Chap, xiii.] WOODEN DRUMS. 277 



Ratu David, the eldest son of Thackombau, was very hospit- 

 able, and invited us to drink kaava with him in the evening, 

 when he produced a botde of brandy also. We wished to see 

 a dance, but this was not possible, because it was Saturday 

 evening, which is by order of the missionaries kept in a certain 

 way sacred, as a preparation for Sunday. For the same reason 

 Ratu David dare not allow his retinue to sing a chant used 

 during kaava drinking, and which we were anxious to hear. 



We pitched a sort of tent on a very small islet, about forty 

 yards off Mbau, and slept there. Ratu David sent us off a 

 young pig and a couple of fowls all alive, a most welcome present. 

 They were killed and consumed within an hour of their arrival. 

 The islet on which we slept is made up of blocks of coral, 

 weathered and bored by various animals, piled up by the waves. 

 The blocks near tide-mark are so blackened by exposure, that 

 I took them at first for vesicular lava. 



Around Mbau are extensive shallow mud flats, the mud 

 being brought down by the Wai Levu. Across these flats we 

 sailed next morning, with scarcely a breath of wind, though our 

 pilot, whom we christened " Joe," kept constantly calling for a 

 breeze, using an old Fijian pilot's chant, " Come down, come 

 down, my friend from the mountains." 



As we drifted slowly away over the glassy water, the view 

 behind us was beautiful. Far away, blue in the distance, was a 

 long range of the lofty peaked mountains of Viti Levu, still the 

 abode of the Kaivolos, the long-haired mountaineers, the 

 cannibals. Nearer lay a streak of dark green undulating low 

 country, bounded seawards by low cliffs, and showing near the 

 coast the numerous cultivated clearings of the natives. Just 

 off the cliffs of Viti Levu lay the small island of Viwa. In the 

 foreground was the island of Mbau, with its crowded reed 

 houses, its strange stone parapets, and its green hill topped by 

 the missionaries' white house. From the centre of the village 

 came the sound of what was the old cannibal death drum, 

 beating now for morning prayers. 



There were two of these drums (Fijian Lali) in front of the 

 strangers' house. They are simply logs of wood, hollowed out 

 above into troughs, and supported horizontally on posts at about 

 three feet above the ground, looking like horse-troughs. One 

 was larger than another. They were beaten with two wooden 

 billets alternately, and gave out different low bass booming 

 notes. Very similar drums are used amongst the Melanesians, 

 as at Efate in the New Hebrides,* and at the Admiralty 

 Islands, where, however, they are stuck upright in the ground, 

 * "A Year in the New Hebrides," p. Ill, by F.A.Campbell. Melbourne, 

 George Robertson, 1873. 



