256 The Triumphs of the Gospel in Fiji, 
on right under their eyes, for the ovens in which the bodies 
were baked, were close to their doors, and the people seemed 
mad after human flesh. The king and his son were men of 
gigantic stature, and in place of succouring their visitors, 
allowed the natives to insult and mock them. Mrs. Hunt, 
once, when nursing her dying infant, and endeavouring to 
soothe its expiring pangs, accidentally looked up, and was 
startled to see several of the natives looking at her, and 
mocking her sorrow. They could not understand how any- 
body could grieve at parting with a child ; life was so cheap 
with them. Mr. Hunt says, " One day a report was brought 
to us that ' dead men,' as victims are called, were being 
brought here. Almost before we had time to think, the 
men were laid on the ground before our house, and chiefs, 
priests, and people met to divide them to be eaten. They 
brought eleven to our settlement ; it is not certain how many 
have been killed, but some say two or three hundred. 
Their crime appears to be that of killing one man, and 
when the man who did it came to beg pardon, the chief 
required this massacre to be made as a recompense. The 
principal chief was killed, and given to the great god of 
Somo Somo. I saw him after he was cut up, and laid on 
the fire to be cooked for the cannibal god of the island. 
The manner in which the poor wretches were treated was 
shamefully disgusting. They did not honour them as much 
as they do pigs. When they took them away to be cooked, 
they dragged them on the ground, — one had a rope round 
his neck, and the others took him by the hands and feet. 
They have been very strange with us ever since, and have 
given us reason to expect the very worsf 
Once or twice, the missionaries were very near death. 
One day, Tuikilakila, the eldest son of the king, a giant of 
over seven feet in height, and proportionally built, came to 
