NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 



493 



sists of made ground, built up of blocks of coral and mud and stones collected from the 

 vicinity at low water, and secured all around against the action of the sea, by means of 

 large slabs of a stratified tufa which have been brought in canoes from the main island, a 

 distance of several miles. These stone slabs are set up on end, so as to form a parapet, 

 and keep the earth from being washed down; they project far above the level of the land 

 surface, and thus form at the same time a sort of fence or wall. At intervals, openings 

 are left in the parapet, through which the water flows up short channels into the area of 

 made ground, and forms as it were small harbours into which canoes can be put at high 

 water. The top of the hill was formerly used as a general refuse heap by the natives, 

 but it is now occupied by the house of the missionary. The native houses all lie on the 

 low flat tract close to the sea. Mbau has long been a native fortress of great strength 

 and hence the immense labour which has been spent on its formation. It is now the 

 residence of King Thackombau, and almost every one in the island is a chief or of high 

 family. The surface of the island, including the hill-ground, is covered almost every- 

 where with a thick kitchen-midden deposit of black soil, full of the shells of a large 

 Trochus and Cockles (Cardium), which abound on the mud flats all around. Mingled 

 with these are quantities of human bones, Mbau having been one of the places in Fiji at 

 which cannibalism was most largely practised. There are very few trees growing on 

 Mbau, and the food, such as taro and yams, is all brought from the mainland, where there 

 are extensive plantations. 



" One of the most interesting features in Mbau is perhaps the stone against which the 

 heads of the human victims destined for the oven were dashed, in the ceremony of pre- 

 senting them to the god Denge. This stone stands close to one corner of the remains of 

 the foundations of the ancient temple of Denge, the ' Na Vatani Tawake.' The temple 

 itself was destroyed when the Mbauans became Christians, but the mound on which it 

 stood remains, and is of great interest. It is a large oblong tumulus of earth, supported 

 by two series of vertically placed slabs of stone, exactly similar to those used for the sea 

 parapet. The slabs of the lower series are much larger than those of the upper, and the 

 latter being placed farther inwards, a sort of step is thus formed in the tumulus all 

 round. The mound must be about 12 feet high, and some of the stones of the lower 

 series are more than 6 feet in height. Opposite the centre of one side is set up a large 

 column of basalt, and there is another opposite the strangers' house. These columns are 

 said to have been taken in war, from some enemies on Viti Levu, and were intended to 

 be used as posts for the king's house. The columns are said by Dana; 1 however, to 

 have been brought by a Mbau chief from a small island in the harbour of Kandavu, which 

 is composed of them, and where they were long desperately defended by the inhabitants, 



1 Dana, U.S. Expl. Exped., Geology, p. 348, Philadelphia, 1849. The columns at Mbau are referred to by Capt. 

 Erskine, Islands of the Western Pacific, p. 193, London, 1853, who, however, did not recognise them as of unartificial 

 formation. 



