CONCESSIONS TO CIVILIZATION. 105 
saved the lives of five hundred men! During the whole 
of this ceremony, the old chief was much affected, and 
a few tears might be seen stealing down his cheeks. 
Soon however cheering up, he gave us a full account 
of the time when he came of age, and the number: of 
people that were slain to celebrate the occasion.* 
Kuruduadua was stilla heathen. He said that our 
religion was good, but there were few true Christians 
in the group, and he hated hypocrisy, and did not pro- 
fess to be better or anything else than he really was. 
He rather favoured than hindered the spread of the 
Gospel. On Sunday morning I heard him interroga- 
ting two men, whether they were Christians. On their 
answering in the affirmative, he reprimanded them for 
not attending the church service, as the drum—the 
substitute for bells—had left off beating for some time. 
We induced him to make several important concessions 
to civilization, to prohibit cannibalism throughout his 
territories, and to keep the Sunday as a day of rest, if 
not a holy day. To this he agreed cheerfully. Indeed 
he seemed most anxious to stand well with the whites, 
and one of the first explanations he offered after our 
arrival was respecting an attack upon, and plunder of 
some white men, who resided on Namuka, an island seven 
miles west of Rewa. The attack and plunder was made 
* The custom of standing on corpses is mentioned by several writers 
on Fiji, and was probably practised throughout the group. Joseph Water- 
house, in his ‘ Vah-ta-ah,’ p. 32, a book full of facts not found elsewhere, 
describing the condition of Bau previous to its conversion to Christianity, 
says, “Down the next lane a young chief is trying on, for the first time 
since he was born, a narrow slip of native calico, as an indication that he 
now thinks himself a man. He stands on the corpse of one who has been 
killed to make his stepping-stone for the ceremony of the day.” 
