Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/172

106 plan was marked out somewhat different from the former, and larger, as being judged more suitable to their views j a vast number of hands were employed, and in two days the building was finished: a few alterations and additions were afterwards made as occasion and conveni- ence required. During the time this was about, several of the men got dangerously wounded by falling into the lovosds and sokies *, of which there were several on the land side of the colo. They were also much annoyed by the smell of the dead bodies that lay every where about, but which they did not take the trouble to bury, as they were enemies, and none of them their rela- tions f. The, canoes were now hauled up on the beach, and a strong fencing of stakes driven round them. The four guns were drawn into the fortress, and one placed at each door. A few days afterwards a small party who went up into the country according to their daily custom, for the purpose of gathering several stakes of bamboo are driven into the bottom and sharpened. Sokies are smaller holes, with one stake in=, and large enough to admit a man's leg. These lovosas and sokies are covered over with slender sticks concealed from sight by plantain leaves and earth. f The bodies that were found within the confines of the fortress they were of course obliged to remove, and these were thrown for the most part into the sea, which occasioned a greater number of sharks to frequent the place for a time.
 * Lovosas are pit-falls, dug five feet deep and four broad;