Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/471

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 405 form a triangle; and with this horrible equip- ment they walked round the grave, beating their fiices and heads, as before stated, with the paddles, or pinching up the skin of the breast, and sticking a spear quite through; all this, to prove their love and affection for the deceased chief. After these exhibitions of cruelty were over, this day's ceremony (which altogether lasted about six hours) was finished by a grand wrest- ling-match, which being ended, every one re- tired to his respective house or occupation; and thus terminated the ceremony of burying the king of the Tonga islands. ■ Finow's character, as a politician, at least in point of ambition and design, may vie with that of any member of more civilized society; he wanted only education and a larger field of action, to make himself a thousand times more powerful than he was. Gifted by nature with that amazing grasp of mind which seizes every thing within its reach, and then, dissatisfied with what it has obtained, is ever restless in the endeavour to obtain more, how dull and irksome must have been to him the dominion of a few islands, which he did not dare to leave to conquer others, lest he should be dispos- sessed of them by the treachery of chiefs, and the fickleness of an undisciplined army. His