398 A MISSION TO VITI. 
one of the canons of Fijian belief. It is from this con- 
viction that, on the death of a man, be he chief or com- 
moner, all his wives are strangled, so that he may not 
have to go alone on his journey or arrive at the future 
abode of bliss without anybody near and dear to him. 
Only in the christianized districts has this cruel custom 
been abolished. The Tonguese restricted the posses- 
sion of a soul to chiefs and gentry, but the Fijians go 
further, allowing it not only to all mankind, but to 
animals, plants, and even houses, canoes, and all me- 
chanical contrivances. The ultimate destination of the 
soul is Bulu, identical with the Tonguese Bolotu, and 
the general starting-place (Cibicibi) is supposed to be at 
Naicobocobo (= Naithombothombo), the extreme west- 
ern or lee side of Vanua Levu, to which pilgrimages 
are occasionally made. It is not a little singular that 
the Fijians agree with the Tahitians, Samoans, Ton- 
guese, and Maoris, in fixing this starting-place inva- 
riably on that side of their respective countries. The 
ancient Egyptians, it will be remembered, coincided 
with them in supposing their souls to depart westward.* 
But I must not accumulate coincidences. Those theory- 
spinners who are always on the look-out for traces of 
the lost tribes, and similar losses that give them un- 
easiness, might propound an hypothesis purporting to 
account for the westward movement common to the 
souls of the ancient Egyptians and the modern Poly- 
nesians, and, taking a hint from the incidental observa- 
tion that Fijian temples have somewhat the shape of 
* In Tahiti this place is called Fareaitu, in Samoa Fafa; the Maoris 
start from Cape Maria Van Diemen. 
