THE TONGA ISLANDS.

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not enquire into such particulars as he other-wise would have done : but the most wonderfulpart of the story is, that the whole track ofground through which the body was draggedhad ever since been destitute of grass, as wellas the spot on which it lay for two or threedays. It w r as this circumstance, principally,that engaged Mr. Mariner to visit the place,and there, indeed, he found the bare track ofground from the beach to near the place wherethey say he was buried ; nor has it much theappearance of a beaten path, besides that itleads to and from places, where there are butfew inhabitants: at the termination of this trackthere is a bare place, lying transversely, aboutthe length and breadth of a man.

However trivial such relations may appearin themselves, they are worth mentioning, witha view to contrast them with the accounts givenby credible travellers, that they may tend toprove how far the statements of the nativesmay be depended on ; besides which, in someinstances, as in the present, they shew whatkind of superstitions they are subject to (foranother instance of this kind, see the affair ofthe missionaries, p. 61). As to the bare track,although it may not now have much the appear-ance of a beaten path, owing to the grass hav-ing grown irregularly on either side, yet there