Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/301

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 235 within is a smaller cage, in which there is the hen bird, who also makes a peculiar noise, as if in answer to the one on the outside ; but be this as it may, both cock birds and hens are attracted towards the spot, and are shot by the sportsman. This sport is practised by none but the king and very great chiefs, for training and keeping these birds require exceeding great care as well as great expense. One man is ap- pointed to each pair of birds, and he has no- thing else to do but to attend to the management of them J and, if this is not done with great skill, they will not make the noise necessary to attract others. So much attention, in short, is paid to these birds, that their keepers are authorised to go and demand plantains for them, of whomsoever it may be, and howsoever scarce may be this article of food, even if there Were a famine, and the people almost starving : if a keeper, even on such occasions, sees a fine bunch of plantains, he will go and taboo it, which he does by sticking a reed in the tree, and telling the proprietor that those plantains are tabooed for the use of the birds. These keepers live well, and are, in general, very inso- lent fellows, sometimes committing very great depredations, under frivolous pretensions of procuring food for their birds. The sufferer sometimes makes a complaint to the king, or