356 FOOD. WEAPONS. HOUSES. 



more Polynesian than Negrito. Their institutions, customs, 

 and manners, were partly Polynesian, partly Negrito.* It 

 is remarkable that they did not use the consonants " b," " d," 

 or " g" without placing "m" or "n" before them, as for 

 instance Mbau, Nduandua, Ngata. It is well known how 

 frequent these sounds are in Negro names. 



The food of the Feegee Islanders consisted of fish, turtle, 

 shell-fish, crabs, human flesh whenever it could be obtained, 

 taro, yams, mandrai, bananas, and cocoa-nuts, in addition to 

 which the higher classes occasionally indulged in pigs and 

 fowls. They drank ava habitually, and at all their cere- 

 monies. 



Their weapons consisted of spears, slings, clubs, bows and 

 arrows. The spears were from ten to fifteen feet long, and 

 were generally made of cocoa-nut wood ; the end was pointed 

 and charred ; sometimes, though not often, a sharp bone was 

 used for the point. They had several kinds of clubs, all 

 made of iron wood. That most esteemed was about three 

 feet long, with a heavy knob at the end. Another kind 

 was somewhat shovel- shaped, and might rather be called 

 a short sword. The ula was a short heavy club, about 

 eighteen inches long, with a large and heavy knob. It was 

 used as a missile, and the natives threw it with great 

 accuracy and force. These were their principal weapons, the 

 bows and arrows being weak and light. They were, how- 

 ever, used in war, as well as in killing fish. The fortified 

 towns of the Feegeeans had an earthen " rampart, about six feet 

 thick, faced with large stones, surmounted by a reed fence or 

 cocoa-nut trunks, and surrounded by a muddy moat." f 



Their houses were oblong, from twenty to thirty feet long, 

 and fifteen feet high. They were made of cocoa-nut wood 

 and tree fern, and were sometimes very well built. They had 



* Latham. Varieties of Man, p. 226. 

 f Williams. Figi and the Figians, vol. i., p. 48. 



