INSULAR A USTRALASIA. 



1263 



concerned, and was justly taken as a consenting party. In their heathen state the Fijians 

 were a religious people, their gods were ancestral, and they were assiduous in their cult. 

 In many of the tribes a certain clan called the mbete, or priests, was the recognized 

 medium of communication with the gods. Every full-born male of the clan was a 

 mbete by birth, but some one of them would be chosen by the ancestral spirits as the 



THE REWA RIVER, NAVITILEVU ISLAND. 



mbete for the time being. Their choice was de- 

 clared by the man becoming inspired, a process 

 which threw him into strong convulsions, accom- 

 panied by physical phenomena horrible to witness. The chief articles of food were yams 

 (mialo), elsewhere tarp (arum esculent itin}, bananas, sweet potatoes and sugar-cane. They 

 had also fruit-bearing trees in abundance, cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, various kinds of chestnut, 

 and other fruits. Wild yams and edible roots were also plentiful in good seasons. Fish 

 was their principal addition to the vegetable diet ; for though they had both fowls and 

 pigs when our own people first came into contact with them, these were delicacies not for 

 every-day consumption, and the native words for them show that they were not indige- 

 nous. The practice of cannibalism was universal in Fiji, as far as the males were con- 

 cerned. Women were not permitted to share in these feasts, at least it was not con- 

 sidered proper in them to partake, but many of them are* said to have indulged their 

 appetite in secret. The prevalence of the custom has stamped its mark on the language, 

 which contains a considerable number of cannibal words. 



The soil and climate of Fiji are suited to the cultivation of all sub-tropical products. 

 South Sea Island cotton of the finest quality in the world, and of a very high market 

 value, has been produced ; the sugar-cane also grows luxuriantly, yielding juice of a 

 good density, and maize gives two crops in the year ; the banana, which has proved 



