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



harangue descriptive of what he was going to do. The separation of the dancers in the fan 

 dance into two parties, performing alternately and responsively, is also interesting, and 

 brought the Greek chorus and drama into one's thoughts. It was of course unnecessary to 

 have recourse to Fiji in order to trace the origin of dancing, music, and the drama ; this 

 has been done fully long ago. But nowhere, I believe, is the primitive combination of these 

 arts so forcibly brought before the view as a matter of present-day occurrence as in this 

 group of islands. 



" The most extraordinary feature in the Nakello performance was the extreme order 

 and decorum of this concourse of three or four thousand people. It seemed astounding, 

 whilst looking on at these blue, red, and black-painted Fijians nourishing their clubs and 

 shouting their war-cries, to reflect that this was a Wesleyan Missionary meeting. The 

 representative of the power which has tamed these savages was a little missionary with 

 battered white tall hat and coat out at elbows, who stood beside us and who took no 

 prominent part in the ceremonies, but yet had full sway over the whole, no dance having 

 been prepared without his previous sanction. There could be no doubt as to the amount 

 of good which had been done to these people, and it is sincerely to be hoped that the 

 Wesleyan Missionaries will be left unmolested to continue the work in which they have 

 been so successful, and which they have begun and carried out often at the risk, in some 

 instances with the loss, of their lives. 



" The men and children attending the meeting vied with one another in getting money 

 to contribute, and were ready to sell almost anything they had for what we would give 

 them. One boy pestered us to buy an old hen, and followed us about with the bird. 

 Others sold us clubs and ornaments. The great wish was to have several pieces of silver 

 to make a rattle on the table, and two sixpences were worth much more than a shilling, 

 two shillings than half-a-crown. Immediately the ceremony was over, everything went 

 up in value, and a good many articles pressed on us before were not now to be had at 

 any price. 



" Amongst the crowd was an Albino boy, who was perfectly white, his skin having a 

 peculiar look, almost as if covered with a white powder, in places. His eyes, which he 

 hid either from the light or because of shyness, appeared as if the iris were of a pale grey 

 colour. His parents said he could see perfectly, but I could not examine him closely as 

 he roared at the prospect. Albinos seemed unusually common amongst Melanesians, and 

 are constantly mentioned by travellers ; hence these savages, when first seeing whites, 

 no doubt often took them for a race of Albinos. I saw several hunch-backed dwarfs 

 amongst the crowd. 



" We sailed from the Wai Levu, or Rewa River, to Kandavu, stopping at a small 

 island on the way, to buy a pig and some fowls. A voyage in an open boat has many 

 discomforts, especially when the boat is crowded. It was a difficult matter to sleep 

 six together in the confined space of the stern-sheets of a ship's barge, especially 



