September 17, 1914] 



NATURE 



7Z 



he knew of no reason why he should not make the 

 best use possible of the stranger, of his body or his 

 spirit, separately or together. 



While, as must have been the case in earlier times, 

 the newcomers were dark-skinned men like himself, 

 the Fijian might without the slightest prick of con- 

 science separate their bodies from their spirits, and ; 

 dispose of the body or the spirit separately ; or without 

 effecting this separation, he might simply enslave the j 

 newcomers; or, again, if he suspected that the new- \ 

 comers were too strong for him, he might yield him- i 

 self to them as a slave. j 



And later, when Europeans began to arrive, some- 

 times as refugees from passing ships and sometimes 

 as survivors from ships wrecked on the surrounding 

 reefs, the bearing of the Fijian towards this new kind 

 of stranger would have been on the same principles, [ 

 only that in this case the newcomers, being of far less 

 readily understood kind, would be regarded with more 

 suspicion and also more respect. I believe that very 

 seldom, if ever, was an inoffensive white man, 

 ■ wrecked sailor or other, killed, or treated with any- 

 thing but kindliness and courtesy, even though the 

 wrecked man's property might naturally be appro- 

 priated by the natives. It was only when white- 

 skinned strangers became commoner, and frequently 

 more offensive, and when familiarity had bred con- 

 tempt, that they were killed, as nuisances, and, espe- 

 cially during the great outbreak of cannibalism, were 

 eaten. 



This point in the bearing of the islanders to white 

 men might be further illustrated by a circumstance 

 which, to my surprise, I have never found mentioned, 

 i.e., that during the whole period while the mis- 

 sionaries were, with a rashness only justified by the 

 circumstances, testifying against the natives in Fiji 

 not one of these was killed, until at a much later 

 period, when European influence was all but pre- 

 dominant in Fiji, Baker was killed and eaten in 

 very special circumstances. 



If it were possible to ascertain in each case the 

 facts as to the reception by "savages" of the first 

 white men they saw, it would almost certainly be 

 found that the reception was apparently kindly, 

 though this kindness may really have been due to 

 fear and not to charity. It was, however, quite prob- 

 able that at any moment the savage might find that 

 his dread of the white man was unfounded, and in 

 that case he might kill him {i.e., separate his soul 

 from his body) without hesitation, and after doing this 

 his fear — he probably never had any affection for him 

 — of the disembodied spirii: of the white man might be 

 as great, or even greater, than before. 



Incidentally it may here be noted, as a further 

 curious point, that a Fijian who thus quite remorse- 

 lessly set free the soul of a stranger from its body 

 would probably not often and not for long in his 

 dreams be revisited by his victim, if a native; and 

 perhaps not even if the victim were a white man, un- 

 less very remarkable. In other words, the victim 

 survives only just so long as he is remembered. Cap- 

 tain Cook, we know, survived for very long, perhaps 

 does so still ; few, if any, of such beachcombers as 

 vyere later killed in Fiji survived for any length of 

 time ; and the innumerable natives who were drifted 

 or washed to one or other of the islands must for 

 the most part have passed from memory soon after 

 they were killed. 



It has been suggested that the killing of strangers 

 may have been for the purpose of preventing the intro- 

 duction of disease ; and it is certain that, perhaps 

 even before the coming of white men, the islanders 

 recognised that the advent of strangers was curiously 



NO. 2342, VOL. 94] 



often and most disastrously followed by the intro- 

 duction of new diseases, either real diseases or at 

 least some queer, unexplained influence which has so 

 often made life not worth living for savages where 

 white strangers have been. 



The Fijians were scarcely more notorious for 

 cannibalism than for theft — and almost as un- 

 deservedly. There is scarcely an account of the visit 

 of a European ship in early times to any of the 

 islands which does not mention that the islanders who 

 came aboard took whatever they fancied, either quite 

 openly, or, if furtively, then without evincing anything 

 like shame when discovered. This habit, which the 

 explorers naturally called theft, was but the mani- 

 festation of a South Sea custom, due to the entire 

 absence of any idea of personal property, which in 

 Fiji is called keri-keri. To keri-keri was to take 

 whatever you wanted and could take without the 

 previous holder of the property preventing you. In 

 old days no Fijian doubted his own absolute right 

 to keri-keri, nor did he feel the verj- slightest shame 

 in thus (as we should say) "depriving another of his 

 property," or "stealing"; and even to this day the 

 Fijian, provided that he is not really Europeanised,. 

 will keri-keri without shame. In short, the idea of 

 ownership and individual property never occurred to 

 the natural Fijian. He took what he wanted, and 

 was strong enough to take. Biit, on the other hand, 

 he yielded up, practically without reluctance, what- 

 ever another stronger or cleverer than himself wanted 

 and was able to take from him. 



Of the many other charges of " savagery " made 

 against Fijians, I can, in the time at my disposal, 

 deal with but one more, that as to their strange and 

 gruesome habit of celebrating great occasions by kill- 

 ing their own folk. When a Fijian chief died, as 

 we should say, or, as it seemed to the surviving 

 natives, when his soul left the body which it had for 

 a time used, his widows, and other of his kindred 

 and dependants, unwilling to be left behind, were 

 strangled, often, indeed, helped to strangle themselves, 

 that their bodies might be put into the graves, while 

 their souls went gladly with that of the chief whom 

 they had been accustomed to follow. 



Again, when a chief built a house, some of his de- 

 pendants, whom the great man told off for the 

 purpose, willingly stepped down into the holes which 

 had been dug for the house-posts, and remained there 

 while the earth was filled in on them, and continued 

 thereafter as permanent supporters of the house. 



Again, there is a tradition, which at least was not 

 incredible to the natives, that a great chief one day 

 went a-fishing, and caught many fish. Two brothers 

 of humbler rank who happened to have come down 

 to the same waterside, also to fish, were less success- 

 ful. The chief, in a characteristic freak of generosity, 

 presented his best fish to the elder of the two brothers, 

 who, strictly according to Fijian custom, accepted the 

 gift, but felt bound to make an immediate return, 

 but he had nothing to give. Thereupon the younger 

 brother, at his own suggestion, was clubbed by the 

 elder, and his body presented to the chief in token 

 that his soul would thereafter serve that chief. 



It is even said that when yams and other vegetables 

 were brought in as food for the chiefs by the depend- 

 ants who had grown them for that purpose, the food- 

 bearers, if there was a scarcity of fish or other suit- 

 able accompaniment for the vegetable diet, were them- 

 selves clubbed and their bodies eaten. This particular 

 atrocity probably happened only after the habit of 

 cannibalism had, as already explained, been un- 

 naturally intensified. But the story is noteworthy in 

 that the food-bearers are not represented as in any 



