onga sometimes heard an echo and caught a
glimpse of these high debates in the rumble of thunder and the flash of
lightning.[100] In the blissful abode of Bolotoo the souls of chiefs and
nobles lived for ever, being not subject to a second death, and there
they feasted upon all the favourite productions of their native country,
which grew also abundantly in the happy island.[101]

[100] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 110 _sq._, 130, 131, 139,
140.

[101] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 423.

A less cheerful picture, however, of the state of souls in the other
world was painted for Commodore Wilkes by the missionaries who furnished
him with information on the native religion of the Tongans. According to
them, the souls were forced to become the servants, or rather slaves, of
the long-tailed deity Hikuleo, whose commands they had no choice but to
execute. His house and all things in it were even constructed of the
souls of the dead; and he went so far as to make fences out of them and
bars to his gates, an indignity which must have been deeply resented by
the proud spirits of kings and nobles.[102] How this gloomy picture of
the fate of souls in Bolotoo is to be reconciled with the bright
descriptions of it which I have drawn from the pages of Mariner and
Cook, it is not easy to say. Apparently we must acquiesce in the
discrepancy. That savages should entertain inconsistent views on the
life after death need not surprise us, when we remember how little
accurate information even civilised peoples possess on that momentous
subject.

[102] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring
Expedition_, iii. 23. The writer here speaks of Bulotu, where he
should have said Hikuleo. See above, p. 89, note^1.

Sec. 9. _The Souls of the Dead as Gods_

We have seen that according to Mariner, our best authority on Tongan
religion, the souls of dead nobles ranked as gods, possessing all the
powers and attributes of the primary or original deities, though in an
inferior degree.[103] Thus, like the primary gods, they had the power of
returning to Tonga to inspire priests, relations, or other people.[104]
For example, the son of Finow, the King, used to be inspired by the
spirit of Toogoo Ahoo, a former king of Tonga, who had been assassinated
with the connivance of his successor, Finow. One day Mariner asked this
young chief how he felt when he was visited by the spirit of the
murdered monarc