The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume Ii Part 6

Intellectually the Tongans are reported to "surpa.s.s all the other South Sea islanders in their mental development, showing great skill in the structure of their dwellings and the manufacture of their implements, weapons, and dress."[26] They are bold navigators,[27] and Captain Cook observes that "nothing can be a more demonstrative evidence of their ingenuity than the construction and make of their canoes, which, in point of neatness and workmans.h.i.+p, exceed everything of this kind we saw in this sea."[28] However, the Tongans appear to have acquired much of their skill in the art of building and rigging canoes through intercourse with the Fijians, their neighbours to the west, who, though their inferiors in seamans.h.i.+p and the spirit of marine adventure, originally surpa.s.sed them in naval architecture.[29] Indeed we are told that all the large Tongan canoes are built in Fiji, because the Tongan islands do not furnish any timber fit for the purpose. Hence a number of Tongans are constantly employed in the windward or eastern islands of the Fiji group building these large canoes, a hundred feet or more in length, a process which, it is said, lasts six or seven years.[30] The debt which in this respect the Tongans owe to the Fijians was necessarily unknown to Captain Cook, since he never reached the Fijian islands and knew of them only by report, though he met and questioned a few Fijians in Tongataboo.[31]

[26] F. H. H. Guillemard, _Australasia_, ii. pp. 498 _sq._

[27] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 264.

[28] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 197.

[29] W. Mariner, _The Tonga Islands_, ii. 263 _sqq._

[30] J. E. Erskine, _op. cit._ p. 132.

[31] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 396 _sq._

When Captain Cook visited the Tonga islands he found the land almost everywhere in a high state of cultivation. He says that "cultivated roots and fruits being their princ.i.p.al support, this requires their constant attention to agriculture, which they pursue very diligently, and seem to have brought almost to as great perfection as circ.u.mstances will permit."[32] The plants which they chiefly cultivated and which furnished them with their staple foods were yams and plantains. These were disposed in plantations enclosed by neat fences of reeds about six feet high and intersected by good smooth roads or lanes, which were shaded from the scorching sun by fruit-trees.[33] Walking on one of these roads Cook tells us, "I thought I was transported into the most fertile plains in Europe. There was not an inch of waste ground; the roads occupied no more s.p.a.ce than was absolutely necessary; the fences did not take up above four inches each; and even this was not wholly lost, for in many places were planted some useful trees or plants. It was everywhere the same; change of place altered not the scene. Nature, a.s.sisted by a little art, nowhere appears in more splendour than at this isle."[34] Interspersed among these plantations irregularly were bread-fruit trees and coco-nut palms, of which the palms in particular, raising their tufted heads in air above the sea of perpetual verdure, formed a pleasing ornament of the landscape.[35] There were no towns or villages; most of the houses were built in the plantations, generally surrounded by trees or ornamental shrubs, whose fragrancy perfumed the air.[36]

[32] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 411 _sq._

[33] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 184, 195, v. 274, 316, 357, 416.

[34] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 184.

[35] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 274, 357.

[36] _Id._ iii. 196.

When Captain Cook surveyed this rich and beautiful country, the islands were and had long been at peace, so that the natives were able to devote themselves without distraction to the labour of tilling the soil and providing in other ways for the necessities of life. Unhappily shortly after his visit to the islands wars broke out among the inhabitants and continued to rage more or less intermittently for many years. Even the introduction of Christianity in the early part of the nineteenth century, far from a.s.suaging the strife, only added bitterness to it by furnis.h.i.+ng a fresh pretext for hostilities, in which apparently the Christians were sometimes the aggressors with the connivance or even the encouragement of the missionaries.[37] In consequence cultivation was neglected and large portions of land were allowed to lie waste.[38]

[37] This is affirmed by the Catholic missionary, Jerome Grange (_Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, xvii. (1845) pp. 15 _sqq._), and though he writes with a manifest prejudice against his rivals the Protestant missionaries, his evidence is confirmed by Commodore Wilkes, the commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, who on his visit to Tongataboo found the Christians and heathens about to go to war with each other. He attempted to make peace between them, but in vain. The heathen were ready to accept his overtures, but "it was evident that King George and his advisers, and, indeed, the whole Christian party, seemed to be desirous of continuing the war, either to force the heathen to become Christians, or to carry it on to extermination, which the number of their warriors made them believe they had the power to effect. I felt, in addition, that the missionaries were thwarting my exertions by permitting warlike preparations during the pending of the negotiations."

See Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition_, iii. 7 _sqq._ (my quotation is from p. 16). The story is told from the point of view of the Protestant (Wesleyan) missionaries by Miss S. S. Farmer, _Tonga and The Friendly Islands_, pp. 293 _sqq._

[38] John Williams, _Narrative of Missionary Enterprise in the South Seas_ (London, 1838), p. 264; Charles Wilkes, _op. cit._ iii. 32 _sq._

Like all the Polynesians the natives of Tonga were ignorant of the metals, and their only tools were made of stone, bone, sh.e.l.ls, shark's teeth, and rough fish-skins. They fas.h.i.+oned axes, or rather adzes, out of a smooth black stone, which they procured from the volcanic island of Tufoa; they used sh.e.l.ls as knives; they constructed augers out of shark's teeth, fixed on handles; and they made rasps of the rough skin of a fish, fastened on flat pieces of wood. With such imperfect tools they built their canoes and houses, reared the ma.s.sive tombs of their kings; and did all their other work.[39] The wonder is that with implements so imperfect they could accomplish so much and raise themselves to a comparatively high level among savages.

[39] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 199, v. 414 _sq._ Captain Cook says that the only piece of iron he found among the Tongans was a small broad awl, which had been made of a nail.

But this nail they must have procured either from a former navigator, perhaps Tasman, or from a wreck.

A feature of the Tongan character in which the islanders evinced their superiority to most of the Polynesians was their regard for women. In most savage tribes which practise agriculture the labour of tilling the fields falls in great measure on the female s.e.x, but it was not so in Tonga. There the women never tilled the ground nor did any hard work, though they occupied themselves with the manufacture of bark-cloth, mats, and other articles of domestic use. Natives of Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii, who resided in Tonga, used to remark on the easy lives led by the Tongan women, and remonstrated with the men on the subject, saying that as men underwent hards.h.i.+ps and dangers in war and other masculine pursuits, so women ought to be made to labour in the fields and to toil for their living. But the Tongan men said that "it is not _gnale fafine_ (consistent with the feminine character) to let them do hard work; women ought only to do what is feminine: who loves a masculine woman? besides, men are stronger, and therefore it is but proper that they should do the hard labour."[40]

[40] W. Mariner, _The Tonga Islands_, ii. 287. Compare _id._ ii.

124, note *; Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 410 _sq._

Further, it is to the credit of the Tongans that, unlike many other Polynesians, they were not generally cannibals, and indeed for the most part held in abhorrence the practice of eating human bodies. Still young warriors occasionally devoured the corpses of their enemies in imitation of the Fijians, imagining that in so doing they manifested a fierce, warlike, and manly spirit. On one occasion, returning from such a repast, they were shunned by every one, especially by the women, who upbraided them, saying, "Away! you are a man-eater."[41]

[41] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 194; compare _id._ i.

317-320.

The government of the Tongan islanders was eminently monarchical and aristocratic. A strict subordination of ranks was established which has been aptly compared to the feudal system. At the head of the social edifice were two chiefs who bore some resemblance to the Emperor and the Pope of mediaeval Europe, the one being the civil and military head of the State, while the other embodied the supreme spiritual power.

Nominally the spiritual chief, called the Tooitonga, ranked above the civil chief or king, who paid him formal homage; but, as usually happens in such cases, the real government was in the hands of the secular rather than of the religious monarch. The Tooitonga was acknowledged to be descended from one of the chief G.o.ds; he is spoken of by Mariner, our princ.i.p.al authority, as a divine chief of the highest rank, and he is said to have enjoyed divine honours. The first-fruits of the year were offered to him, and it was supposed that if this ceremony were neglected, the vengeance of the G.o.ds would fall in a signal manner upon the people. Yet he had no power or authority in matters pertaining to the civil king.[42] The existence of such a double kings.h.i.+p, with a corresponding distribution of temporal and spiritual functions, is not uncommon in more advanced societies; its occurrence among a people so comparatively low in the scale of culture as the Tongans is remarkable.

[42] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 424 _sqq._; W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 74 _sqq._, 132 _sqq._; J. Dumont d'Urville, _Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Histoire du Voyage_, iv. (Paris, 1832) pp. 90 _sq._, "_Si tout etait suivant l'ordre legal a Tonga-Tabou, on verrait d'abord a la tete de la societe le toui-tonga qui est le veritable souverain nominal des iles Tonga, et qui jouit meme des honneurs divins_."

Below the two great chiefs or kings were many subordinate chiefs, and below them again the social ranks descended in a succession of sharply marked gradations to the peasants, who tilled the ground, and whose lives and property were entirely at the mercy of the chiefs.[43] Yet the social system as a whole seems to have worked well and smoothly. "It does not, indeed, appear," says Captain Cook, "that any of the most civilised nations have ever exceeded this people, in the great order observed on all occasions; in ready compliance with the commands of their chiefs; and in the harmony that subsists throughout all ranks, and unites them, as if they were all one man, informed with, and directed by, the same principle."[44] According to the American ethnographer, Horatio Hale, the ma.s.s of the people in the Tonga islands had no political rights, and their condition in that respect was much inferior to that of commoners in the Samoan islands, since in Tonga the government was much stronger and better organized, as he puts it, for the purpose of oppression. On the other hand, he admitted that government in Tonga was milder than in Tahiti, and infinitely preferable to the debasing despotism which prevailed in Hawaii or the Sandwich Islands.[45]

[43] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 424 _sq._, 429 _sq._; W.

Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 83 _sqq._

[44] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 426.

[45] Horatio Hale, _United States Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology_, p. 32.

-- 3. _The Tongan Religion: its General Principles_

For our knowledge of the religion and the social condition of the Tongans before they came under European influence, we are indebted chiefly to an English sailor, William Mariner, who lived as a captive among them for about four years, from 1806 to 1810.[46] His account of the natives, carefully elicited from him and published by a medical doctor, Mr. John Martin, M.D., is one of the most valuable descriptions of a savage people which we possess. Mariner was a good observer and endowed with an excellent memory, which enabled him to retain and record his experiences after his return to England. He spoke the Tongan language, and he was a special favourite of the two Tongan kings, named Finow, who reigned successively in Tonga during his residence in the islands. The kings befriended and protected him, so that he had the best opportunities for becoming acquainted with the customs and beliefs of the people. His observations have been confirmed from independent sources, and we have every reason to regard them as trustworthy. So far as we can judge, they are a simple record of facts, unbia.s.sed by theory or prejudice. In the following notice of the Tongan religion and doctrine of the human soul I shall draw chiefly on the evidence of Mariner.

[46] Mariner was captured by the Tongans on December 1, 1806, and he escaped from the islands in 1810, apparently in November, but the exact date of his escape is not given. See W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, i. 43, ii. 15 _sqq._, 68, 69.

According to him, the religion of the Tonga islanders rests, or rather used to rest, on the following notions.[47]

[47] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 97 _sqq._

They believed that there are _hotooas_,[48] G.o.ds, or superior beings, who have the power of dispensing good and evil to mankind, according to their merit, but of whose origin the Tongans formed no idea, rather supposing them to be eternal.

[48] The word is commonly spelled _atua_ in the Polynesian languages. See E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_ (Wellington, N.Z. 1891), pp. 30 _sq._, who gives _otua_ as the Tongan form.

They believed that there are other _hotooas_ or G.o.ds, who are the souls of all deceased n.o.bles and _matabooles_, that is, the companions, ministers, and counsellors of the chiefs, who form a sort of inferior n.o.bility.[49] The souls of all these dead men were held to possess a power of dispensing good and evil to mankind like the power of the superior G.o.ds, but in a lesser degree.

[49] As to the _matabooles_ see W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii.

84 _sqq._

They believed that there are besides several _hotooa pow_, or mischievous G.o.ds, who never dispense good, but only petty evils and troubles, not as a punishment, but indiscriminately to anybody, from a purely mischievous disposition.

They believed that all these superior beings, although they may perhaps have had a beginning, will have no end.

They believed that the world also is of uncertain origin, having coexisted with the G.o.ds. The sky, which they regard as solid, the heavenly bodies, and the ocean were in being before the habitable earth.

The Tonga islands were drawn up out of the depth of the sea by the G.o.d Tangaloa one day when he was fis.h.i.+ng with a line and a hook.

They believed that mankind, according to a partial tradition, came originally from Bolotoo, the chief residence of the G.o.ds, a fabulous island situated to the north-west of the Tongan archipelago. The first men and women consisted of two brothers, with their wives and attendants. They were commanded by the G.o.d Tangaloa to take up their abode in the Tonga islands, but of their origin or creation the Tongans professed to know nothing.[50]

[50] According to a later account, "on Ata were born the first men, three in number, formed from a worm bred by a rotten plant, whose seed was brought by Tangaloa from heaven. These three were afterwards provided by the Maui with wives from the Underworld."

See E. E. V. Collocot, "Notes on Tongan Religion," _Journal of the Polynesian Society_, x.x.x. (1921) p. 154.

They believed that all human evil was inflicted by the G.o.ds upon mankind on account of some neglect of religious duty, whether the neglect is the fault of the sufferers or of the chief whom they serve. In like manner the Tongans apparently referred all human good to the G.o.ds, regarding it as a reward bestowed by the divine beings on men who punctually discharged the offices of religion.[51]

[51] So apparently we must interpret Mariner's brief statement "and the contrary of good" (_Tonga Islands_, ii. 98).

They believed that n.o.bles had souls, which existed after death in Bolotoo, not according to their moral merit, but according to their rank in this world; these had power like that of the original G.o.ds, but less in degree. The _matabooles_, or ministers of the n.o.bles, also went after death to Bolotoo, where they existed as _matabooles_, or ministers of the G.o.ds, but they had not, like the G.o.ds and the souls of dead n.o.blemen, the power of inspiring the priests with superhuman knowledge.