Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/367

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 301 same reason, he coiUd not wear them. Finow was not satisfied with this plea, and being un- able to make them confess by fair means, he threatened them both with death : the man still protesting his innocence, Finow ordered him to be immediately dispatched with a club ; which being done, he again threatened the wo- man, and she as strongly protested her inno- cence : but when the club which had just ended the life of her husband was raised over her own head, she acknowledged that she had concealed another tooth, and accordingly brought it from a different place ; and being unable or unwill- ing to produce any more, she shared the same fate. Finow's conduct here seems very cruel but however, we are to place a great deal to the account of the state of society in which he lived ; and at the same time, we must consider that robbery is punished with death in other countries, as well as in Tonga. But what is^ most worthy of reflection is the strong hold which that ridiculous passion avarice takes of the human mind, which sometimes disposes a man to suffer death rather than part with what he cannot or will not ever make use of. Both the man and woman, in all probability, were guilty ; the woman certainly was ; and yet she could bear to see her husband sacrificed befgre her face rather than confess all she knew of the