FAMILY LIFE. 191 



served, at the Bure-ni-sa, or strangers' house, those of 

 about the same age generally keeping together, whilst 

 the boys, until they have been admitted publicly into 

 the society of adults, have a sleeping bure to themselves. 

 It is quite against Fijian ideas of delicacy, that a man 

 ever remains under the same roof with his wife or wives 

 at night. In the morning he goes home, and if not em- 

 ployed in the field, remains with his family the better 

 part of the day, absenting himself as evening approaches. 

 Eendezvous between husband and wife, of which no 

 further explanation can be given, are arranged in the 

 depths of the forest, unknown to any but the two. After 

 childbirth, husband and wife keep apart for three, even 

 four years, so that no other baby may interfere with the 

 time considered necessary for suckling children, in order 

 to make them healthy and strong. This in a great mea- 

 sure explains the existence of polygamy, and the diffi- 

 culties the missionaries had to contend with in fighting 

 against its abolition. The relatives of a woman take it 

 as a public insult if any child should be born before the 

 customary three or four years have elapsed, and they 

 consider themselves in duty bound to avenge it in an 

 equally public manner. I heard of a white man, who 

 being asked how many brothers and sisters he had, 

 frankly replied, u Ten !" " But that could not be," was 

 the rejoinder of the natives ; " one mother could scarcely 

 have so many children." When told that these chil- 

 dren were born at annual intervals, and that such occur- 

 rences were common in Europe, they were very much 

 shocked, and thought it explained sufficiently why so 

 many white people were " mere shrimps." Adultery is 



