Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/195

Rh where he left her to have her mats taken off, and her usual dress put on; after which she amused herself in conversation with the women. In the mean time a feast was prepared for the evening, of pigs, fowls, yams, &c. and cava: this was got ready on the malái, where, about dusk, Tooitonga presiding, the company sat down to receive their portions, which the generality reserved to take home with them; the lower orders, indeed, who had but a small quantity, consumed theirs on the spot. After this the cava was shared out and drunk. The musicians (if so they can be called) next sat down at the bottom of the ring, opposite to Tooitonga, in the middle of a circle of flambeaus, held by men who also held baskets of sand to receive the ashes. The musical instruments consisted of seven or eight bamboos of different lengths and sizes, (from three to six feet long) so as to produce, held by the middle, and one end being struck on the ground, different notes according to the intended tune (all the knots being cut out of the bamboo, and one end plugged up with soft wood). The only other instrument was a piece of split bamboo, on which a man struck with two sticks, one in each hand, to regulate the time. The music was an accompaniment to dancing, which was