total height of eighteen or twenty feet. The interior
is filled up with shingle and fragments of unhewn coral. One of these
_fai-tokas_, which I measured, was a hundred and eighty feet long by a
hundred and twenty broad. At one of the upper angles I observed a block
of considerable size with a deep cutting in it. I was told that it was
the seat of the Tooi-tonga-fafine[153]; it was there that she sat to
preside at the ceremony of the funeral of the Tooi-tonga.

[153] The Tooi-tonga-fafine (or fefine) was the Tooitonga's
sister and ranked above him. Her title means "the lady
Tooi-tonga." "Her dignity is very great. She is treated as a
kind of divinity. Her rank is too high to allow of her uniting
herself in marriage with any mortal: but it is not thought wrong
or degrading for her to have a family, and in case of the birth
of a daughter the child becomes the _Tamaha_. This lady rises
higher than her mother in rank, and is nearer the gods. Every
one approaches her with gifts and homage. Her grandfather will
bring his offerings and sit down before her, with all humility,
like any of the common people. Sick people come to her for cure"
(Miss Sarah S. Farmer, _Tonga and the Friendly Islands_, p. 145,
apparently from the information of Mr. John Thomas). Captain
Cook learned with surprise that Poulaho, the Tooitonga of his
time (whom Cook speaks of as the king) acknowledged three women
as his superiors. "On our inquiring, who these extraordinary
personages were, whom they distinguish by the name and title of
_Tammaha_, we were told that the late king, Poulaho's father,
had a sister of equal rank, and elder than himself; that she, by
a man who came from the island of Feejee, had a son and two
daughters; and that these three persons, as well as their
mother, rank above Futtafaihe the king. We endeavoured, in vain,
to trace the reason of this singular pre-eminence of the
_Tammahas_; for we could learn nothing besides this account of
their pedigree. The mother and one of the daughters called
Tooeela-Kaipa, live at Vavaoo. Latoolibooloo, the son, and the
other daughter, whose name is Moungoula-Kaipa, reside at
Tongataboo. The latter is the woman who is mentioned to have
dined with me on the 21st of June. This gave occasion to our
discovering her superiority over the king, who would not eat in
her presence, th