624 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
A social peculiarity, distinguishing the hill men from those of 
the coast and the lesser islands, is their Bure life, or clubs. 
These again distinguish the tribes inhabiting the wooded half of 
the island of Navitilevu from the people of Navosa, or the grassy 
districs. The distinctive mountain Aure is a long building,* the 
largest in the village; and some villages have two or three. 
Ranged along the walls the chiefs and elders of the tribe have 
their places. Stalls are fitted up, with fire-places between ; grass 
is laid down, and on that a mat, and here the occupants lie at 
ease, resting their arms on the poles that form the top of the low 
stalls, and exposing their bodies to the genial warmth of the 
burning logs in the fire-places—for the night-air of those hill 
regions is chilly. Here, in the dure, they eat, drink yanggona,t 
smoke, discuss local matters and such news from other parts of 
the country as filtrates to them, and fall asleep one after another 
at their own sweet will. The institution is a most sociable one 
for the men. What of family life there is exists during the day, 
for married men have their small houses, some having more than 
one, in which they meet their wives and children; a good 
part of their day, too, is spent in the woods, where they have 
gardens at a considerable distance from the village. At night 
the men congregate together in the club-houses. The club, that 
recognised offspring of our civilised life, has its analogue in the 
so-called barbarous life of the Fijian mountaineer ; and there is 
really something very cosy, sociable, and jolly about this com- 
fortable Highland Club. 
Another building, without which a mountain town would have 
been incomplete, was the Bure alow (spirit bure or temple). 
These were picturesque erections, perched on very high mounds, { 
and further conspicuous by tall, narrow roofs, somewhat suggestive 
of a pagoda. The last I saw was in the village of Bengga, on the 
head-waters of the Navua River. It was small and entirely new, 
and had just been built for a war begun with Namosi. It was 
very neat and carefully built, and stood upon a high foundation 
formed of pebbles from the stream hard by. Close to it stood an 
orange-tree, from which depended a sacred axe brightly gleaming 
in the sun. I was told that on special occasions the priest of the 
temple would take down this weapon, and entering into the 
Bure Kalou, rub it with certain leaves to “make it kill.” During 
my stay in this village the axe zas taken down and carried into the 
temple under suspicious circumstances, but for sundry reasons we 
did not wait for developments. Another temple that I saw was 
at Narokorokoyawa, on the Wai-ni-mala ; the building was larger 
and older than the one at Beqa—the interior was very unattrac- 
tive, but at the door hung two large shells of the conch species, 
f=) : 
called “ Davui” by the natives. These were suspended by stout, 
* This is the Long House of the Banks’ Islanders, the N. A. Indians, and other tribes. 
+ Kaya, the piper methysticum. + The teocallis of Mexico, the “ high places” of Scripture. 
