ANCESTOR -WORSHIP AMONG THE FIJIANS. 671 



ANCESTOR-WORSHIP AMONG THE FIJIANS.* 



By BASIL II. THOMSON. 



THERE are more gods than tribes among the Fijians, and it.is 

 manifestly impossible to give an account of the religions of 

 them all within reasonable limits ; hence I take as a type the tribes 

 inhabiting the northern and eastern portions of the island of Viti- 

 Levu, the part of the group first colonized by Fijians. Like the 

 Greeks, the Fijians made their gods as beings of like passions 

 with themselves ; but whatever may have been the fountain head 

 of Greek mythology, it is clear that the Fijians humanized their 

 gods, because they had once existed on earth in human form. 

 Their mythology was traditional history. Like other primitive 

 peoples, the Fijians deified their ancestors. The father ruled the 

 family. Each member of it turned to him for the ordering of his 

 daily life. No scheme entered the head of the young man that 

 did not depend upon the consent or prohibition of the head of his 

 family. Suddenly the father died. How were his sons to rid 

 themselves of the idea of his controlling influence that had guided 

 them ever since they were born, even though they had buried his 

 body ? He had been wont to threaten them with punishment 

 for disobedience, and even now, when they did the things of 

 which he disapproved in life, punishment was sure to follow 

 the crops failed, a hurricane unroofed the hut, floods swept away 

 the canoe. 



If they won a victory over their enemies, it was he who had 

 strengthened their arms in response to their prayers and offer- 

 ings. Then each son of the dead father founded his own family, 

 but still owed allegiance to their eldest brother, who represented 

 their father as the head of the joint family. Generations came 

 and went ; the tribe even increased its tens to hundreds, but still 

 the eldest son of the eldest, who carried in his veins the blood of 

 the common ancestor in its purest form, was venerated as the head 

 of the tribe. The name of the ancestor was not forgotten. He 

 was now a god, and had his temple and his priests, who had them- 

 selves come to be hereditary and had the strong motive of self- 

 interest for keeping his memory green. My belief is that the 

 extra-tribal mythology of the Fijians is in fact legendary history, 

 that the gods that peopled their Olympus had been the men who 

 were the founders of their race. The story of their origin, history, 

 and beliefs is contained in a poem, the Saga of Nakauvadra, by an 

 u nknown author, a specimen of which follows : 



* Abridged from an address delivered before the Anthropological Institute of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, and published in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 



