



o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



be a great disfigurement, and the defect was concealed by a wig. To 

 preserve these unwieldy mops of hair, the natives were obliged to sleep 

 upon a wooden pillow which was placed under the neck and held the 

 head four or five inches above the floor. 



To the European, all customs are apt to be classed as "bad" in 

 proportion as they differ from those of his own race, but it should be 

 said that in Fiji the missionaries have been more conservative and dis- 

 played far more sympathy and sense in their reforms than elsewhere 

 in the Pacific. Nevertheless, all forms of really active exercises or keen 

 enjoyment have a somewhat wicked appearance to a certain type of 

 religious mind, and unhappily the mediocre man is the one who is 

 apt to rule in deciding the fate of such affairs. They too often fail to 

 see that when an old custom is to be abolished something should be de- 

 vised to take its place. Thus their vandalism of bigotry has resulted in 

 destroying or hindering the open practise of nearly all the old arts and 

 amusements; and almost nothing but hymns and prayers and a cheer- 

 less sabbath resembling that of Puritan days in old New England have 

 been given to the natives in exchange for all they have been forced to 

 surrender. 



The Fijians once took great delight in their club dances, but these 

 have now been repressed and have lost much of their former anima- 

 tion. In one of these festivities which we witnessed the men leaped 

 frantically in perfect unison, branishing their clubs and throwing them 

 from hand to hand, often shielding their eyes with one hand as if 

 searching for a hidden or distant enemy. At regular intervals they 

 shouted Wa hoo! in a fierce yell that could have been heard at a dis- 

 tance of a quarter of a mile, while all the village crowded in a square 

 around the dancers, beating log drums, clapping hands and chanting 

 something which sounded like " Somo seri rangi tu Somo seri somo," 

 over and over again. Often the meanings of words used in their songs 

 are unknown to the natives of modern times. Wilkes gives an excellent 

 description of a club-dance in which the best dancers were mimicked by 

 a clown covered from head to foot with green and dried leaves, and 

 wearing a mask half orange and half black. 



The milder mekes (songs with gestures) are wisely encouraged by 

 the missionaries, and these are still a source of constant amusement to 

 the natives. Fiji has not yet been suppressed into a realm of sullen 

 silence as have too many parts of the Pacific. 



There is a fascination in the elemental force of the word-pictures 

 in these songs. We stifle in the heavy air of the dull and ominous calm. 

 Then comes the rising roar of the onrush and our hearts go out to the 

 frail canoes struggling so bravely in a maddened sea, and the pathos 

 of life and death is there when the hot sun glares down once more, and 

 the ripples glint unheedingly around the silent floating thing over 

 which the sea-birds scream. 



{To be continued.) 



