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Human sacrifices. 



CUSTOMS OF THE FEEJEE GROUP. 



Funeral rites. 



aunt, and he assisted in putting the rope around 

 her neck, and strangling her, a service he is said 

 to have rendered on a former occasion to his own 

 mother. 



Not only do many of the natives desire their 

 friends to put them to death to escape decrepitude, 

 or immolate themselves with a similar view, but 

 families have such a repugnance to having de- 

 formed or maimed persons among them, that those 

 who have met with such misfortunes are almost 

 always destroyed. An instance of this sort was 

 related to me, when a boy whose leg had been 

 bitten off by a shark was strangled, although he 

 had been taken care of by one of the white resi- 

 dents, and there was every prospect of his reco- 

 very. No other reason was assigned by the per- 

 petrators of the deed, than that if he had lived he 

 would have been a disgrace to his family, in conse- 

 quence of his having only one leg. 



When a native, whether man, woman, or child, 

 is sick of a lingering disease, their relatives will 

 either wring their heads off, or strangle them. Mr. 

 Hunt stated that this was a frequent custom, and 

 cited a case where he had with difficulty saved a 

 servant of his own from such a fate, who after- 

 wards recovered his health. 



Formal human sacrifices are frequent. The 

 victims are usually taken from a distant tribe, 

 and when not supplied by war or violence, they 

 are at times obtained by negotiation. After being 

 selected for this purpose, they are often kept for a 

 time to be fattened. When about to be sacrificed, 

 they are compelled to sit upon the ground, with 

 their feet drawn under their thighs, and their 

 arms placed close before them. In this posture 

 they are bound so tightly that they cannot stir, 

 or move a joint. They are then placed in the 

 usual oven, upon hot stones, and covered with 

 leaves and earth, where they are roasted alive. 

 When the body is cooked, it is taken from the oven 

 and the face painted black, as is done by the natives 

 on festal occasions. It is then carried to the 

 mbure, where it is offered to the gods, and is after- 

 wards removed to be cut up and distributed, to be 

 eaten by the people. 



Women are not allowed to enter the mbure, or 

 to eat human flesh. 



Human sacrifices are a preliminary to almost all 

 their undertakings. When a new mbure is built, 

 a party goes out and seizes the first person they 

 meet, whom they sacrifice to the gods; when a 

 large canoe is launched, the first person, man or 

 woman, whom they encounter, is laid hold of and 

 carried home for a feast. 



When Tanoa launches a canoe, ten or more men 

 are slaughtered on the deck, in order that it may 

 be washed with human blood. 



Human sacrifices are also among the rites per- 

 formed at the funerals of chiefs, when slaves are 

 in some instances put to death. Their bodies are 

 first placed in the grave, and upon them those of 

 the chief and his wives are laid. 



The ceremonies attendant on the death and 

 burial of a great chief, were described to me by 

 persons who had witnessed them. When his last 

 moments are approaching, his friends place in his 

 hands two whale's teeth, which it is supposed he 

 will need to throw at a tree that stands on the 

 road to the regions of the dead. As soon as the 

 last straggle is over, the friends and attendants fill 



the air with their lamentations. Two priests then 

 take in each of their hands a reed about eighteen 

 inches long, on which the leaves at the end are 

 left, and with these they indicate two persons for 

 grave-diggers, and mark out the place for the grave. 

 The spot usually selected is as near as possible to 

 the banks of a stream. The grave-diggers are 

 provided with mangrove-staves (tiri) for their work, 

 and take their positions, one at the head, the other 

 at the foot of the grave, having each one of the 

 priests on his right hand. At a given signal, the 

 labourers, making three feints before they strike, 

 stick their staves into the ground, while the priests 

 twice exchange reeds, repeating Feejee, Tonga ; 

 Feejee, Tonga. The diggers work in a sitting pos- 

 ture, and thus dig a pit sufficiently large to contain 

 the body. The first earth which is removed is 

 considered as sacred, and laid aside. 



The persons who have dug the grave also wash 

 and prepare the body for interment, and they are 

 the only persons who can touch the corpse without 

 being laid under a taboo for ten months. The 

 body after being washed is laid on a couch of cloth 

 and mats, and carefully wiped. It is then dressed 

 and decorated as the deceased was in life, when 

 preparing for a great assembly of chiefs : it is 

 first anointed with oil, and then the neck, breast, 

 and arms, down to the elbows, are daubed with a 

 black pigment ; a white bandage of native cloth is 

 bound around the head, and tied over the temple in 

 a graceful knot ; a club is placed in the hand, and 

 laid across the breast, to indicate in the next world 

 that the deceased was a chief and warrior. The 

 body is then laid on a bier, and the chiefs of tin; 

 subject tribes assemble ; each tribe presents a 

 whale's tooth, and the chief or spokesman says : 

 " This is our offering to the dead ; we are poor 

 and cannot find riches." All now clap their hands, 

 and the king or a chief of rank replies : " Ai 

 mumundi ni mate" (the end of death) ; to which 

 all the people present respond, " e dina" (it is 

 true). The female friends then approach and 

 kiss the corpse, and if any of his wives wish to 

 die and be buried with him, she runs to her bro- 

 ther or nearest relative and exclaims, " I wish to 

 die, that I may accompany my husband to the 

 land where his spirit has gone ! love me, and make 

 haste to strangle me, that I may overtake him !" 

 Her friends applaud her purpose, and being 

 dressed, and decorated in her best clothes, she 

 seats herself on a mat, reclining her head on the 

 lap of a woman ; another holds her nostrils, that 

 she may not breathe through them ; a cord, made 

 by twisting fine tapa (masi), is then put around her 

 neck, and drawn tight by four or five strong men, 

 so that the struggle is soon over. The cord is left 

 tight, and tied in a bow-knot, until the friends of 

 the husband present a whale's tooth, saying, " This 

 is the untying of the cord of strangling." The 

 cord is then loosed, but is not removed from the 

 neck of the corpse. 



When the grave is finished, the principal work- 

 man takes the four reeds used by the priests, and 

 passes them backwards and forwards across each 

 other; he then lines the pit or grave with fine 

 mats, and lays two of the leaves at the head and 

 two at the foot of the grave; on these the corpse 

 of the chief is placed, with two of his wives, one on 

 each side, having their right and left hands, re- 

 spectively, laid on his breast; the bodies are then 



