Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/263

Rh should think proper to take away his life. The king replied, that he did not mean to take away his life, for that it was not the custom at Tonga to kill those of whom one has no reason to be afraid, and that he did not think it worth his while to destroy a mere butterfly, (an insignificant being) but that he should take other measures of punishment not less exemplary. He then desired the culprit to consider himself for the future as divested of all power and rank, no longer to be the commander of men, but a single and unprotected individual; that his chiefship from that moment was null, and that consequently he was never more to take his seat as a chief, at his cava ceremonies. A certain chief, who was present, observed to Finow that if he suffered this man to live, although he was deprived of power, he might nevertheless by pernicious counsel inspire other chiefs with sentiments derogatory to the welfare of Finow's government. To which the king replied, that this was not a war between men, in whose success or ill success the gods took no interest, but one in which his tutelar god, Toobo Totai, presided in a particular manner