OF THE TONGA PEOPLE.

303

“ accidentally to be interrupted, they never<c found the smallest difficulty in recovering the“ proper place of the dance or song : and their** perfect discipline was in no instance more re-“ markable than in the sudden transitions they“ so dexterously made from the ruder exer-“ tions and harsh sounds, to the softest airs and“ gentlest movements.

“ About eleven o’clock (in the morning),<c they began to exhibit various dances, which“ they called mai. The music consisted at first“ of seventy men as a chorus, who sat down,“ and amidst them were placed three instru-“ ments, which we called drums, though very“ unlike them. They are large cylindrical“ pieces of wood or trunks of trees, from three“ to four feet long, some twice as thick as an“ ordinary sized man, and some smaller, hol-“ low r ed entirely out, but close at both ends,“ and open only by a chink about three inches“ broad, running almost the whole length of“ the drums: by which opening the rest of“ the wood is certainly hollowed, though the“ operation must be difficult. This instrument“ is called naffa; and, with the chink turned“ towards them, they sit and beat strongly upon“ it with two cylindrical pieces of hard wood,“ about a foot long, and as thick as the wrist:“ by which means they produce a rude, though