Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/400

334 334 TRANSACTIONS AT green. When all these victims *^ere placed on the ground, hogs were brought in like manner 5 after that, baskets of yams, on each of which W^as a baked fowl. These being deposited in like manner, the number of dishes was counted, and announced aloud to the chief, when there appeared to be two hundred human bodies, two hundred hogs, two hundred baskets of yams, and a like number of fowls. The provisions were then divided into various portions, and each declared to be the portion of such a god ; after which they were given to the care of as many principal chiefs, who shared them out to all their dependants, so that every man and woman in the island had a portion of each of these articles, whether they chose to eat them or not. It would be perhaps increasing the horror of this picture beyond the truth to state that every person present partook of human flesh : these unfortunate victims were sacrificed and cooked more for a matter of [form, probably, than any thing else ; but it must be confessed that the chiefs, warriors, and more ferocious part of the company, partook of this inhuman diet, and several of them feasted on it. Such, at least, was the account of Cow Mooala; and Mr. Mariner has too much reason to think it true, because he afterwards heard the same ac-