Kinship. 173 



heathen and among those tribes also which have been 

 but partiall}'" brought under the purifying influence of 

 Christianity), a man's treating his brother's wife as his wife 

 is looked upon with a lenient eye, and the oflender's tribe 

 becomes virtuously indignant only when the offence is known 

 bejT-ond the tribe. The guilt of the oflence seems to lie in 

 its being found out. I questioned on this subject a very 

 amusing but intolerably garrulous old native of Rewa, 

 willingly submitting for the sake of the information which I got 

 from him to his endless reminiscences of the two great chiefs 

 of his nation, Ndakuwanka and Mbativuaka (in English, 

 "Back on Fire" and "Pig's Tooth" his brother), whose faithful 

 henchman he was. " Tell me," I asked, " how was it before 

 Christianity came to Rewa ? What was done to a man who 

 took his brother's wife ?" Whereupon he informed me that 

 the husband would not be angry, " Ena vakavinavinaka 

 ga." He would say " It's all right," replied my old friend, 

 in an indulgent tone and with a careless wave of his hand. 

 But he would also say, "Bring hither our mother, that she may 

 reprove this youth." I asked, " Which of their mothers, for 

 they might be many?" and my informant answered, "The 

 mother of him who had entered his brother's house " — this 

 being the euphemistic phrase for the offence. He then went 

 on to tell me tliat the mother would remonstrate with the 

 offender somewhat as follows : "' How is it my son, that you 

 act thus foolishly ? Have you then no house of your own, that 

 you must enter your brother's ? Cease, I pray you, these 

 doings, lest our townsfolk hear thereof and drive us away." 

 " But why should they drive them away?" I cried. " They 

 would do the same thing among themselves ?" "True, sir, 

 true," replied the old man, "but they would drive them 

 away, because the thing is forbidden." 



Here we have a cuiious and most significant trace of the 

 old license existing even now, side by side with the authority 

 which forbids it — ^the forbidden practice winked at by those 

 most nearly concerned, and yet punished if publicly known 

 by the very people who secretly allow themselves the same 

 indulgence. Was there ever such a keeping up of 

 appearances since the da}'' when the Pharisees, who wanted 

 to put to death the woman taken in adultery, had to sneak 

 away one by one, none daring to cast the first stone ? 



The next significant fact to which I wish to call your atten- 

 tion is, the singular taboo prevailing between brother and sister 

 among the Fijians, which is precisely that existing between a 



