302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



walls, and were sometimes surrounded by moats. There are no records 

 of protracted sieges, for the attacking party never could carry sufficient 

 food to enable them to remain long before the walls of the besieged. 

 They depended almost wholly upon treachery, ambushes or sudden 

 and unexpected assaults; and to kill a woman or a child or even a pig 

 was considered a creditable feat, as when Thakombau's warriors re- 

 turned to Mbau boasting, "We have killed seven of the enemy's pigs 

 and two women." Before the introduction of firearms, it is probable 

 that native warfare caused but little loss of life, for fear kept the com- 

 batants skulking at a fairly safe distance from one another. 



Wilkes, who himself made war upon the natives of Malolo after 

 they had killed Lieutenant Underwood and Midshipman Henry, de- 

 scribes their martial customs at great length and should be read by 

 those interested in the matter. 



The cruelties practised when a town was overcome were unspeak- 

 able, and on the island of Wakaia the chief and all within his village 

 threw themselves over a high cliff to be dashed to death rather than 

 surrender. 



Fijian warfare, like that of cannibalism, is indeed a sordid subject. 

 Not a single struggle waged by any tribe was for the establishment of a 

 worthy principle. Lust for murder, the capture of women, revenge 

 for real, or more often imaginary, insults were the actuating motives 

 of all native wars. There is in the language no word expressing dis- 

 approbation for the killing of a human being. Indeed, no matter how 

 brutal, treacherous or cowardly the murder of man, woman or child 

 the murderer immediately gained the proud title of koroi, which in- 

 sured to him a good position among the spirits of the world to come, 

 and permitted him to blacken his face and chest with a peculiar war- 

 paint. Murder was thus an open sesame to social distinction and re- 

 ligious well-being. 



The Fijians are courageous in the sense that all men are brave 

 when wrought up to the point of action, and when facing a situation 

 they understand. Their first sight of a horse, however, drove even 

 the doughtiest warriors to take refuge in the trees, and when upon a 

 dark night Wilkes came to anchor off the coast and set off rockets, the 

 silence of the shore broke into a long shriek of terror, village after 

 village catching the contagion of the fright. Even to-day the white 

 man inspires a mysterious lurking fear, and in the mountain villages 

 and in parts rarely visited by Europeans, the women and little children 

 shrink and run at your approach, and even the men seem somewhat 

 " stage struck." To their minds we must be past masters of witchcraft. 



Indeed, in common with all beliefs and practises which may be 

 securely hidden from the eyes of Europeans, witchcraft still survives 

 in Fiji, as it does among the lower classes of Europe and America. The 

 natives are fond of the "occult" and several miracles are still per- 



