Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/434

368 368 TRANSACTIONS AT lighted to dress victuals : this was thought to be acceptable to the gods, as being a mark of extreme humiliation, that the great chief of all the Ilapai islands, and Vavaoo, should be laid where the meanest class of mankind, the cooks, were accustomed to operate. All this time Tooitonga remained in his own house, for his high character, as a descendant of the gods, rendered it altogether unnecessary, and even degrading and improper, that he should inter- fere in this matter. By this time, his friends losing all hopes, and being convinced that he was really dead, brought the body back to Neafoo, where it was placed in the large house on the maldi, called Boono. In the mean while, many^ chiefs and warriors secretly repaired to their spears, (which were tied up in bundles,) and put them loose, ready to be seized at a mo- ment's notice ; and selecting out their clubs, arranged them, in order to be used on the urgency of occasion ; expecting every moment the shout of war from one quarter or another: and if we just take a cursory view of the state of affairs, at this critical juncture, we shall find that such apprehensions were by no means groundless. No sooner was the late How deceased, than all those principal chiefs who had, or imagined