PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 649 
The primary object of this operation seems to be blood-letting. 
A cutting instrument is used for it similar to that employed in 
THOKA LOSI, and in both the operators are men. I mention the 
latter fact because in another proceeding, termed SILI NDAKU, or 
Siti mu, performed both on women and on men, the operators 
are women. This process, though it cannot be termed a mutila- 
tion, is so strange a measure that it may be worth describing. 
The first stage of it is the administration of a prolonged sitz-bath. 
Afterwards the patient returns within doors, and sits on a mat 
on the floor of the house, the old woman doctress taking up a 
position immediately behind. She then, after oiling her fore- 
tinger, proceeds to insert it for its whole length (from behind the 
patient) into the rectum, passing it, of course, beyond the 
sphincter, and retains it there for a space of about five minutes. 
After its withdrawal the patient is told to lie down and to remain 
in the house for two days. It does not appear that any scarifica- 
tion with the finger-nail, or indeed any movement of the finger, 
is practised during this singular proceeding, and it is not clear 
what object it is expected to attain. It is administered in 
epidemic catarrhal fever and various forms of pain in the back, 
and is much more commonly resorted to in the eastern portions 
of the group than THoxKa Lost is, though used in others as well. 
The usual name by which it is known is simply “ The sitz bath,” 
and in that portion of its ceremonies the virtues or the dangers of 
SILINDAKU doubtless lie. 
Other mutilations practised by the natives of the Viti Islands 
are circumcision, tattooing, flattening of the occiput, the procura- 
tion of raised scars as ornaments about the chest, shoulders, and 
upper arms, various shavings of the head, especially in children, 
and cuttings of the hair, perforation and dilatation of the lobe of 
the ear, and the well-known amputation of one or more fingers or 
finger-joints when mourning for a deceased relative. Tattooing 
and finger-chopping have been much discouraged by the 
missionaries, being regarded by them as associated with heathen- 
ism. While, however, the tatooing of women, as formerly 
practised, is now only seen in the persons of old people, a new 
description of this ornamentation has lately become popular among 
young men belonging to the best families. This consists in 
blazoning the arms of Great Britain in lamp-black and carmine 
upon the chest or upper-arm ; and sometimes the design is varied 
by the employment of the American eagle-and-flag trophy instead. 
The most remarkable feature about this modern innovation is the 
exactness of the drawing. This is of a character that would do 
credit to the tattooing artists of Japan or Malta, and led me at 
first to suppose that it was the work of one man, probably a 
foreigner. It proved, however, to be otherwise, and native dan- 
dies tattoo each other with great skill. 
