CUSTOMS OF THE FEEJEE GROUP. 89 
but, as before remarked, they are merely the instruments of the chiefs. 
When the latter are about going to battle, or engaging in any other 
important enterprise, they desire the priest to let the spirit enter’ him 
forthwith, making him, at the same time, a present. The priest 
speedily begins to shake and shiver, and ere long communicates the 
will of the god, which always tallies with the wishes of the chief. It 
‘sometimes happens that the priest fails in exciting himself to convul- 
sive action; but this, among a people so wrapt in superstition, can 
always be ingeniously accounted for: the most usual mode of excusing 
the failure, is to say that the kalou is dissatisfied with the offering. 
The chiefs themselves admitted, and Whippy informed me, that 
they have little respect for the power of the priests, and use them 
merely to govern the people. The ambati are generally the most 
shrewd and intelligent members of the community, and the reasons for 
their intimate union with the chiefs are obvious: without the influence 
of the superstition of which they are the agents, the chief would be 
unable successfully to rule; while without support from the authority 
of the chief, the ambati could scarcely practise their mummeries with- 
out detection. 
The priests, when their services are not wanted by the chiefs, are 
sometimes driven to straits for food. In such cases they have recourse 
to the fears of the people, and among other modes of intimidation, 
threaten to eat them if their demands are not complied with. To give 
force to the menace, they pretend to have had communication with 
the god in dreams, and assemble the people to hear the message of the 
deity. This message is always portentous of evil; the simple natives 
are thus induced to make propitiatory offerings, which the priest 
applies to his own use. 
FEEJEE ORACLE, 
The priest at Levuka pretends to receive oracles from a miniature 
mbure, an engine of superstition of the form represented in the figure, 
VOL. III. H2 12 
