Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/183

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 117 This mode of communicating sentiments wa« -an inexplicable puzzle to Finow ; he took the Aletter again and examined it, but it afforded him no information. He considered the matter a 'little within himself; but his thoughts reflected •no light upon the subject. At length ;1ie. sent for Mr. Mai'iner, and desired him to write down something : the latter asked what lie would choose to have written ; he replied, put down me: he accordingly wrote " Feenow'* (^si^eWing it according to the strict English orthography) : .the chief then sent for another Englishman who had not been present, and commanding Mr. Ma- riner to turn his back and look another way, he vgave the man the paper, and desired ;him to tell what that was : he accordingly pronounced aloud the name of the king, upon which Finow snatched •the paper from his hand, and, with astonish- ment, looked at it, turned it round, and exa- mined dt in all directions : at length he ex- (claimed, '* This is neither like myself nor any body else ! where are my legs ? how do you know it to be I?" and then, without stopping for any attempt at an explanation, :he impatiently ■ ordered Mr. Mariner to write something else, and thus employed him for three or four hours in putting down the names of different persons, 4)laces, and things, and making the other man read them. This .afforded extraordinary diyer^