282 



NATURE 



\yuly2Z, 1 88 1 



the authoress was lucky enough to witness. There is a 

 great deal in the book about cannibalism. A representa- 

 tion of one of the well-known so-called cannibal forks 

 adorns the covers of the books. These forks are so much 

 prized by visitors as curiosities that we caught a boy on 

 the Rewa River making a couple of trade ones, and have 

 got one of them now in our possession. It is a mistake 

 to suppose that they were never used for eating any food 

 except long (big {hokold). A young chief of one of the 

 mountain tribes was asked whether women joined practi- 

 cally in the delights of cannibal feasts : he said, " I'd like 

 to see the woman that would not eat her full share." He 

 bore testimony to the superiority of long over short pig 

 as food. 



An interesting account is given of one of the native 

 missionary meetings and of the set dances {mckc) which 

 take place at them. One of the most curious dances 

 described is one representing a tide rising on a reef: — 



" The idea to be conveyed is that of a tide gradually 

 rising on a reef, till at length there remains only a little 

 coral isle, round which the angry breakers rage, flinging 

 their white foam on every side. At first the dancers form 

 in long lines and approach silently, to represent the quiet 

 advance of the waves. After a while the lines break up 

 into smaller companies, which advance with outspread 

 hands and bodies bent forward to represent rippling 

 wavelets, the tiniest waves being represented by children. 

 Quicker and quicker they come on, now advancing, now 

 retreating, yet, like true waves, steadily progressing and 

 gradually closing on every side of the imaginary islet 

 round which they play or battle after the manner of 

 breakers, springing high in mid-air, and flinging their 

 arms far above their heads to represent the action of 

 spray. As they leap and toss their heads, the soft white 

 »iasi or native cloth (which for greater effect they wear as 

 a turban with long streamers, and also wear round the 

 waist, whence it floats in long scarf-like ends) trembles 

 and flutters in the breeze. The whole eftect is most 

 artistic, and the orchestra do their part by imitating the 

 roar of the surf on the reef — a sound which to them has 

 been a never-ceasing lullaby from the hour of their birth." 



The Fijians are, with little doubt, the best dancers in 

 the world, and it is interesting to contrast their condition 

 in this respect with that of ourselves, amongst whom 

 dancing has degenerated in proportion as music has 

 become highly developed, until it may almost be said 

 that practically only one dance survives amongst us, and 

 that a monotonous performance, which, by a very slight 

 revival, is just being promoted from two to three steps. 

 Yet Englishmen can dance when the Fijians teach them 

 All the dancers were of course fantastically painted. 



" We were chiefly puzzled and attracted by one very fine 

 fellow, all painted black, with a huge wreath and neck 

 garland of scarlet hybiscus and green leaves, and rattling 

 garters made of many hanging strings of large cockle- 

 shells, and the usual likit (a sort of kilt or waist drapery) 

 of fringes of coloured pandamus leaves. Of course he- 

 carried a club, and was barefooted. This man dis- 

 tinguished himself greatly, and afterwards acted the part 

 of a huge dog in a dance where all the children appeared 

 on all fours as cats. Eventually v, e discovered him to be 

 a European known as Jack Cassell." 



When the short war with the Kai Volos, the till then 

 unsubdued cannibals of the mountainous interior of Viti 

 Levu, took place, all the chiefs sent small detachments of 

 fighting men to the governor to help in the fight. One 

 hundred and fifty such men came from Mbau. They 



marched up on to the governor's lawn armed with Tower 

 muskets, and performed the wildest war jiicke, ending 

 with unearthly yells. They then advanced two or three 

 at a time, brandishing their weapons, and trying who could 

 make the most valiant boast concerning his intended 

 progress. One cried, " I go to the mountains, my feel 

 shall eat the grass." This was to express his eager 

 speed. Another, " I long to be gone, I crave to meet the 

 foes. You need not fear ; here is your safeguard," 

 " This is only a musket," cried another, "but I carry it." 

 Said the next, " We go to war ; what hinders that we 

 should fill all the ovens?" — a hungry cannibal ally that. 

 One company which advanced with more stately gait, 

 "This is Bau, that is enough." 



It makes our legs tingle now a little to hear that a boy 

 was torn and killed by one of the freshwater sharks, 

 Carcliai-ias Gangcticiis, inhabiting the great Kewa River 

 in Viti Levu during Miss Gordon Cumming's stay there, 

 for we spent most of one night in and out of the water of 

 the river not so long ago, pushing off our boat as she 

 grounded constantly with the falling tide. We trusted to 

 the sharks in the upper part of the river being only small 

 ones, but the boy was killed at a distance of thirty miles 

 from its mouth. The authoress had bathed in the river 

 herself occasionally. She does not seem to be aware that 

 the shark in question regularly inhabits the fresh water. 



W> cannot follow the authoress in her account of Fijian 

 feasts, Fijian puddings — twenty-one feet in circumference 

 — Fijian weddings, where the bride's dress is so cumbrous 

 that it is carried by her friends to the church and put on 

 outside on the shore under the cocoanut trees ; of the hot 

 springs of Savu Savu, used for cooking and for getting 

 rid of superfluous babies ; of the details of the process of 

 making the beautiful Fijian pottery, and many other 

 matters on which we would wish to dwell. 



The book loses somewhat in general effect from being 

 retained in the form of a series of letters, an arrangement 

 always somewhat irksome to the general reader. Perhaps 

 also for the taste of many there is a little too much about 

 the missionaries in the book ; but as there were 900 

 Wesleyan chapels in the islands, and, as said before, the 

 missionaries have brought about all the civilisation existing, 

 they necessarily must appear a good deal in such a work. 

 They seem sometimes to excite the admiration of their 

 flock in a r.ather dangerous direction. An old ex-cannibal 

 crept close to one who apparently is somewhat stout, 

 "and then, as if he could not refrain, he put out his hand 

 and stroked him down the thigh, licking his lips, and ex- 

 claiming with delight, 'Oh ! but you are nice and fat.'" 

 We always thought that Fijians, like cannibals elsewhere, 

 had found out by experience that white men are compara- 

 tively poor eating. 



We thank Miss Gordon Gumming much for her very 

 interesting book, but before we close this notice we have 

 one bone to pick with her. She falls into the really un- 

 pardonable popular error of talking of coral insects, and 

 even talks of the parrot-fish extracting from the coral the 

 insects on which it feeds. We hope she will learn before 

 a third edition of her work .appears that the animals, the 

 skeletons of which are commonly called corals, are no 

 more like any insects than a whale is to a blue-bottle. The 

 fact is, coral skeletons look a little like honeycomb, and 

 so we suppose the popular delusion will flourish for ever. 



