Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/467

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THE TONGA ISLANDS.
401

THE TONGA ISLANDS. 401 " men feel when they view the work of their " own hands thriving daily: and, whilst eating, '* when they reflect that their labour has been " repaid by the increase of their stores : there-

  • ' fore let us (chiefs and attendants of chiefs)

" apply ourselves, as we have nothing else to

  • ' do, to agriculture : follow my example ; I

" will order a piece of ground to be cleared, " and, during the next rain, I will assist in planting it with hiabo." No other circumstances worthy of note hap- pened during the twenty days concluding the burial ceremony. On the tentli day, those who were not relations of the deceased, nor consti- tuted his household, wore a sort of half mourn- ing ; that is to say, under their mats they wore a piece of gnatoo, not to be seen, but merely to be more comfortable to the skin than the mats, which, on these occasions, are not of the finest texture. After the twentieth day they wore their ordinary dress, and went to their proper habitations ; so did also the relations of the de- ceased, but then these wore mats for about two months afterwards, though with gnaloo under them. We now come to speak of the transactions of the twentieth day, which concludes the whole ceremony. Early in the morning of this day, all the rela- VOL. I. p D