1262 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



thing, or for shooting fish. The word for bow, ndakai, is now used for gun, but the 

 common South Sea word which appears in other groups under its various forms of 

 rusit, ZI'HSH, ISHS, us, is found in some parts of Fiji as I'lttlnt. 



Society was organized on the patriarchal basis, descent and inheritance being through 

 the father in most of the tribes though some of them, especially on the island of 

 Vanualevu, still adhered to the older rule of descent through the mother for birth 

 was necessary to the status of a land-owning commoner, and illegitimacy was a per- 

 manent disgrace. The bastard had no footing in the community excepting on sufferance. 

 The Fijians were an industrious people in their own way, which is not ours. They 



were skilful agricul- 

 turalists, they built 

 comfortable houses, 

 made an excellent 

 pottery capable of 

 standing fire when 

 used for cooking 

 purposes, and their 

 carpenters built sea- 

 going canoes before 

 they knew anything 

 about iron tools. 

 They also made a 

 useful cloth from the 

 bark of the paper- 

 mulberry, on which 

 the)' painted and 

 printed from carved 



wooden blocks patterns of considerable elegance. Their spears and clubs also showed 

 much taste and untiring patience in their manufacture and ornamentation. The women 

 were the potters and cloth-makers, and they made also serviceable fishing-nets, which they 

 used with great dexterity. A large strong net was made by the men from cocoa-nut 

 fibre, which they plaited into an excellent three-strand sinnet. They likewise constructed 

 large weirs, in which 'great quantities of fish were taken. The tribes kept up a system 

 of barter, one tribe exchanging with another commodities the making of which was their 

 hereditary occupation. Thus there were salt-making tribes who had no potters, and 

 potters who had no salt-makers. The notion of engaging in occupations which their 

 fathers did not follow does not seem to have occurred to them. Such an innovation 

 would have been deemed nothing less than impious. The son had to do what his father 

 did, and exactly as his father did it. Departure from ancient custom would be an 

 offence against ancestors, and their wrath would be felt by the whole community. Land 

 was held on an enduring tenure, the title being vested in the tribe, though the various 

 plots were partitioned out among the taiikci or land-owners. Each generation had the 

 usufruct only, and the land could not be permanently alienated excepting by the collective 

 act of all the tribe. Under these circumstances, the heir that is, posterity was distinctly 



KING THAK.AMBAU S CANOE. 



