454 FIJI ISLANDERS. 



ful as the Polynesians. Their language is, however, more 

 Polynesian than Negrito. Their institutions, customs, and 

 manners, were partly Polynesian, partly Negrito.* It is re- 

 markable that they did not use the consonants " b," " d," or 

 "or," without placing "m" or "n" before them, as for instance 



O* -F O 



Mbau, Nduandua, Ngata. It is well known how frequent 

 these sounds are in Negro names. 



The food of the Fiji Islanders consisted of fish, turtle, shell- 

 fish, crabs, human flesh whenever it could be obtained, taro, 

 yams, mandrai, bananas, and cocoa-nuts ; in addition to which, 

 the higher classes occasionally indulged in pigs and fowls. 

 They drank ava habitually, and at all their ceremonies. 



Their weapons consisted of spears, slings, clubs, bows and 

 arrows. The spears were from ten to fifteen feet long, and 

 were generally made of cocoa-nut wood ; the end was pointed 

 and charred ; sometimes, though not often, a sharp bone was 

 used for the point. They had several kinds of clubs, all made 

 of iron wood. That most esteemed was about three feet long, 

 with a heavy knob at the end. Another kind was somewhat 

 shovel-shaped, and might rather be called a short sword. The 

 ula was a short heavy club, about eighteen inches long, with 

 a large and heavy knob. It was used as a missile, and the 

 natives threw it with great accuracy and force. These were 

 their principal weapons, the bows and arrows being weak and 

 light. They were, however, used in war, as well as in killing 

 fish. The fortified towns of the Fijians had an earthen "ram- 

 part, about six feet thick, faced with large stones, surmounted 

 by a reed fence of cocoa-nut trunks, and surrounded by a 

 muddy moat."-)- 



Their houses were oblong, from twenty to thirty feet long, 

 and fifteen feet high. They were made of cocoa-nut wood 

 and tree fern, and were sometimes very well built. They had 



* Latham, Varieties of Man, p. 226. 



t Williams, Figi and the Figians, vol. i. p. 48. 



