eems
not to have been, as Mariner supposed, peculiar to the funeral of the
Tooitonga; for at the burial of King Moom[=o]oe, in May 1797, the first
missionaries saw files of women and men bringing bags of valuable
articles, fine mats, and bales of cloth, which they deposited in the
tomb expressly as a present for the dead.[228] Again, the mourning
costume worn for the Tooitonga was the same as that for any chief,
consisting of ragged old mats on the body and leaves of the _ifi_ tree
round the neck; but in the case of the Tooitonga the time of mourning
was extended to four months, the mats being generally left off after
three months, while the leaves were still retained for another month;
and the female mourners remained within the burial-ground (_fytoca,
fiatooka_) for about two months, instead of twenty days, only retiring
occasionally to temporary houses in the neighbourhood to eat or for
other necessary purposes.[229]

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

[228] Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to the Southern
Pacific Ocean_, p. 243.

[229] W. Mariner, _op. cit._ ii. 214 _sq._

One very remarkable peculiarity in the mourning for a Tooitonga was
that, though he ranked above the king and all other chiefs, the mourners
strictly abstained from manifesting their grief by wounding their heads
and cutting their bodies in the manner that was customary at the
funerals of all other great men. Mariner was never able to learn the
reason for this abstention.[230]

[230] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 213.

Other peculiar features in the obsequies of a Tooitonga were the
following. In the afternoon of the day of burial, when the body of the
Tooitonga was already within the burial-ground, almost every man, woman,
and child, all dressed in the usual mourning garb, and all provided with
torches, used to sit down about eighty yards from the grave; in the
course of an hour a multitude of several thousands would thus assemble.
One of the female mourners would then come forth from the burial-ground
and call out to the people, saying, "Arise ye, and approach"; whereupon
the people would get up, and advancing about forty yards would again sit
down. Two men behind the grave now began to blow conch-shells, and six
others, with large lighted torches, about six feet high, advanced from
behind the burial-ground, descended the mound, and walked in single file
several times between the burial-ground