Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/368

302 302 TRANSACTIONS AT matter, and entreat mercy for him at least, if not for herself. The remainder of these teeth were discovered a long time afterwards, by the particular intervention (as the natives will have it) of the gods. A few years had elapsed, when there being occasion to build and consecrate a house to some god, on the island of Lefooga, it was taken into consideration what valuable article should be deposited beneath its founda- tion, according to the custom on such occa- sions. They were about to get ready a large bale of gnatoo for this purpose, when the in- spired priest of the god declared it to be the wish of the divinity to have some whale's teeth ; and that there were several buried together on the small island just spoken of, in such a parti- cular spot : which place being referred to and dug up, the teeth were found in a perfect state. This discovery was most firmly and most pi- ously believed to have been made by the sacred interposition of the god himself, who inspired his favourite priest with the requisite know- ledge to make it. In the Fiji islands, whales' teeth are held, if possible, in still greater estimation, for it would be dangerous there for a man, unless he be a great chief, and even then, if he were a fo- reigner, to be known to have a whale's tootli about him J the personal possession of such a