SOMU-SOMU. 159 
same number of boys, from the ages of nine to sixteen, were taken 
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 cer- 
tainly 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 witness 
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 succeeds 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 quantities 
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 occurrences 
