462 CHARACTER OF THE FIJIAXS. 



and taro, fifteen tons of sweet pudding, seventy turtles, five 

 cartloads of yaquona, and about two hundred tons of uncooked 

 yams. One pudding, at a Lakemba feast, measured twenty- 

 one feet in circumference." Yet so habitual has cannibalism 

 become, that they have no word for a corpse which does not 

 include the idea of something edible. Human flesh is known 

 as " puaka balava," or " long pig/' * " On contemplating the 

 character of this extraordinary people/' says Erskine,-)- " the 

 mind is struck with wonder and awe at the mixture of a 

 complicated and carefully-conducted political system, highly 

 finished manners, and ceremonious politeness, with a ferocity 

 and practice of savage vices which is probably unparalleled in 

 any other part of the world." " Murder/' says Mr. Williams, 

 " is not an occasional thing in Figi, but habitual, systematic, 

 and classed among ordinary transactions." J Elsewhere he 

 tells us that no Fijian ever feels safe with a stranger at his 

 heels, and that to be "an acknowledged murderer is the 

 object of the Figian's restless ambition." || On the island of 

 Vanua Levu, even among the women, there were " few who 

 had not in some way been murderers." ^[ To this they are 

 trained up from infancy. " One of the first lessons taught the 

 infant is to strike its mother." At Somo-somo, Mr. Williams 

 saw mothers leading their children " to kick and tread upon 

 the dead bodies of enemies."** No wonder that under these 

 circumstances " a happy and united household is most rare." 

 Indeed it is nearly impossible, for by an arrangement, which 

 seems almost incredible, "brothers and sisters, first cousins, 



* Erskine, 1. c. p. 260. Other 



mammalia, when introduced into t Erskine, 1. c. p. 272. 



the South Sea Islands, received J Figi and the Figians, vol. i. 



names indicative of their similarity p. 134. 



to this their principal quadruped: I.e. p. 133. 



thus the horse was called the "man- || 1. c. p. 1 12. 



carrying pig" in Tahiti ; the sheep IT 1. c. p. 180. 



was the " hog with teeth on its fore- ** 1. c. p. 177. 

 head" (Forster, 1. c. p. 384). 



