3o8 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



others. The place was then cleared ; the people separated 

 according to their localities, and repaired to their temporary 

 homes. 



Soon after dark certain persons stationed at the grave began 

 again to sound the conch, while others chanted, partly in an 

 unknown language and partly in Samoan, a sort of song. 

 The natives could give no account of what this language was, 

 nor how they originally came to learn the words. While this 

 was going on, about sixty men would assemble near the grave 

 for the performance of a ceremony which I suppose has no 

 parallel in the burial rites of the world. It being perfectly 

 dark, the men would approach the mount and pay their 

 devotions to the goddess Cloacina, after which they retired to 

 their homes. At daybreak next morning all the women of the 

 first rank, the wives and daughters of the greatest chiefs, 

 would assemble, and with expressions of the most profound 

 humility would make the place perfectly clean ; and this 

 extraordinary ceremony was repeated for fourteen nights, 

 as was that of the burning torches. With these singular 

 exceptions, the funeral of a Tuitonga was identical with that 

 of a Tongan king. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



NEUTRAL TONGA. 



THE present condition of Tonga is a very satisfactory one ; the 

 soil, it is almost needless to add, is inexhaustibly fertile, and 

 it is also industriously cultivated, and intersected by good 

 roads. Tonga is a succession of gardens, and want, beggary, 

 or squalor are unknown. All the people are clothed, all read 



