180 THE CRUISE OF TEE ' GUBAQOA.' 



and his whole retinue at their expense. But it is beheved 

 no attempt has ever been made to estabhsh a single king- 

 dom throughout the islands. Some thirty years before the 

 visit of the ' Curagoa,' an Mbau chief, assisted by some run- 

 away sailors armed with muskets, succeeded in bringing a 

 considerable number of chiefs under liis dominion ; but he 

 soon saw this ephemeral ascendancy pass away, of which 

 now-a-day remains but a sort of purely nominal presidency, 

 which is acknowledged by the other chiefs. 



The number of dialects in the island is so great, and the 

 difference between them so marked, as to give rise to an 

 impression at first that tliey were distinct languages. This 

 diversity is probably due to the murderous wars continually 

 waged between the petty chiefs, and wliich rendered any 

 communication dangerous between one district and another, 

 and even one village and another. Each tribe could only 

 consider itself safe from its enemies wliile keeping witliin 

 its own natural frontiers. 



The mythology of the Fijians abounds in divinities. The 

 special functions of some of them being, if correctly repre- 

 sented, somewhat singular. Thus one has the title of ' The 

 God just returned from slaughter ; ' another, a professed 

 miracle-worker, has the significant name of ' Spit-wonders ; ' 

 one with eiglit eyes is the ' God of wisdom ; ' another is the 

 'God fond of turtles ;' and another the 'God fond of human 

 brains.' But the most curious feature of their religion is the 

 preservation of that practice of deification which is to be 

 found ill the earlier stages of all religions. Mr. Hazlewood 



