250 TON GAT ABU. 



constant feeling of slightly grating friction to the operator as 

 he rubs, and a fine powder should be rubbed off from the 

 surface of the groove and pushed along by the end of the 

 stick, so that it accumulates at the far end of the groove in a 

 small heap. Great care must be taken that this small heap of 

 powder is not shaken or blown away. 



The friction being kept up slowly and steadily, the sides of 

 the groove begin to blacken and soon to smoke. Rapid strokes 

 are now resorted to, the fine dust rubbed off becomes black like 

 soot, and at last ignites at the end of the stroke just as it is 

 pushed into the small accumulated heap, which acts as tinder. 

 A tiny wreath of smoke ascending from the heap shows that 

 the operation has been successful. A gentle blowing soon sets 

 the whole heap aglow. 



The operation is excessively tiring to the wrists, since it has 

 to be prolonged for a considerable time, but the greater the 

 practice the less the waste of force. I have never succeeded 

 in getting fire myself, though Mr. Darwin succeeded at Tahiti ; 

 and I have seen several Englishmen do so after practice, and 

 especially Dr. Goode, R.N., who frequently lighted a candle 

 in this way to show me the process on board H.M.S. " Dido" 

 at Fiji. It is easy enough to get smoke and char the wood a 

 little, but very difficult to get the actual fire. The slightest 

 halt during the friction is fatal. 



The old stone implements have entirely gone out of use in 

 Tonga, and they are not plentiful, but I bought several from 

 natives who had them put away in their houses. They call 

 them "toki Tonga," Tongan axe, or adze, in distinction to 

 foreign axes, whereas the Sandwich Islanders spoke of their 

 adzes when I was buying them as stone adzes, " pohaku koi." 

 All the stone adzes which I saw were unmounted ; no doubt 

 the handles had been used long ago, when iron was introduced, 

 to fasten hoop-iron blades on to in the place of the discarded 

 stone ones. The stone adze blades I procured were all of 

 simple form like those of Fiji, and not with complex curved 

 surfaces and shanks like those of Tahiti and some other 

 Polynesian Islands. 



The manners and customs of the ancient Tongans are pro- 

 bably better understood than those of any other Polynesian 

 Islanders, because of the existence of Mariner's well-known 

 account of them.* 



The Island of Tonga is about 27 miles in extreme length, 

 and 10 in extreme breadth. The island is entirely com})osed 



* "An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands. Compiled from 

 Communications b3' Mr. W. Mariner, several Years Resident in those 

 Islands." By John Martin, M.D., London, 1S17. 



