204 ^^^^ Ti'iwnphs of tJte Gospel in Fiji 
vain, for no feeling of mercy had ever entered Tanoa's 
breast. He firmly refused to pardon him ; then, after kissing 
him, commenced the torture which was destined to end the 
unhappy offender's life. First of all, Tanoa cut off Mothe- 
lotu's arm at the elbow, and drank the blood as it flowed 
from the bleeding veins. Then he cast the arm upon a 
fire, and having waited a sufficient time for the flesh to cook, 
took it out, and devoured it ravenously in the victim's 
presence. He then cut the poor fellow into pieces, and 
limb from limb, taking fiendish delight in his dying agonies. 
Soon after this, Tanoa sentenced his youngest son to death; 
and to add to the horror of the sentence, commanded 
another brother to knock out the youth's brains with a club. 
After several ineffectual attempts, this was done, in spite 
of the poor boy's entreaties for mercy. It is recorded of 
this chief that his bloodthirsty and savage propensities re- 
mained with him to the last, and that when dying, he feebly 
inquired how many women would be strangled to keep him 
company in the spirit-world. On receiving the assurance 
that five of his wives would be killed immediately he was 
dead, he seemed to resign himself to death with comfort. 
The chiefs, or kings, — for they are called by both names, 
— surrounded themselves by numbers of servants and officials 
of the highest rank among the people, governing according 
to codes of laws drawn up for the government of the 
people. But so despotic was the rule of the chiefs, that it 
depended entirely upon them whether their people should 
be ruled with a rod of iron, or treated with some degree 
of kindness. No man's life, property, wife, or house, was 
safe from the demands of the chiefs, and no man was 
guilty of daring to have a will of his own. Often, for the 
merest slips of etiquette, the chief would order a man to be 
killed, or even roasted alive ; and so abject was the submis- 
