NOT ALL FIJIANS CANNIBALS. 179 



jsteamed are not devoted to any other culinary purpose. 

 Another curious circumstance is, that whilst the natives 

 eat every other kind of food with their fingers, human 

 flesh is eaten with forks, having three or four prongs, and 

 generally made of the hard wood of a species of Casua- 

 rina. Every one of these forks is known by its par- 

 ticular, often obscene, name, and they are handed down 

 as heirlooms from generation to generation ; indeed they 

 are so much valued, that it required no slight persuasion 

 and a handsome equivalent to obtain specimens of them 

 for our ethnological collection. 



It is customary to suspend some of the bones of those 

 human beings that have been eaten in the trees before 

 the Bure-ni-sa ; and we saw several of these trophies, on 

 some of which was growing a beautiful little fern (Hemi- 

 onitis lanceolata^ Hook.), not previously seen, and only 

 gathered afterwards on the very summit of Buke Levu.* 



It would be a mistake to suppose that all Fijians, not 

 converted to Christianity, are cannibals. There were 

 whole towns, as for instance Nakelo, on the Rewa 

 river, which made a bold stand against this practice, 

 declaring that it was tabu, forbidden to them by their 

 gods, to indulge in it. The common people through- 

 out the group, as well as women of all classes, were 

 by custom debarred from it. Cannibalism was thus re- 

 stricted to the chiefs and gentry, and again amongst 

 them there is a number, who for want of a better appella- 

 tion may be called the Liberal party, and who never 



* Mr. Waterhouse speaks of " grinning skulls looking down on us ;" 

 but I never saw any skulls at this place, though carefully examining all 

 the trees, nor do I know for certain whether that part of the body is ever 

 suspended in trees. 



N 2 



