494 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



who held them sacred. The whole mound most strikingly reminds one of ancient stone 

 circles and similar erections at home. Were the earth of the mound washed away, 

 numbers of the stone slabs might remain standing on end. Its condition before its 

 destruction is to be seen in a book on Fiji, by Thos. Williams. 1 The tumulus supported a 

 large ' Mbure ' or temple, with the usual high-peaked roof and long projecting decorated 

 ridge pole. Now the mound is falling into decay and covered with grass, and a small pony 

 (there are very few horses in Fiji, and of course only room for this one in Mbau) belonging 

 to Ratu David, the king's eldest son, found the top of it a pleasant place to graze on. 

 The pony led a quiet life, for Ratu David having been kicked off on bis first attempt at 

 riding, had not tried again. The sacrificial stone against which the heads of the victims 

 were dashed, is an insignificant looking one, in no way different from the other slabs, except 

 that it is smaller and stands by itself a little in front of them, near one corner of the 

 mound. In old time, bodies have been heaped up in front of it till they formed a pile 1 

 feet high. Whilst I was sketching the mound and its stones, a very pretty daughter of 

 one of the chiefs came and looked on, and at my request wrote her name and the Fijian 

 name of the mound in my sketch-book, in a very good round hand. There are several 

 similar slab-built foundations of temples about tbe open space near the site of the Na 

 Vatani Tawake, but except in the case of one small one, they are not in such good 

 preservation. The slabs from one of these are now being used to construct the founda- 

 tions for a Wesleyan church. Conspicuous amongst the buildings close by is the large 

 •' visitors' house,' where guests were formerly entertained, and if of distinction, always pro- 

 vided with human flesh, at least once, by their hosts. Beside the building, a slight depres- 

 sion in the turf is the remains of one of the ovens used for cooking the ' long pig,' which 

 is the actual name by which human flesh always went in the Fijian language ; I always 

 thought it a joke, until I was told by the interpreter. On a tree overhanging the ovens 

 are to be seen notches, cut in the trunk from its base to its summit, an old score of the 

 number of victims cooked beneath. There is another stone not far from Thackombau's 

 house, which is smooth, and somewhat like a millstone in appearance. The ground around 

 this is paved with slabs of coral rock, which had been perforated with holes by boring 

 molluscs and worms before it was taken from the water. So many heads have been 

 dashed against this stone, that it has happened that human teeth have fallen into almost 

 all the holes in the slabs, and have become jammed there. The slabs were quite full of 

 them. This second stone was seen by Captain Wilkes' officers, and is mentioned by 

 Brenchley. We were told by the people that a second ceremony was performed at it, 

 the heads of bodies being a second time pounded to pieces here, in honour of the slayer, 

 who drank kaava from some grooves which are to be seen in the slab in front. The 

 grooves are, however, very irregular, and look much rather as if they had been made in 

 sharpening stone axes. I think this second stone must have been used by a separate tribe, 



1 Williams, T., Fiji and the Fijians, London, 1870. 



