SOMU-SOMU. 163 



king, it was considered an unpardonable offence, and an order was 

 given to attack their town. The party that went for this purpose 

 came upon the unsuspecting village when (according to themselves) 

 they were neither prepared for defence nor flight, or, as they described 

 it to Mr. Hunt, " at the time the cock crows, they open their eyes 

 and raise their heads from sleep, they rushed in upon them, and 

 clubbed them to death," without any regard to rank, age, or sex. All 

 shared the same fate, whether innocent or guilty. A large number 

 were eaten on the spot. No report makes this less than thirty, but 

 others speak of as many as three hundred. Of these it is not my 

 intention to speak, but only of what was done with the eleven pre- 

 sented to the king and spirit. 



The utmost order was preserved on this occasion, as at their other 

 feasts, the people approaching the residence of the king with every 

 mark of respect and reverence, at the beat of the drum. When 

 human bodies are to be shared, the king himself makes a speech, 

 as he did on this occasion. In it he presented the dead to his 

 son, and intimated that the gods of Feejee should be propitiated, 

 that they might have rain, &c. The son then rose and publicly 

 accepted the gift, after which the herald pronounced aloud the names 

 of the chiefs who were to have the bodies. The different chiefs 

 take the bodies allotted to them away to their mbures, there to be 

 devoured. 



The chief of Lauthala was given to their principal god, whose 

 temple is near the missionaries' house. He was cut up and cooked 

 two or three yards from their fence, and Mr. Hunt stood in his yard 

 and saw the operation. He was much struck with the skill and 

 despatch with which these practised cannibals performed their work. 

 While it was going on, the old priest was sitting in the door of his 

 temple giving orders, and anxiously looking for his share. All this, 

 Mr. Hunt said, was done with the most perfect insensibility. He 

 could not perceive the least sign of revenge on the part of those who 

 ate them, and only one body was given to the injured party. Some of 

 those who joined in the feast acknowledged that the people of Lau- 

 thala were their relations, and he fully believes that they cooked and 

 ate them, because they were commanded to do so. The coolness, Mr. 

 Hunt further remarked, with which all this was done, proved to him 

 that there was a total want of feeling- and natural affection among them. 



After all the parts but the head had been consumed, and the feast 

 was ended, the king's son knocked at the missionaries' door, (which 



