390 



A VOYAGE TO 



CHAP. XL 



Employments of the Wojmn^ at the Friendly IJlands.^— 

 Of the Me?i. — /Agriculture, — Cofifiru&iofi of their 

 Houfes. — Their working Tools — Cordage, and fjljtng 

 Implements. — Mufcal Injiruments. — JVeapons. — Food, 

 and Cookery. — A?nujements. - — Marriage. — - Mourning 

 Ceremonies for the Dead. — Their Divinities. — Notions 

 about the Soul, and a Juture State. — Their Places of 

 TVorfhip. — Govermnent. — Manner of paying Obeifance 

 to the Kijig. — Account of the Royal Family. — Rejnarks 

 on their Language, a?id a Specimen of it. — Nautical^ 

 and other Ob/ervatiojjs. 



VJl' ^~r^HEIR domeftic life is of that middle kind, neither 

 J. fo laborious as to be difagreeable, nor fo vacant as to 

 fufFer them to degenerate into indolence. Nature has done 

 fo much for their country, that the firft can hardly occur, 

 and their difpofition feems to be a pretty good bar to the 

 laft. By this happy combination of circumftances, their 

 necelTary labour feems to yield, in its turn, to their recrea- 

 tions, in fuch a manner, that the latter are never inter- 

 rupted by the thoughts of being obliged to recur to the 

 former, till fatiety makes them wifh for fuch a tranfition. 



The employment of the women is of the eafy kind, and, 

 for the moll part, fuch as may be executed in the houfe. 

 The manufaduring their cloth, is wholly configned to their 



care. 



J"iy- 



