Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/69

Rh without eating. At length the Tuitonga noticed this, and asked the reason. Tuimotuhki explained that he could not eat the mullet, for it was made tabu to him when he was bathed at home in his own country in Fiji. Thereupon the Tuitonga requested that the tabu might be given to him too, that he might share in it. But Tuimotuliki demurred, saying, "Why my lord should you be tabued, seeing that you catch that fish in your net? Why should you be prevented from eating it?" But the Tuitonga insisted. "Is there any lack of fish?" he retorted. "Why should I be so anxious to eat that fish? Let me share your tabu, and we can eat other sorts of fish." So Tuimotuliki gave way, and admitted the Tuitonga to his tabu, as a sign of his affection for Fiji. Thereupon the Tuitonga sent word to the different parts of the Tongan group, announcing that the mullet was tabu to the men, and that those who ate it would suffer from blindness, and ulceration, and pox, and baldness, and leprosy. The women alone were exempted from the tabu. (I have never seen or heard anything of such a tabu. The mullet is freely eaten to-day, both in Tonga, and I think in Fiji. Of course the old tabus are largely things of the past, but I have not seen any indications of a recollection of such a tabu. I have not, however, made special inquiries relative to this particular one. Recollections of some old food tabus, no longer practised are preserved amongst some of the people who have interested themselves in these matters, but all I have so far encountered have been of local operation, and I have not found any of such universality as the statement in the text would seem to imply. The mullet at any rate is eaten with freedom and relish).

Thereafter the crew of the boat from Fiji multiplied and became numerous. The descendants of Tuimotuliki are the folk called the Tuitalau, their names being Fainga'a, Tuitavake, Mo'ungatonga, Mapu, Siliika, and Tulukava, the last being a female name. The descendants of Nokelevu are Soakai, Kavakavalangi, Havea, Tukuafu, Funaki-oe-langi. And the descendants of Balusa, who was called Alusa in Tonga, are Ahio, Fakahafua, and Veamatahau. This is the descent of those who are sacred, and who are called the Pure. They