MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



455 



rality of matabooles do not attend, 

 as it is also a distinct profession. 

 Those few that are canoe-builders 

 are very perfect in their art, and 

 only make canoes for- the king, or 

 other great chiefs. The mata- 

 booles also make themselves ac- 

 quainted with traditionary records, 

 and hand them down to their sons. 

 When a mataboole dies his eldest 

 son, or, if he have no son, his next 

 brother, becomes a mataboole. All 

 the sons and brothers of mata- 

 booles are mooas. 



Mooas are the next class of 

 people below the matabooles ; they 

 are either the sons or brothers of 

 matabooles, or descendants of the 

 latter. As tlie sons and brothers 

 of matabooles are mooas, and as 

 no mooa can become a mataboole 

 till his father or brother whom he 

 is to succeed is dead, so in like 

 manner, the sons and brothers of 

 mooas are only tooas, and no tooa 

 can become a mooa till his father 

 or brother whom he is to succeed 

 is dead. The mooas have much 

 to do in assisting at public cere- 

 monies, such as sharing out food 

 and cava under the direction of 

 the matabooles : they sometimes 

 arrange and direct instead of the 

 matabooles, unless on very giand 

 occasions. Like tlie matabooles, 

 they form part of the retinue of 

 chiefs, and are more or less re- 

 spected according to the rank of 

 their chiefs. Most of the mooas 

 are professors of some art. 



Both matabooles and mooas have 

 the business of attending to the 

 good order of society, to look to 

 the morals of the younger chiefs, 

 who are apt to run inttj excesses, 

 and oppress the lower orders (the 

 tooas), in which case they ad- 

 monisli them, and if they jiay no 



attention, they Veport them to the 

 older chiefs, and advise that some- 

 thing should be done to remedy 

 such evils. They are very much 

 respected by all classes. Tooas 

 are the lowest order of all, or the 

 bulk of the people. They are all, 

 by birth, ky fonnooa, or peasants ; 

 but some of them are employed 

 occasionally in the various occu- 

 pations of performing the tattow, 

 cooking, club-carving, and shav- 

 ing, according to their abilities in 

 these respective arts, and meet 

 with encouragement by presents. 

 Those tooas that are evidently 

 related to mooas, and consequently 

 have a chance of becoming mooas, 

 aie respected by those who can 

 trace no such relationship. 



Professional Class of Society. — 

 We now come to speak of those 

 who draw respect rather than rank 

 according to their usefulness in 

 different arts and manufactures, 

 more or less regarded. Some of 

 these, as we have before seen, are 

 matabooles, and rank accordingly, 

 the greater part of them are moo- 

 as, and the remainder of course 

 tooas. 



Among those that practise the 

 arts there are many that do it be- 

 cause their fathers did the same 

 before them, and consequently have 

 brought them up to it, and these 

 are for the most part such as prac- 

 tise arts that are considered inge- 

 nious, and therefore respectable ; 

 and hence they have no motive 

 suthciently strong (unless it be 

 sometimes laziness), to engage 

 them to lelinijuish it, paiticularly 

 as they obtain presents from their 

 chiefs for their ingenuity. There 

 is no positive law to oblige them 

 to follow the business of their 

 father><, nor any motive but the 

 honourable 



