Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/337

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 271 feet,) made of reed, headed with iron-wood : they are not feathered, and their great length is requisite, that they may go straight enough to hit a small object; besides which, it is ad- vantageous in taking an aim through a thick bush. Each individual in the party has only two arrows, for, as soon as he has discharged one from his bow, it is immediately brought to him by one of the attendants who follow the party. The bows also are rather longer than those used in war, being about six feet, the war- bows being about four feet and a half; nor are they so strong, lest the difficulty of bending them should occasion a slight trembling of the hand, which would render the aim less certain. Finow and his friends having finished their shooting excursion, and taken some refresh- ment, directed their walk at random across the island, and arrived near a rock, noted by the natives as being (in their estimation) the im- mediate cause of the origin of all the Tonga islands. It happened once (before these islands were in existence) that one of their gods (Tan- galoa) went out fishing with line and hook : it chanced, however, that the hook got fixed in a rock at the bottom of the sea, and, in conse- quence of the god pulling in his line, he drew up all the Tonga islands, which, they say, would have formed one great land ; but the