474 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
form which Savaii, the largest island in the group, assumes, 
in accordance with well-known phonetic changes. That 
the Cook Islands were peopled from Samoa is a fact of 
history amongst them, and if the Maories went from there 
to New Zealand they would still take the name of their 
ancestral home with them. 
The people of Tonga also belong to the lower Eastern 
Polynesian type. They are in my opinion the mos 
intelligent race in the Pacific, and are specially distin- 
guished for their power in mental arithmetic and mathema- 
tics. The political constitution consisted of the Hau or 
families of the blood royal, the Houuki or chuefs, the Muas 
or gentry, the Matabules or official attendants, and the 
Tuas or common people. There was also a sacred king 
as well as the ruling monarch. This custom also prevails. 
in a more or less modified form amongst other Polynesian 
races, and is a distinctive mark of a decided advance in 
civilisation from that of the original Papuan stock. The 
graves of the Tui Tonga, or sacred kings, are of immense 
size, and show very clearly the respect and reverence of 
the people for them, whilst the most probable explanation 
of the unique trilithon in Tonga is, that the stones were 
erected to form a gateway to the burial ground of those 
kings, or were intended as a memorial to some particular 
individual. These remarkable stones are situate in the 
centre of the island of Tonga, at the east end, near a village 
called Niutoua. They are of coralline limestone, and have 
evidently been cut out of the solid reef formation. The 
two perpendicular stones are 14 feet high out of the 
ground, 12 feet wide, and about 5 feet in thickness. The 
top stone, which is morticed: into the two side pillars, and 
not simply laid on the top as is generally the case in all 
other similar erections, is 16 feet in length, 4 feet 8. inches 
wide, and about 2 feet thick. When it is considered that 
these immense stones had to be quarried from the reef, 
then dragged up a steep shore-line about 100 feet high, 
and erected far inland with the aid only of the most 
primitive appliances, it is very evident that the popula- 
tion of the group, in those days must have been much 
larger than it now is. 
The people of Fiji are of the Melanesian type, modified 
in all probablity by admixture with Tongans and other 
Polynesian peoples. The language, which is very full and 
expressive, is Melanesian in its structure, but in the 
Eastern groups many Polynesian words have been intro- 
duced. They are as fierce, warlike people, with hereditary 
chiefs, who in olden days exercised the most despotic 
