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.