Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/292

226 226 TOANSACTIONS AT sign the government of the Hapai islands to Toobo T6a, who was to send him annual tri- bute. When the cava was finished the company rose up, and the Vavaoo party returned to Fel- letoa, to prepare an entertainment for the Ha- pai people the following day. Early the next morning all the chiefs, mata- booles, and warriors of Neafoo, painted and de- corated themselves with streamers, and put on mats, in token of Finow's inferiority as a rela- tion to his aunt Toe Oomoo, chief of the for- tress of Felletoa. They took spears in their hands, and, thus equipped, marched out of Neafoo, two and two, with Finow at their head, carrying with them presents for their relations in the opposite garrison. In this order they entered Felletoa, and proceeded to the maldi, where all the chiefs and matabooles of Toe Oomoo were seated ready to receive them. A quantity of hogs, yams, and fowlsy were depo- sited in the middle of the circle, at the upper end of which a place was left vacant for the king to preside in, for, his aunt not being there, he was the greatest chief present. Had Toe Oomoo been also present, she must have pre- sided, at the head of the circle, and the king, as her inferior relation, must have seated him- self opposite to her, on the outside of the cir-