Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/187

Rh columns of yams in the following manner: four poles, about eighteen feet long, were fixed upright in the ground, to the depth of a few feet, at about four feet distance from each other in a quadrangular form; the spaces between them, all the way to the top, being crossed by smaller poles about six inches distant from each other, and lashed on by the bark of the fow (species of the Hibiscus); the interior of this erection being filled up as they proceeded with yams; and afterwards other upright poles were lashed on to the top with cross pieces in like manner, still piling up the yams; then a third set of poles, &c., till the column of yams was about fifty or sixty feet high, when on the top of all was placed a cold baked pig. Four such columns were erected, one at each corner of the malái, the day before the ceremony, and three or four hundred hogs were killed, and about half baked. The following day the hogs were carried to the king's malái, about a quarter of a mile off, and placed upon the ground before the house, as well as four or five wooden cars or sledges full of yams, each holding about five hundred. While this was doing, and the people assembling from all quarters, those who were already arrived sat themselves down round the king's malái. Occasionally some of them got up to amuse themselves and the rest of the