Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/116

50 down to drink cava, putting him in a corner, and desiring him by signs to sit down, it being considered very disrespectful to stand up before a superior; the principle of which point of etiquette will be explained in another place. Whilst his persecutors were thus regaling themselves, a man entered the hut in great haste; and having said something to the company, took Mr. Mariner away with him. As they were going along they met one of the Sandwich islanders, whom the Port au Prince had brought from Anahooro Bay, who gave Mr. Mariner to understand that Finow, the king of the islands, had sent for him. When he arrived in the king's presence, the king beckoned to him, and made signs that he should sit near him. As he entered the place, the king's women, who sat at the other end of the room, at the sight of him in the deplorable condition in which he was, with one voice uttered a cry of pity, beating their breasts, and exclaiming, ''O yaoo! chiodofa!'' Alas! poor young man! Fortunately for Mr. Mariner, Finow had taken an extraordinary liking to him from the first moment he had seen him on board; he thought he was the captain's son, or at least a young chief of some consequence in his own country; and