304 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts f and Letters. 
mer Fison’s description of an initiation ceremony in Fiji. 1 
This instance will also serve as an interesting parallel, not 
only to the Australian, but also to the' American instances 
which are to follow. 
The legend is given in a brief form, which we shall not 
quote, but we shall proceed at once to the ceremony. There is a 
general feast for four days, and cloth is- given. Then, 
“On the morning of the fifth day a huge-feast is prepared, 
and when their culinary labors are over, the young men, with 
their heads freish shaven, are swathed in the largest and best 
rolls of cloth, take in their hands the choicest weapons which 
have been reserved for this occasion. Following their leader, 
the old Vere (a class-name—the leader) with the graven staff, 
their eyes fixed upon the ground that they may tread exactly 
in his footsteps, they proceed to the great Nanga as on former 
occasions. B)ut where are the men who used to be chanting 
there the voice of the Surf ? The great Nanga is deserted and 
empty. The procession stops, and a dead silence prevails. 
Suddenly, from the forest a harsh scream of many parrots 
breaks forth, and then a mysterious booming sound which fills 
the young men’s souls with awe. The old Vere now moves 
slowly forward, and leads them for the first time into the 
Nanga tambutambu. Here a dreadful spectacle meets their 
startled gaze. Hear the outer entrance, with his back to ! the 
Temple, sits the chief priest regarding them with a fixed 
stare; and between him and them lie a row of dead men, cov¬ 
ered with blood, their bodies apparently cut open, and their 
entrails protruding. The Vere steps over them one by one, 
and the awe-struck youths follow him until they stand in a 
row, their ‘souls drying up’ under his strong glare. Suddenly 
he blurts out a great yell, whereupon the dead men start to 
their feet and run down to the river to cleanse themselves from 
the blood and filth with which they are besmeared. These are 
the Vere and the Vunilolo' matua, who represent the departed 
ancestors on the occasion, the blood and entrails being those of 
i Lorimer Fison, “The Nanga, or Sacred Stone Enclosure, of Waini- 
mala, Fiji.” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. 14, pp. 14-30. 
