222 The Triumphs of the Gospel in Fiji. 
possession of the little property owned by the dead man. 
The condition of the orphan children, when deprived of 
both parents in one day, can be imagined. Orphans 
abounded in the early mission schools ; it was not uncom- 
mon to find, out of a large class, that two-thirds of the num- 
ber had been deprived of parents by these cruel customs. 
The practice of cannibalism formed the most revolting 
feature in Fijian life. There is no evidence as to the origin 
^ of this custom, but it certainly did not arise from lack of 
food, because Fiji is plentifully blessed with vegetables and 
fruits, and yields good harvests to the industrious cultivator. 
It seemed strange that people, who expressed mourning for 
the dead by the loss of a finger, should adopt the disgusting 
custom of eating the killed ; yet, so it was. Many a Fijian 
who had lost one, two, or three fingers to the first joint, in 
token of mourning for departed friends, was an inveterate 
man-eater ; and, horrid as the practice was, it was, generally 
speaking, widespread, as the observance of it seemed to be, 
it is said that there were certain men distinguished above all 
their fellows in their hunger for human flesh. They were 
giants in cannibalism, and feared accordingly. One monster 
was renowned as the eater of 238 bodies; another, who after- 
wards became a Christian, as having devoured 48 ; while a 
third, named Ra Undreundre, had eaten 900 bodies ! The 
son of this man once took a missionary to count the row of 
stones by which the cannibal father had kept a register of 
the bodies he had destroyed, some years later, and at that 
date the missionary and his companions counted 872 stones 
remaining upright in the dreadfully significant row. Bodies 
were sometimes baked whole, at other times dismembered 
first ; but in all cases the trunk was eaten first, as being a 
part that would not keep. These very men would turn with 
disgust from pork if not well done, to consume the horrible 
