OF THE TONGA PEOPLE.

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that young superior chiefs have, for the mostpart, old matabooles, and, as they grow older,they begin to have younger matabooles, whosucceed their deceased fathers.

In respect to the tooas , they may be sub-divided into three ranks, viz. those few whoare warriors, and are part of the cow-tangata ofchiefs; those who are professed cooks, in theservice of chiefs; and those who till the ground.The latter live entirely in the country withtheir wives and families, and occupy themselveswholly in cultivating the land : their wives anddaughtei’s make gnatoo, mats, &c., but nevertill the ground, nor do any hard work.

The natives of Fiji , Hamoa, and the Sand-wich islands, who were resident at Tonga , usedto say that it was not a good practice of thepeople of the latter place to let their womenlead such easy lives; the men, they said, hadenough to do in matters of war, &c. and thewomen ought therefore to be made to workhard and till the ground: no, say the Tonga men, it is not gnalefaf'me (consistent with thefeminine character) to let them do hard work;women ought only to do what is feminine : wholoves a masculine woman ? besides, men arestronger, and therefore it is but proper thatthey should do the hard labour. It seems tobe a peculiar trait in the character of the Tonga