Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/433

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 367 speechless and motionless j—his heart, how- ever, could be just felt to beat. In the mean while he was placed on a sort of hand-barrow, which had been made on purpose, during the time the child was strangled. Fancying there were still some hopes of his recovery, his friends carried him on this bier to different consecrated houses, although he had, almost beyond a doubt, breathed his last with violent struggles, about ten minutes before. He was first carried to the house dedicated to Tali-y- Toobo, where an appropriate prayer to the god was hurried over as quickly as possible : the corpse (for it was now perhaps nothing more, for there was no pulse at the wrist ; and Mr. Mariner, applying his hand to the region of the heart, found it had ceased sensibly to beat) was conveyed to the house of the god Tobi-fooa- Bolotoo, where a similar prayer was preferred. Not contented with this, they next carried it to the grave of a female chief named Chinita- cala, and her spirit was in like manner invoked. Some hope still remained ; and his body was carried a mile and a half up the country, on the road towards Felletoa, to the residence of Tooitonga, their great divine chief, at Nioo Lolo. When arrived here, the body was con- veyed to Tooitonga's cook-house, and placed over the hole in the ground where the fire is