Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/262

196 against him, yet there was one at no great distance from him for whom so much could not be said. The god having condescended to declare this, left his priest, and the latter arose and went away; the company then broke up. Finow pretended to take no notice of what the priest declared, not wishing the circumstance to be much noticed by others.

The following day an adopted son of Finow brought him secret intelligence that he had heard that several men had been sent off at different times, by Mappa Haano, to the fortress of Felletoa, to concert with the enemy on the subject of revolt, and that this chief had the intention of doing what Lioofau had been unjustly accused of and imprisoned for. The king immediately sent for Mappa Haano, who obeyed the summons, and came drest up in mats, with green leaves round his neck, (marks of humiliation and fear) attended by a priest. When they arrived opposite Finow's house they sat down before it; then the priest rose and advancing nearer to Finow, who was seated just within the eaves of the house, he again sat down before him, and stated that Mappa Haano had requested his inteiinediation, to express for him the sentiments of self-accusation with which he felt himself oppressed, and his acknowledgment of the justice of his fate, if