OF THE TONGA PEOPLE.
235
thus schooled: nor would any one, as Mr. Ma-riner believes, undertake an important surgicaloperation, unless he feels himself confident inwhat he is about to perform ; and it must besaid of them, that they are not rash in theiropinions. When a surgeon performs an opera-tion, he never fails to obtain a present from thepatient or his friends.
The three most important operations aretawso, or paracentesis thoracis; tocolosi, or anoperation for the cure of tetanus, which con-sists in making a seton of the urethra j andboca, or castration.
Cawso is an operation which is performedto allow of the escape of extravasated blood,which may have lodged in the cavity of thethorax, in consequence of wounds, or for theextraction of a broken arrow. There are noother instances where they think of performingit. The instruments they use are a piece ofbamboo and a splinter of shell; sometimes aprobe made of the inid-rib of the cocoa-nutleaf. Mr. Mariner has seen a number ofpersons on whom the operation had been per-formed, and who were in perfect health; andtwo instances of the fact itself he was an eye-witness to. The one we are about to describewas performed upon a Fiji islander, who hadreceived a barbed arrow in the right side, be-