302 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



were offered to Tuitonga. There were peculiarities in the 

 ceremonies of his marriage and burial. Moreover, Tuitonga 

 was not circumcised as the other men were ; nor did he ever 

 tattoo. Again, he was spoken of differently, and words were 

 exclusively reserved for him, and only with respect to him. 



After the nobles came the matabooles, who seem to have been 

 the business agents of the aristocracy. Certain professions 

 were hereditary, and to some extent this, I believe, continues 

 to the present day. These are canoe builders, cutters of 

 whale's teeth ornaments, and superintendents of funeral rites. 

 Next in rank to these came the matabooles, or the class immedi- 

 ately below that very important body of men. 



Old persons of both sexes have from time immemorial been 

 reverenced in Tonga, and the first moral and religious duty 

 impressed on a Tongan was to reverence the gods, chiefs, and 

 aged persons. Women have always been treated in Tonga 

 with the greatest respect, and rank descends through them. 



The old religion of the Tongans was really a complicated 

 piece of heathenism. It was based on the idea of gods who had 

 existed from all eternity ; but there were other degrees of gods 

 of inferior rank, these being mainly recruited from deceased 

 chiefs and matabooles. The noble's and matabooles were allowed 

 to possess souls, but not the tooas, or common people, for whom 

 there was no future after death. They maintained that the 

 human soul during life is not a distinct essence from the body, 

 but only the more ethereal part of it, which exists in Bolotoo 

 (or paradise) in the form and likeness of the body the moment 

 after death. Here is a curious approach to the Christian 

 doctrine of the resurrection of the body. The Tongans believe 

 firmly in supernatural appearances of the gods, and that they 

 occasionally use the bodies of animals as their earthly covering ; 

 but at other times they would appear to mortals in all their glory. 



