66 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



Formerly the rite of circumcision was performed on all 

 youths. The ceremony as described by Mr. Williams, whose 

 long residence and careful study of the natives qualified him to 

 speak authoritatively, was as follows: A party of from ten 

 to twenty were circumcised at one time, the cutting instru- 

 ment being a piece of split bamboo. After the operation the 

 youths live together in some public building until they have 

 recovered, their food being carried to them by women, who 

 chanted the following ditty : 



' Mcmu wai o yori lea Tcula ; ' This is your broth, sirs the circumcised ; 



A u solia mat loaloa; I give it from the wilderness ; 



Au solia na draii ni cevuga ; I give the leaf of the cevuga, 



Memu wai o gori ka kula.' This is your broth, sirs the circumcised.' 



I am not aware whether the ceremony is continued at the 

 present time, but the practice supports the theory of a Jewish 

 origin for the nation. 



The soro or peace-offering rites of the Fijians were complicated. 

 There were different grades : firstly, there was the offering of 

 a whale's tooth or club, which would avail for any offence, from 

 stealing a yam to running away with a chiefs wife ; secondly, 

 there was soro with a reed, more humiliating than number one, 

 but far exceeded by that with a spear, which was offered with 

 such an attitude of contrition and humiliation as to give the 

 idea that the suppliant deserved to be transfixed with his spear. 

 There was another soro which was connected with war, and as 

 it meant cession of land or other property, it was the Fijian 

 equivalent for the ' milliards ' of civilised Europe. Then again, 

 there was the vesi draw, or soro with ashes, which was only 

 used in cases involving life or lives. The offender's chief would 

 cover his breast and arms with ashes, and with the most pro- 

 found humiliation entreat for his life. How like the solemn 



