88 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



attending school, they were in the cannibal times tersely 

 addressed as 'rats,' and infanticide was as systematically 

 practised as in a model baby-farm in civilised England, the 

 unfortunate little girl-babies being generally the victims, as 

 they could not in the after-time wield a club or poise a spear. 



Solomon's maxim about the child and the rod is thoroughly 

 appreciated all over Coral Lands, but in the old days of Fiji 

 the instrument of correction was a good-sized truncheon of 

 about the thickness of a broomstick. 



Fijian sailors are a merry race ; they generally sing while at 

 their work, which they seem to regard very much in the light 

 of a joke. To this day they are very superstitious, but in old 

 times they had very curious customs, which differed from those 

 of any other native races. Certain parts of the ocean were 

 passed over in silence and with uncovered heads, through fear 

 of the spirits of the deep, and they were particularly careful 

 that no fragment of food fell into the water. The common 

 tropic bird was the emblem of one of their gods, and the shark 

 another ; and should the one fly over their heads or the other 

 swim past, they would utter a word of respect. A shark lying 

 across their course was considered, an evil omen, and was 

 greatly feared. 



The Fijians thoroughly understand consecration, and to this 

 hour certain things are tabu or sacred ; and on some of the 

 canoes it was tabu to eat food in the hold, on another on the 

 house and deck, on another on the platform over the house. 

 Canoes have been known to be lost in a storm because their 

 crews, instead of exerting themselves, have left their work to 

 sow, or propitiate their gods by throwing over whales' teeth, 

 or angona or kava root 



The Fijian sailors are now all Christians, and are taught, I 

 do not doubt, by their pastors that the highest form of prayer 



