Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/446

380 sive to the gods. It may appear strange that Voona was a greater chief than the son of the Ising, yet it is a frequent occurrence, that the king is chosen from a family not of the highest rank, on account of his superior wisdom or mi- litary skill, and this was the case with the pre- sent royal family; so that the king is often obliged to pay a certain ceremonious respect (hereafter to be noticed) towards niany other chiefs (even little children), who are greater nobles than he. The company were now all seated, habited in mats, waiting for the body of the deceased king to be brought forth. The mourners (who are always women, consisting of the female re- lations, widows, mistresses, and servants of the deceased, and such other females of some rank, who choose, out of respect, to officiate on the occasion), were assembled in the house, and seated round the corpse, which still lay out on the bales of. gnatoo. They were all habited in large, old, ragged mats, the more ragged, the more fit for the occasion, as being more em- blematical of a spirit broken down, or, as it were, torn to pieces by grief. Their appearance was calculated to excite pity and sorrow in the heart of any one, whether accustomed or not to such a scene : their eyes were swollen with the last night's frequent flood of grief, and still 9