.174 GROWTH AND DECLINE OF CULTURE. 



•with, the point of a knife or with a little fork {furciculci), which 

 they make for the purpose, like those we use for eating pears 

 and apples stewed in wine, they give each of the guests stand- 

 ing round one mouthful or two, according to their numbers."^ 

 The circumstances under which the fork makes its appearance 

 in the Fiji Islands, are remarkable. If it is known elsewhere 

 in Polynesia (except of course as distinctly adopted with other 

 European fashions), it is certainly not commonly so, and its use 

 appears to be connected with the extraordinary development of 

 the art of cooking there, as contrasted with most of the Pacific 

 islands, where, generally speaking, there were no vessels in 

 which liquid was boiled over the fire, and boiling, if done at 

 all, was done by a ruder process. But the Fijians were ac- 

 complished potters, and continue to use their earthen vessels 

 for the preparation of their various soups and stews, for fishing 

 the hot morsels out of which the forks are used, perhaps ex- 

 clusively. Those we hear of particularly are the " cannibal 

 forks " for eating man's flesh, which are of wood, artistically 

 shaped and sometimes ornamented, and were handed down as 

 family heirlooms. Each had its individual name ; for instance, 

 one which belonged to a chief celebrated for his enormous 

 cannibalism was called undroibndro, " a word used to denote a 

 small person or thing carrying a great burden."^ It would be 

 a remarkable point if, as Dr. Seemann thinks, the fork were 

 only used for this purpose,^ and we might be inclined to 

 theorize on its invention as connected with the tabu, so com- 

 mon in Polynesia, which restricts the tabued person from 

 touching his food with his hands, and compels him to be fed 

 by some one else, or in default, to grovel on the ground and 

 take up his food with his mouth. But a description by 

 Williams of the furniture of a Fijian household, seems to 

 imply its use for ordinary purposes as well. " On the hearth, 

 each set on three stones, are several pots, capable of holding 

 from a quart to five gallons. Near these are a cord for binding 

 fuel, a skewer for trying cooked food, and, in the better houses, 

 a wooden fork — a luxury which, probably, the Fijian enjoyed 



' Gill, de Rubruquis, in Hakluyt, vol i. p. 75. See Ayton, in Purclias, vol. iii. 

 p. 242. - Williams, ' Fiji,' vol. i. pp. 212-3. ^ geemann, ' Viti,' p. 179. 



