The Tongan Islands lie to the south-east of Fiji, with which there used to be considerable intercourse. Unfortunately, people's democratizing habits have considerably obscured the organization of the lower orders. The nobility consists of king and big feudal chiefs. In Tonga, as in Fiji, it is applied to chieftains invested with various functions. "Some of the matabooles", says William Mariner, "are adepts at some art or profession, such as canoe-building, or superintending funeral rites: this last, though a ceremony, the generality of the matabooles do not attend as it is also a distinct profession". Persons may be of mixed descent. In that case they do not form a mixed caste, but pass themselves off as noble, as suiting their purpose. Thus noblemen are not allowed to sit in the king's kava ring. When Mariner remonstrated, the king explained that the man "was only a low, vulgar fellow and that neither his life nor death was of any consequence to society".