Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/451

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 385 ofgnatoo was put on a kind of hurdle, and the body laid on the bale : the prince then ordered that, as his father was the first who introduced guns in the wars of Tonga, the two carronades should be loaded and fired twice* before the procession set out, and twice after it had passed out of the maldi j he gave directions also that the body of Finow*s daughter, lately deceased, should be taken out of the fi/loca, in the model of a canoe, and carried after the corpse of her father ; that during his life as he wished always to have her body in his neighbourhood, she might now at length be buried with him. Matters being thus arranged, Mr. Mariner loaded the guns, and fired four times with blank cartridge. The procession then went forward ; the wives of the deceased and women attendants pro- ceeded first in silent sorrow, next followed the body of Finow, the body of his daughter, the matabooles, and lastly the young prince and his retinue. When the procession had got out of the fortress, (the ma/di of which we are speak- ing, being in the middle of the fortress of Neafoo) and had passed the place where the • It should be mentioned that the young prince had now in his possession only two carronades, the other two being at the Hapai islands with Toobo Toa. But then Toobo Toa had only half a barrel of gunpowder, and no iron shot, whereas the prince had seven or eight barrels, and a consi- derable number of balls. VOL. I. C C