with the other. But now the distance between them is determined to a degree of precision that excludes all possibility of mistake; which the following table will illustrate:
| The latitude of the observatory at Tongataboo, by the mean of several observations, | 21° | 8ʹ | 19ʺ | south. |
| The longitude, by the mean of one hundred and thirty-one sets of lunar observations, amounting to above a thousand observed distances, between the moon, sun, and stars, | 184° | 55ʹ | 18ʺ | east. |
| The difference of longitude, made by the time-keeper, between the above observatory, and that at Annamooka, | 0 | 16 | 0 | |
| Hence, the longitude of Annamooka is | 185 | 11 | 18 | east. |
| By the time-keeper it is, Greenwich rate, | 186 | 12 | 27 | |
| New Zealand rate, | 184 | 37 | 0 | |
| Its latitude | 20 | 15 | 0 |
N. B.—The observatory at Tongataboo was near the middle of the north side of the island; and that it Annamooka, on its west side; but the chart will elucidate this.
The time-keeper was too slow for mean time at Greenwich, on the first of July at noon, by 12h 34m 33s,2; and her daily rate, at that time, was loosing, on mean time, 1m,783 per day. This rate will now be used for finding the longitude by the time-keeper; and 184° 55ʹ 18ʺ, or 12h 19m 41s,2, will be taken as the true longitude of Tongataboo, east from Greenwich.
By the mean of several observations, the south end of the needle was found to dip
At
Lefooga, one of the Hapaee islands,
36°
55ʹ
Tongataboo,
39
11⁄2
The variation of the compass was found to be,
At
Annamooka, on board,
8°
30ʹ
31⁄2ʺ east.
Anchor off Kotoo, between Annamooka and Hapaee,
8
12
291⁄2
Anchor off Lefooga,
10
11
40
Tongataboo, on board,
9
44
51⁄2
Ditto, on shore,
10
12
58
I can assign no reason why the variation is so much less at and near Annamooka, than at either of the other two places. I can only say, that there is no fault in the observations; and that the variation ought to be more at Annamooka than the above, as it has been found to be so to the northward, southward, eastward, and westward of it. But disagreements in the variation, greater than this, even in the same needle, have been often observed. And I should not have taken notice of this instance, but from a belief that the cause, whatever it is, exists in the place, and not in the needles; for Mr. Bayly found the same, or rather more difference.
The tides are more considerable at these islands, than at any other of my discoveries in this ocean, that lie within the tropics. At Annamooka it is high water, on the full and change days, nearly at six o’clock; and the tide rises and falls there, upon a perpendicular, about six feet. In the harbour of Tongataboo, it is high water, on the full and change days, at fifty minutes past six. The tide rises and falls on those days, four feet nine inches; and three feet six inches at the Quadratures. In the channels between the islands, which lie in this harbour, it flows near tide and half-tide; that is, the flood continues to run up near three hours, after it is high water by the shore; and the ebb continues to run down, after it is flood by the shore. It is only in these channels, and in a few other places near the shores, that the motion of the water or tide is perceivable; so that I can only guess at the quarter from which the flood comes. In the road of Annamooka, it sets west south-west, and the ebb the contrary; but it tails into the harbour of Tongataboo from the north-west, passes through the two narrow channels, on each side of Hoolaiva, where it runs with considerable rapidity, and then spends itself in the lagoon. The ebb returns the same way, and runs with rather greater force. The north-west tide is met at the entrance of the lagoon, by one from the east; but this, as I have before observed, was found to be very inconsiderable.
END OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.
London:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.
