Let us
therefore enjoy the present time, for to-morrow perhaps or
the next day we may die. We will dress ourselves with _chi
coola_, and put bands of white _tappa_ round our waists: we
will plait thick wreaths of _jiale_ for our heads, and
prepare strings of _hooni_ for our necks, that their
whiteness may show off the color of our skins. Mark how the
uncultivated spectators are profuse of their applause!--But
now the dance is over: let us remain here to-night, and
feast and be cheerful, and to-morrow we will depart for the
_Mooa_. How troublesome are the young men, begging for our
wreaths of flowers, while they say in their flattery, 'See
how charming these young girls look coining from
_Licoo_!--how beautiful are their skins, diffusing around a
fragrance like the flowery precipice of _Mataloco_:' Let us
also visit _Licoo_; we will depart to-morrow."
A CANNIBAL BARGAIN
This story intimates, what may be true, that the Fijians first taught
the Tongans the art of war, and if the Tongans were not originally a
warlike people, we would have in that significant fact alone an
explanation of much of their superiority to other Pacific islanders.
The Fijians also appear to have taught them cannibalism, to which,
however, they never became so addicted as their teachers.
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