r, until the original form of the
terrace is almost obliterated. Sir Basil Thomson followed the chain of
tombs for about half a mile, but on each occasion his guides told him
that there were other smaller tombs farther inland. The tombs increase
in size and in importance as they near the shore of the lagoon, and to
seven or eight of the larger ones the names of the occupants can be
assigned; but the names of the sacred chiefs who sleep in the smaller
tombs inland are quite forgotten. Some of them are mere enclosures of
stones, not squared, but taken haphazard from the reef.[149]

[144] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 213 _sq._

[145] (Sir) Basil Thomson, "Notes upon the Antiquities of
Tonga," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii.
(1902) p. 86.

[146] Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern
Pacific Ocean_, pp. 283 _sq._

[147] The tomb described and illustrated by the first
missionaries had four massive and lofty steps, each of them five
and a half feet broad and four feet or three feet nine inches
high. See Captain James Wilson, _l.c._, with the plate facing p.
284. One such tomb, rising in four tiers, is ascribed
traditionally to a female Tooitonga, whose name has been
forgotten. See (Sir) Basil Thomson, "Notes upon the Antiquities
of Tonga," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii.
(1902) p. 88 n.^2.

[148] The Tahitian chestnut (_Inocarpus edulis_); see above, p.
74, note^2.

[149] (Sir) Basil Thomson, _Diversions of a Prime Minister_
(Edinburgh and London, 1894), pp. 379 _sq._; _id._ "Notes upon
the Antiquities of Tonga," _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 86. According to an earlier
authority, the Tongans could name and point out the tombs of no
less than thirty Tooitongas. See the letter of Mr. Philip
Hervey, quoted in _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
London_, Second Series, vol. ii. p. 77.

The tombs were built in the lifetime of the sacred chiefs who were to
lie in them, and their size accordingly affords a certain measure of the
power and influence of the great men interred in them. Among the largest
is the tomb which goes by the name of Telea, though it is said to
contain no body, Telea himself being buried in the tomb next to it. We
are told that, dissatisfied with the first sepulchre that was built for
him, he replaced it