Why do the Tongans
p. 53 · Read in the full issue
Wear Mats?
VTO one knows why Tongans, men or women, may not be regarded as properly or formally dressed un less they have around their waist a piece of matting.
When the Queen of Tonga was departing by ship from Nukualofa in November, and parties of Tongans were gathering on the shore and wharf to shout their farewells, all except the most lowly wore the mat.
These people were typical. Even the stevedores’ labourers, working the cargo, carried the emblem. “A European, at a formal gathering, must wear a tie and a coat,” said an educated Tongan. “It is the same with us—we must wear a mat.”
On joyful occasions, the mats worn are well-made and gay. But when it is an unhappy time, doleful ness is expressed through the mats.
Tongans at a funeral, for example, indicate their sorrow by wearing old, tattered and soiled mats.
Persons of high degree wear big mats, two or three feet in depth.
Ordinary people have smaller em blems.
In the photograph below some Nukualofa residents looking quite happy, show what’s currently being worn in the way of mats by the ordinary man in the street.