FIJI ISLANDS 



I'koto bij Josiah Martin] [Auckland, New Ztalaiul. 



THE KING OF THE TONGA ISLANDS. 



when a man became feeble from old age, 

 or any other cause, he asked his sous 

 to strangle him. Indeed, this act was 

 considered a filial duty. To be strangled 

 by one's children, or to be buried alive 

 by them, was considered a highly honour- 

 able way of dying. The people being 

 of a really affectionate nature were un- 

 willing to see their parents dragging 

 out a useless existence; death was con- 

 sidered preferable to infirmity, for these 

 people firmly believed that their condition 

 after death in the spirit world would be 

 entirely dependent on their state at 

 death. Therefore, however strange and 

 cruel such a practice may appear when 

 judged by our own standards, it may be 

 considered as simply the logical cou- 

 eequence of firmly rooted ideas. In 

 judging of the manners and customs of 

 alien races, it is only fair to make great 

 allowances for their idiosyncrasies, and to 

 remember always that their standpoint 

 is generally very different from ours. 



In old days, when a chief died, 



many of his slaves and favourite wives were strangled, in order that they might still continue 

 to attend him in the next life. One might have supposed that the women would have 

 objected to this practice; but so far from that being the case, they died quite willingly, in 

 the belief that they were securing for themselves a happy and honourable life in the next 

 world. Custom demanded that they should not survive their husbands, and any woman 

 refusing to die would only have found herself condemned to a miserable life of neglect 

 and insult. Such practices were common in Britain in prehistoric times, as is proved by 

 the researches of archaeologists who have explored British barrows; and the reader is probably 

 aware that the same ideas prevailed not long ago in India, when suttee was practised, and 

 women offered themselves willingly, often lighting the funeral pyre with their own hands. 

 Again, in China, women frequently preferred death to widowhood. 



A missionary was once invited by a young man of Fiji to attend the funeral of his 

 mother, and great was his surprise on joining the funeral procession to see the old lady taking 

 part in it, and cheerfully walking to her grave. It is related in " Erskine's Journal " that a 

 certain young man, on becoming very thin and weak from illness, expressed a desire to be 

 buried, because he was afraid the girls would laugh at him and call him a skeleton. Accord- 

 ingly his father buried him alive; but when the young man requested to be first strangled, 

 he was scolded and told to be quiet, and be buried like other people, and give no more 

 trouble. 



The Fijian women are simply the domestic slaves of their husbands, and they perform a 

 great deal of hard labour. The daughter of a chief is usually betrothed early in life. Should 

 her intended husband refuse to carry out the contract, it is considered a great insult, and 

 becomes the cause of a serious quarrel, sometimes leading to blows. Should the young man 

 die before the girl is grown up, then his next brother takes his place, and the child is 

 betrothed to him. If a young man wishes to marry a certain girl, he must obtain her father's 

 permission. This having been granted, he makes her a small present. Shortly afterwards he 

 sends to her house some food prepared by himself; this is the ceremony known as "Warming." 



