FIJI ISLANDS. 331 



made its contribution, a part or the whole of it at once proceeded 

 to perform the prepared dance, and when this was over another 

 party approached the table, and so on. 



The people as they filed up to the table formed a wonderful 

 spectacle. The girls were most of them without coverings to 

 their breasts, but the upper parts of their bodies were literally 

 running with cocoanut oil, and glistened in the sun. The men 

 and boys were painted in all imaginable ways, with three 

 colours, red, black, and blue. There were Wesleyans with face 

 and body all red, others with them all blackened soot black, others 

 with one half the face red, the other black. Some had the face 

 red and the body black, and vice versd. Some were spotted all 

 over with red and black. Some had black spectacles painted 

 round the eyes. Some had a black forehead and red chin. 

 Some were blue spotted, or striped on the face with blue, and 

 so on to infinite variety. How amused would John Wesley have 

 been if he could have seen his Fijian followers in such guise ! 



For many of the dances the men were most elaborately 

 dressed. They were covered with festoons of the finest gauzy 

 white tappa, or cuticle of the shoot cf the cocoanut tree. These 

 hung in long folds from the backs of their heads, and were 

 wrapped round their bodies as far as up to the armpits and 

 hung from the waist down to the knees in such quantity as to 

 stick out almost in crinoline fashion. Eound the men's heads 

 were turbans, or high cylindrical tubes or mitres of white tappa, 

 whilst hanging on their breasts were pearl oyster shells set 

 in whales' teeth, the most valuable ornament which a Fijian 

 possesses, and which he is forbidden by the chiefs to sell. 



Some of the men had remarkable head-dresses. One of 

 them for instance had, sticking out from the front of his head, 

 and secured in his hair, a pair of light thin twigs of wood, which 

 were a yard in length. They were slightly bent over in front of 

 his face, and at their extremities were fastened plumes of red 

 feathers. The whole was elaborately decorated. As he danced, 

 the red plumes swayed and shook at each jerk of his head with 

 great effect. 



The most interesting dances were a Club Dance and a Fan 

 Dance, in each of which a large body of full-grown fighting men, 



