452 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



the latter must be deferred till we 

 come to speak of religious rites. 

 Here we shall only mention, in a 

 general way, in what these cere- 

 monies chiefly consist. 



1. The grand ceremony of 

 ina'chi, which is performed once a 

 year (about the month of Octo- 

 ber), an(? consists in offering the 

 first fruits of the year to Tooi- 

 tonga. It was supposed that if 

 this cei-emony were neglected, the 

 vengeance of the gods would fall 

 in a signal manner upon the 

 people. 



9,. Peculiarity of his marriage 

 ceremony. 



3. Peculiarity of his burial cere- 

 mony. 



4. Peculiarity of the mourning 

 for his decease. 



5. Tooitonga is not circumcised, 

 as all tlie other men are, unless he 

 goes to foreign islands to undergo 

 this ceremony ; nor is he tat- 

 to wed. 



6. Peculiarities of speech used 

 in regard to Tooitonga ; for in- 

 stance, if the king or any chief 

 but Tooitonga be sick, they say 

 he is ttnga tdngi, but Tooitonga 

 being sick, he is said to be boo- 

 loo'hi : so with many other words 

 that are used exclusively for him, 

 and which will be noticed here- 

 after. 



These things are mentioned in. 

 this place, merely to afford an idea 

 of the high veneration in which 

 Tooitonga is held ; for to whom 

 but the greatest personage can 

 such peculiarities belong ? Not- 

 withstanding his high rank, how- 

 ever, he has comparatively but 

 very little absolute power, which 

 extends in a direct and positive 

 mamier only tolas own family and 

 attendants : as to his property, he 



has somewhat more than the ge- 

 nerality of the nobles, but much 

 less than the king, who by his ar- 

 bitrary sovereignty can lay claim 

 to almost any thing. 



Thus all that can be said in this 

 place of Tooitonga is, that he is 

 by far the greatest egi, having the 

 credit of a high divine original, and 

 that all respect and veneration is 

 therefore due to him. 



Veachi, as mentioned before, is 

 another egi of divine original, but 

 far from being equal to Tooitonga. 

 The king, indeed, avoids his pre- 

 sence, the same as he would that 

 of Tooitonga, and always pays him 

 the usual obeisance when he hap- 

 pens to meet him : but he has no 

 peculiar marks of high respect 

 shewn to him, as are shewn to 

 Tooitonga ; that is to say, no ce- 

 remonies that are, in themselves, 

 peculiar and different from what 

 are shewn to other chiefs by their 

 inferiors. There is this one uni- 

 versal acknowledgment, however, 

 viz. that he is a great chief de- 

 scended from a god, that he is 

 next in rank to Tooitonga, and 

 superior to every other chief. His 

 name has no known literal mean- 

 ing that Mr. Mariner can dis- 

 cover. 



Priests or Fahe-gehe. The 

 term fahe-gehe means split off, 

 separate, or distinct from, and is 

 applied to signify a priest, or man, 

 who has a peculiar or distinct sort 

 of mind or soul, differing from 

 that of the generality of mankind, 

 which disposes some god occasion- 

 ally to inspire him. These inspi- 

 rations, of which an account has 

 been given vol. i. p. 105, fre- 

 quently happen, and on such oc- 

 casions the priest has the same 

 deference and respect ehewn to 



him 



