104 A MISSION TO VITL 



the slave, and holding in his uplifted hands an immense 

 club or gun, the priests invoke their gods, and commit 

 the future warrior to their especial protection, praying 

 he may kill all the enemies of the tribe, and never 

 be beaten in battle ; a cheer and a shout from the as- 

 sembled multitude concluding the prayer. Two uncles 

 of the boy were then to ascend the human pile, and to 

 invest him with the malo, or girdle of snow-white tapa ; 

 the multitude again calling on their deities to make 

 him a great conqueror, and a terror to all who breathe 

 enmity to Navua. The malo for the occasion would be 

 perhaps two hundred yards long, and six or eight inches 

 wide. When wound round the body, the lad would 

 hardly be perceivable, and no one but an uncle can 

 divest him of it. 



We proposed to the chief that we should be allowed 

 to invest his son with the malo> which he at first re- 

 fused, but to which he consented after deliberation 

 with his people. At the appointed hour, the multitude 

 collected in the great strangers' house, or bure ni sa. 

 The lad stood upright in the midst of the assembly, 

 guiltless of clothing, and holding a gun over his head. 

 The Consul and I approached, and in due form wrapped 

 him up in thirty yards of Manchester print, the priest 

 and people chanting songs, and invoking the protec- 

 tion of their gods. A short address from the Consul 

 succeeded, stirring the lad to nobler efforts for his 

 tribe than his ancestors had known, and pointing to the 

 path to fame that civilization opened to him. The cere- 

 mony concluded by drinking kava, and chanting histo- 

 rical reminiscences of the lad's ancestors, and thus we 



