FIJI IN CANNIBAL DAYS. 71 



put all the frying-pans on the fires, when ensued a roaring like 

 the loudest thunder until the lali sounded again, when they 

 were all taken off at the same moment.' With every desire to 

 extol the discipline and regular habits of our race this was too 

 much, and, in the manner in which they related it, irresistibly 

 funny. They showed a few clumsy sleight-of-hand tricks 

 which were reciprocated, and described those performed by 

 professed conjurors, explaining also the modes of operation. 

 Then they drifted about amid a variety of topics as they were 

 suggested by one another, or the queries of the audience. 

 Steam power, electric telegraph, history of European civilisa- 

 tion, great battles, weapons, wild animals, fables, eclipses, 

 meteorology, solar system, plurality of worlds, future existence, 

 and so on. The perspicacity shown by these people was very 

 marked, and, to my mind, promises much for their future 

 if they be properly directed. If they did not understand any 

 particular point, they asked intelligent questions until the 

 matter was cleared to their comprehension, indicating, clearly, 

 that they possess the capability to progress in learning. 



While at Na Drau, the locality where the foregoing con- 

 versation took place, Mr. Harding observed the interior of 

 a house called Sofatabua the resting-place of the cannibal 

 trophies of the tribe. 



Besides human skulls and thigh bones, with clubs and spears 

 inlaid with teeth, etc., the interior was thickly lined with tally- 

 reeds numbering the victims. When ten men were killed by 

 the tribe, a bundle of ten reeds would be made up and stuck 

 within the roof of the house, while a solitary bukalo was 

 recorded by a single reed, and so on. The four sides of 

 the Sofatabua were equally adorned in this way, so, when 

 those on one side were counted and found to exceed a thousand, 

 it was easy to compute the whole terrible score as between 



