i72 ' ^c Glassificatory System of 



vspoken by the former, I found the term to be Eku Tambu, 

 my forbidden one. These terms appear to me to be historic, 

 and to point to the bringing in of a new law forbidding tlie 

 old license. The significance of Eku Tambu, my forbidden 

 one, is discernible at a glance, for surely such a word could 

 never have been chosen as a specific term of kinship, unless 

 that which is now forbidden were formerly allowed. Nor is 

 Nonggu Ndaku less significant to one who is versed in the 

 language. It cannot be one of the original terms of kinship, 

 because every one of those terms takes the possessive pronoun 

 postfixed in an abbreviated form, as Wati, spouse ; Watinggu, 

 my spouse; Tama, father; Tamangga, my father; Luve, child; 

 Luv^nggu, my child, &c. I have already said that the posses- 

 sive pronouns are thus combined with those words which 

 express parts of a whole ; and it is to be noted that these 

 are the only words wherewith they are so combined. In the 

 tribal idea we see the reason why the terms of kinship are 

 words of this class. The savage does not look upon himself 

 as an individual. The tribe is the individual — the body — 

 the great whole, whereof he and all his kinsfolk are the 

 component parts. Herein we have an explanation, if not a 

 justification, of savage acts of revenge ; and, extravagant 

 as my words may sound, I do not hesitate to say that the 

 fact of these possessive pronouns being postfixed to the 

 terms of kinship, points unerringly to the cause of tliat 

 lamentable tragedy which took from God's army on earth 

 one of His best and bravest captains. I allude to the 

 murder of Bishop Patterson. But this a digression. 



Nonggu Ndaku does not mean my back in the sense of my 

 own back ; that would be Ndakunggu ; it means " somebody 

 whose back is turned towards me," or "towards whom my 

 back is turned"; and it appears to me to be an evident trace 

 of the bringing in of a new law. But though this law must 

 have been in force among the Fijians ever since the 

 introduction of polygamy among them — i.e., from time 

 immemorial — yet we see even at the present day, together 

 with an outward conformity to the rule, a secret disregard 

 of it ; which shows, as it seems to me, that it was enforced 

 upon them by an external authority, and that it has not 

 even yet produced in their minds the idea of a moral 

 obligation. Whence Ave see clearly that immense periods of 

 time must have been required for the gradual development 

 of the changes wrought by the tribal organization. In 

 point of fact, even at the present day (at least among the 



