Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/175

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 109 some, because they liked this sort of diet, and by others because they wanted to try it, think- ing it a manly and warlike habit : there was also another motive, viz. a great scarcity of provi- sions 5 for some canoes which had been sent to the Hapai islands in quest of provisions were unaccountably detained, and the garrison was already threatened with distress. Some of the prisoners were soon dispatched : their flesh was cut up into small portions, washed with sea- water, wrapped up in plantain leaves, and roast- ed under hot stones : two or three were embow- elled and baked whole the same as a pig *. Mr. Mariner was not tempted to partake of this kind of diet, though the smell of it, when cook- ed, was exceedingly delicious. A few days now elapsed without any signs of the canoes from Hapai, and the distress of those who did not choose to eat human flesh was very great. Mr. Mariner had been two days and a half without eating any thing ; when, passing by a house where they were cooking something, he walked in, with the pleasing hope of getting something that his stomach would bear, if it were only a piece of a rat ; on enquiry, he was told, they had got some pork, and a man offered him a piece of liver, which he eagerly accepted, and made to the second volume of the work.
 * For their different methods of cooking, reference must be