THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



opposite the chief landing place, I have seen a natural column of 

 igneous rock (a quartziferous felstone porphyry), which was 

 brought from the island of Kadavu and set up where it now 

 stands and used for killing prisoners. The prisoner was taken 

 by a man on each side and run with violence against the stone, 

 death being, of course, immediate. 



A human body prepared for the feast was called bokola, and 

 when baked entire the body was called boto-alai. The expression 

 kaisi bokola or kaisi botoboto, meaning a common person only 

 fit for eating, was about the most opprobrious e[)ithet that could 

 be applied to a person, and was as strongly resented by a 

 Fijian as calling him burra soor, or " great pig," is by an Indian 

 Mahometan. 



It was quite usual for members of the lower orders, called 

 kaisi, who were, in fact, semi-slaves, to be killed in order to 

 furnish bokola for the ovens when occasion required a feast and a 

 sufficient number of prisoners were not forthcoming. In like 

 manner on the death of a chief not only were the widows always 

 strangled and buried with him, but numbers of kaisi were also 

 killed, in order that the chief might have a retinue befitting his 

 rank when he entered the Fijian lomalayi, or heaven. 



In cutting up and portioning the bodies a great deal of etiquette 

 was observed. The operation of preparing the bodies for cooking 

 was performed by an individual called Dua tava tamata — " the 

 carver of men." The implements used were splinters of sharp 

 bamboo and hard wood and sharp-edged bivalve shells. The 

 head was cut off and the body disembowelled. It was then very 

 skilfully and neatly dissected, the limbs being dismembered at the 

 joints, while the trunk was cooked entire. 



The different parts so prepared were then wrapped in the leaves 

 of a plant specially cultivated for the purpose, the Mala Wad 

 {Tropins anthropophayorum), and were then ready for cooking. 

 The ovens in which the flesh was cooked consisted of holes dug 

 in the ground, in which a fire was lighted, and numbers of stones 

 of a convenient size heated in the fire. When sufficiently hot, the 

 ashes were removed and a portion of the stones lifted out. The 

 flesh to be cooked was then, with its leaf wrapping, laid on the 

 hot stones in the oven, and the other stones placed on top. More 

 leaves of the Mala Waci were then spread on top and a little water 

 poured in to generate some steam and assist the cooking process. 

 The whole was then closely covered up with earth or turf and 

 allowed to stand for an hour or two until sufficiently cooked. 

 Sometimes the impatience of the cannibals would not allow them 

 to wait, and the flesh would be devoured raw, or dragged half- 

 cooked from the ovens. These ovens were at times of enormous 

 dimensions, as may be imagined when at some great feasts several 

 hundred victims have been cooked at one time. The head was 



