168 SOMU-SOMU. 



and circumcised. For this ceremony long strips of white native cloth 

 were prepared to catch the blood when the foreskin was cut. These 

 strips, when sprinkled with blood, were tied to a stake, and stuck up 

 in the market-place. Here the boys assembled to dance, for six or 

 seven nights, a number of men being placed near the stakes, with a 

 native horn (a conch-shell), which they blew, while the boys danced 

 around the stake for two or three hours together. This dance con- 

 sisted of walking, jumping, singing, shouting, yelling, &c, in the 

 most savage and furious manner, throwing themselves into all manner 

 of attitudes. The blowing of the conch was any thing but musical; 

 but this is not always the case, for some of their performances have a 

 kind of rude music in them, which the missionaries thought was not 

 unlike in sound to that which is made in a Jewish synagogue, which 

 certainly gives the best idea of the music of a Feejee dance-song. 



After the circumcision of the boys, many of the female children 

 had the first joint of their little fingers cut off. The ceremonies ended 

 by the chiefs and people being assembled in the market-place to wit- 

 ness the institution of the circumcised boys to manhood. In doing 

 this, a large leaf is taken, of which they make a water-vessel, which 

 is placed in the branches of a tree. The boys are then blindfolded 

 very closely, and armed with clubs or sticks ; they are then led about 

 until they have no recollection of the situation of the tree, after which 

 they seek the vessel, and endeavour to strike it. The first who suc- 

 ceeds in knocking it down was to be considered as the future great 

 warrior. Two or three managed to hit the vessel, amid shouts and 

 applause of the concourse. The sticks were afterwards thrown on 

 the graves of the wives of Katu Mbithi. 



Katu Mbithi was considered the finest man in the group, and the 

 favourite of his father, the old king, who, in passing an eulogy upon 

 him, ascribed to him all the beauty that a man could possess in the 

 eyes of a Feejee man. He concluded by speaking of his daring spirit 

 and consummate cruelty, and said that he would kill his own wives 

 if they offended him, and would afterwards eat them ! 



On the 8th of August, 1839, seventeen of the wives of Mbithi 

 were strangled, very near the houses of the missionaries, who heard 

 their groans and saw the whole ceremony. They considered it a 

 privilege to be strangled as the wives of the great chief. 



The feast made on this occasion was said to have surpassed any 

 thing that had before taken place in Somu-somu. Immense quan- 

 tities of food were prepared for it; one hundred baked hogs were 

 given to the people of one town alone ; and it is said that after such 



