Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/178

112 during the siege. This being granted, they came and singled out half a dozen, from the 350 that lay about, whom they knew, from particular circumstances, to be their relations. These they took home to Nookoo Nookoo, leav- ing all the rest where they found them. Every day a number of deserters from dif- ferent garrisons came over to Finow : they all brought intelligence that Finow might shortly expect an attack from one or other of them : but the fortress of Nioocalofa was now well prepared to receive them. . In the meanwhile, the chief of a fortress called Bea, about four miles to the eastward, entered into an alliance with Finow, or rather submitted to his domi- nion, acknowledging him king of Tonga. The name of this chief was Tarky'. Having remained a fortnight or three weeks in daily expectation of an attack from an ene- my, and seeing yet no signs of it, Finow be- came exceedingly impatient ; for he was desir- ous of returning to the Hapai islands to per- form an indispensable ceremony of a religious nature, which we shall now explain. At the death of Tooitonga, (their great divine chief) there is such a constant feasting for nearly a month, as to threaten a future scarcity of cer- tain kinds of provisions : to prevent which evil, a prohibition, or taboo, is afterwards laid upon