MELANESIA. 51 



guished, and in which they differ widely from the Polynesians, is their 

 disposition to treachery, and, connected with it, their capacity for dis- 

 simulation. During our intercourse with them, we had continually 

 occasion to observe this trait in their dealings with us and with one 

 another. They live a life of constant suspicion, no one daring to trust 

 even the members of his own family. A native never leaves his home 

 unarmed ; and the people in every town are constantly on the watch 

 against a sudden invasion from the neighbouring tribes, however 

 apparently peaceful. Their internal history, as related by them- 

 selves, is full of instances of perfidy and treason. The group is 

 divided into a number of independent states, connected among them- 

 selves by peculiar relations, somewhat as in the little republics of 

 ancient Greece. Among these states constant intrigues and machina- 

 tions are carried on, and that with a degree of shrewdness and craft 

 that frequently excited our astonishment. All the arts of that baser 

 species of state policy which we are accustomed to look upon as the 

 growth of a corrupt civilization, are thoroughly understood and con- 

 tinually practised by this extraordinary race of savages. To weaken 

 a rival state by secretly exciting its dependencies to revolt, to stir 

 up one class of society against another, in order to take advantage 

 of their dissensions, to make an advantageous treaty with a powerful 

 foe, by sacrificing a weak ally, to corrupt the fidelity of adherents, 

 by bribing them with the anticipated spoil of their own master, to 

 gain a battle before it is fought, by tampering with the leaders of the 

 opposing force, all these, and many other tricks of the Machiavelian 

 school, are perfectly familiar to the subtle chieftains of Viti. In treat- 

 ing of the system of government which prevails in the group, we shall 

 have occasion to show more distinctly the influence which this trait 

 in the native character has upon their political relations. 



RELIGION. 



The Feejeeans, though not perhaps so strongly influenced by the 

 devotional sentiment as their eastern neighbours, are yet much attached 

 to their religious observances. Many of these seem to have been bor- 

 rowed from the Polynesians, especially the tabu, (or, as they term it, 

 the tambu,) which has the same force among them as with the others, 

 though it is not, perhaps, of such universal application. Much of the 

 Vitian mythology appears to be also of Tongan derivation. 



