Chap, xiii.] REMAINS OF ANCIENT TEMPLE. 273 



The top of the hill was formerly used as a general refuse 

 heap by the natives, but it is now occupied by the house of the 

 missionary. The native houses all lie on the flat low tract 

 close to the sea. Mbau has long been a native fortress of 

 great strength. Hence the immense labour which has been 

 spent on its formation. It is now the residence of King 

 Thackombau, and almost every one in the island is a chief or 

 of high family. 



Nearly the whole surface of the island, including the hill- 

 ground, is covered with a thick kitchen-midden deposit of 

 black soil, full of large trochus-shells and cockles {Cardium), 

 which abound on the mud flats all around. Mingled with 

 these are quantities of human bones, Mbau having been one 

 of the places in F"iji at which cannibalism was most largely 

 practised. There are very few trees growing on Mbau, and the 

 food, such as taro and yams, is all brought from the main land, 

 where there are extensive plantations. 



One of the most interesting features in Mbau is perhaps the 

 stone against which the heads of the human victims destined 

 for the oven were dashed, in the ceremony of presenting them 

 to the god Denge. This stone stands close to one corner of 

 the remains of the foundations of the ancient temple of Denge, 

 the " Na Vatani Tawake." The temple itself was destroyed 

 when the Mbauans became Christians, but the mound on which 

 it stood remains, and is of great interest. 



It is a large oblong tumulus of earth, supported by two 

 series of vertically-placed slabs of stone, exactly similar to those 

 used for the sea parapet. The slabs of the lower series are 

 much larger than those of the upper, and the upper series is 

 placed further inwards, a sort of step being thus formed all 

 round the tumulus. The mound must be about 12 feet high, 

 and some of the stones of the lower series are more than six 

 feet in height. 



Opposite the centre of one side is set up a large column of 

 basalt, and there is another opposite the strangers' house. 

 These columns are said to have been taken in war, from some 

 enemies on Viti Levu, and intended to have been used as 

 posts for the king's house. The columns are, however, said by 

 Dana* to have been brought by a Mbau chief from a small 

 island in the harbour of Kandavu, which is composed of them, 

 and they were long desperately defended by the inhabitants, 

 who held them sacred. 



* Dana: " U. S. Expl. Ex., Geology," p. 348- The coUimns at Mbau 

 are referred to by Capt. Erskine, " Islands of the Western Pacific," p. 193, 

 London, J. Murray, 1853, who, however, did not recognise them as of 

 unartificial formation. 



18 



