FAMILY LIFE. 191 
served, at the Bure-ni-sa, or strangers’ house, those of 
about the same age generally keeping together, whilst 
the boys, until they have been admitted publicly into 
the society of adults, have a sleeping bure to themselves. 
It is quite against Fijian ideas of delicacy, that a man 
ever remains under the same roof with his wife or wives 
at night. In the morning he goes home, and if not em- 
ployed in the field, remains with his family the better 
part of the day, absenting himself as evening approaches. 
Rendezvous between husband and wife, of which no 
further explanation can be given, are arranged in the 
depths of the forest, unknown to any but the two. After 
childbirth, husband and wife keep apart for three, even 
four years, so that no other baby may interfere with the 
time considered necessary for suckling children, in order 
to make them healthy and strong. This in a great mea- 
sure explains the existence of polygamy, and the diffi- 
culties the missionaries had to contend with in fighting 
against its abolition. The relatives of a woman take it 
as a public insult if any child should be born before the 
customary three or four years have elapsed, and they 
consider themselves in duty bound to avenge it in an 
equally public manner. I heard of a white man, who 
being asked how many brothers and sisters he had, 
frankly replied, “Ten!” “ But that could not be,” was 
the rejoinder of the natives; ‘‘ one mother could scarcely 
have so many children.” When told that these chil- 
dren were born at annual intervals, and that such occur- 
rences were common in Europe, they were very much 
shocked, and thought it explained sufficiently why so 
many white people were “mere shrimps.” Adultery is 
