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. Mariner (I.,
110-111) tells a story of two girls who, in a time of scarcity, agreed
to play a certain game with two young men on these conditions: if the
girls won, they were to divide a yam belonging to them and give half
to the men; if the two men won they were still to have their share of
the yam, but they were to go and kill a man and give half his body to
the girls. The men won and promptly proceeded to carry out their part
of the contract. Concealing themselves near a fortress, they soon saw
a man who came to fill his cocoanut shells with water. They rushed on
him with their clubs, brought the body home at the risk of their
lives, divided it and gave the young women the promised half.