MBAU AND riTI-LEVU. 173 



awaits tliem ; for three days they are not allowed to sleep in 

 a house, or wear clothing, and, in going about the town, they 

 must assume a crouching postiu'e, stop when they meet 

 anyone, be he who he may, holding their hands clasped 

 between their knees, and ciying out, 'Dwa, wa, wa.'^ They 

 are, at the expiration of this ceremony, allowed to go into 

 the ' strangers' house,' a large building, where they are well 

 fed, each f;\mily being assessed in some particular way for 

 the supply of their wants, whether in pigs, yams, firewood, 

 &c. Thus, a part of the last-mentioned contribution was 

 being brought by no less a person than his majesty Tha- 

 kumbau, who, loaded with a bundle of firewood, and smoking 

 a cigar, was the bearer of his family's assessment. The 

 explanation of this was that, while his father old Tanoa lived 

 Thakumbau was not one of the chiefs of Mbau to whom the 

 tribute was due. The oi'igin of this tribute, and the humi- 

 liating ceremonies connected with it, are traced to an old 

 tradition that their principal spirit, a rat, having been 

 wrecked in his canoe, and asked assistance in vain from 

 some Somo-Somo men, was picked up by some Mbau people 

 who took him to their town, where after three days' suffering 

 he recovered. In consequence of this he made Somo-Somo 

 tributary to Mbau, and prescribed the humiliations we have 

 mentioned.''^ 



' The wail of the Sandwich Islanders is much the same — 'Auwe, 

 auwe, auwe.' 



^ The above facts are taken from Lieut. Pollard's ' Journal ' of his 

 visit to the Fiji Islands in H.M.S. 'Bramble' in 1850; Erskine, 

 p. 294. Lieut. Pollard witnessed the curious ceremony of reception. 



