462 AUSTRALASIA. 



thing possesses a soul, animals, plants, even the houses, canoes, weapons, and imple- 

 ments of labour. The temples stood for the most part on natural or artificial 

 terraces, and consisted generally of an ordinary cabin erected on a square base or 

 else on a pyramidal pedestal. A magic wand, probably intended to ward off 

 evil influences, was placed horizontally above the roof made of branches and 

 foliage. 



Cannibalism entered largely into the religious system of the Fijians. The 

 names of certain deities, such as the " God of Slaughter," and the " God eater of 

 human brains," sufiiciently attest the horrible nature of the rites held in their 

 honour. Religion also taught that all natural kindness was impious, that the gods 

 loved blood, and that not to shed it before them would be culpable ; hence those 

 wicked people who had never killed anybody in their lifetime were thrown to the 

 sharks after death. Children destined to be sacrificed for the public feasts were 

 delivered into the hands of those of their own age, who thus served their appren- 

 ticeship as executioners and cooks. The wives of the chiefs had to follow him to 

 the grave, and on certain occasions the sons consented to be buried alive in their 

 father's tomb, "happy victims highly acceptable to the gods." All protest against 

 their fate would have been regarded as an outrage, and it is related of a woman 

 rescued by the missionaries that she escaped during the night and delivered herself 

 up to the executioners. The aged and invalids frequently asked to be despatched, 

 and were then usually strangled in their graves. 



The banquets of " long pig," that is, human flesh, were regarded as a sacred 

 ceremony from which the women and children were excluded, and while the men 

 used their fingers with all other food, they had to employ forks of hard wood at 

 these feasts. The ovens also in which the bodies were baked could not be used for 

 any other purpose. Notwithstanding certain restrictions human flesh was largely 

 consumed, and in various places hundreds of memorial stones were shown which 

 recalled the number of sacrifices. Near Namosi, in the interior of Viti-Levu, 

 there was a tribe, the Nalocas, who happening to offend a neighbouring kinglet, 

 was condemned to systematic extermination. Every year a single household was 

 put to death and served up at the chief's banquet. After the feast the cabin was 

 burnt, and the place planted with taro and the solanum anthropophagum, to serve 

 as the future accompaniment of the next family. Flight would have been imme- 

 diately punished with death, and the wretched victims had to remain on the spot 

 while the plants sprang up, blossomed, and ripened. On the harvest day the 

 ministers came to prepare the table, to cut the taro, and heat the great pot ; then 

 seizing the victims by the arms and legs they carried them off and dashed out their 

 brains against a sacred stone. When most of the community had thus perished, 

 the rest were reprieved and an old woman, last of the tribe, died a natural death 

 in 1860. 



Thakumbau, who later became " a fervent Christian," and who was accepted by 

 the English as the " legitimate king " of the whole archipelago, was wont to indicate 

 with his club the person he should like prepared for his evening meal. If any 

 wretch dared to sue for pardon the king had his tongue torn out and devoured it 



