Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/466

400 400 TRANSACTIONS AT Finow, having finished his -speech, arose and went to his house, accompanied by the sons of his chiefs and matabooles, who, together with his warriors, formed his retinue. After a re- past, provided beforehand *, he again made an addi'ess, but in a more familiar and conversa- tional way, on the advantages of cultivating land for one's own food, and eating the produce of one's own labour ; and to strengthen his ar- gument, he observed, that, hitherto in Tonga, it had been the custom for those who formed the retinue of chiefs to subsist on the provision which those chiefs thought proper to share out to them from their own store : and during the great famine (which happened many years be- fore, while he was yet but a boy), he had re- marked that more of these men (chiefs' depend- ents) had died than of the lower orders, who tilled the ground for their own support, as well ^s that of their chiefs, because they always found means to reserve food for themselves, however great might be the tax ; while those who depended on the bounty of their chiefs got but a very scanty allowance. He then went on, " You do not know how much pleasure such was the case with that where he made the above speech; those who are fond of cava seldom eat much with it, con- ceiving that food destroys its genuine taste, and prevents its due eflFect upon the system.
 * They often have cava parties where little is eaten, which