eless a well-bred
Tongan looked upon theft as a meanness to which he would not condescend.
As to the seventh commandment, any breach of it was considered
scandalous in women and as something to be avoided in self-respecting
men; but, among unmarried and widowed people, chastity was held very
cheap. Nevertheless the women were extremely well treated, and often
showed themselves capable of great devotion and entire faithfulness. In
the matter of cruelty, treachery, and bloodthirstiness, these islanders
were neither better nor worse than most peoples of antiquity. It is to
the credit of the Tongans that they particularly objected to slander;
nor can covetousness be regarded as their characteristic; for Mariner
says:--

When any one is about to eat, he always shares out what he has
to those about him, without any hesitation, and a contrary
conduct would be considered exceedingly vile and selfish (vol.
ii p. 145).

In fact, they thought very badly of the English when Mariner told them
that his countrymen did not act exactly on that principle. It further
appears that they decidedly belonged to the school of intuitive moral
philosophers, and believed that virtue is its own reward; for

Many of the chiefs, on being asked by Mr. Mariner what motives
they had for conducting themselves with propriety, besides the
fear of misfortunes in this life, replied, the agreeable and
happy feeling which a man experiences within himself when he
does any good action or conducts himself nobly and generously as
a man ought to do; and this question they answered as if they
wondered such a question should be asked. (vol. ii. p. 161).

One may read from the beginning of the book of Judges to the end of the
books of Samuel without discovering that the old Israelites had a moral
standard which differs, in any essential respect (except perhaps in
regard to the chastity of unmarried women), from that of the Tongans.
Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, and David are strong-handed men, some of whom
are not outdone by any Polynesian chieftain in the matter of murder
and treachery; while Deborah's jubilation over Jael's violation of the
primary duty of hospitality, proffered and accepted under circumstances
which give a peculiarly atrocious character to the murder of the guest;
and her witch-like gloating over the picture of the disappointment of
the mother of the victim--

The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice,