2 94 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The canoes when approaching the shore would indicate that human 

 prey was on board by striking the water at intervals with a pole. See- 

 ing the splashes, the natives gathered in a howling mob along the shore, 

 the women breaking into a wild, lascivious dance. The victims were 

 seized by the arms and dragged to the temple, their captors chanting 

 the cannibal song: 



Yari au malua. Yari au malua. 

 Drag me gently. Drag me gently. 



Oi au na saro ni nomu vanua. 



For I am the champion of thy land. 

 Yi mudokia! Yi mudokia! Yi mudokia! 

 Give thanks! Give thanks! Give thanks! 



Ki Dama le! 

 Yi! u-woa-ai-a! 



Sharp-edged strips of bamboo served as knives for the butcher, and 

 after being roasted or steamed, the flesh was eaten by means of a wooden 

 fork, each high chief having one of these which it was tabu for any one 

 but himself to touch. 



Cannibalism was dreaded by the lower classes for they were for- 

 bidden to participate in the feasts, and were themselves most frequently 

 the victims of these orgies. Thus when the missionaries succeeded in 

 developing even in a rudimentary form the force of "public opinion" 

 the practice was suppressed far more easily than had been anticipated, 

 for it was a rite maintained by the aristocracy and the priests and had 

 become a terrible engine of despotism. 



Another institution which appears to have been practised from time 

 immemorial in Fiji was polygamy. The great majority of Fijians were 

 not polygamous, however, for only the highest chiefs could afford to 

 maintain more than one wife, and even those of most exalted rank 

 rarely had more than ten wives. There is reason to suppose that the 

 number of women has always been less than that of men in Fiji, owing 

 to the greater care devoted to the rearing of warriors. 



A man of the middle classes rarely married before the age of 

 twenty-five, at which time his mother chose a wife from among the 

 daughters of his maternal uncle (his orthogamous cousins, veidavolani). 

 One quarter of all Fijian marriages are still of this character, and they 

 produce healthy offspring. 



Men of the lowest class frequently remained bachelors throughout 

 life, and all unmarried females of the peasantry were disposed of by 

 the chief of the tribe. In Mbau this match-making chief was next in 

 rank to the vunivalu, Thakombau. It is evident that Basil Thomson is 

 right when he says that the abandonment of polygamy could have had 

 no serious influence upon the vitality of the race, for it affected too few. 



i Williams was by far the most assiduous and accurate observer of Fijian 

 customs, and it is to be regretted that his manuscript was edited and "re- 

 pressed" by a Mr. Eowe of London who had never visited Fiji. 



