Fiji and the Fijians: The islands and their inhabitants. By Thomas WilliamsA. Heylin, 1858 |
Almindelige termer og sætninger
arms bamboo body bure buried cannibal canoe Chief child clapping club cocoa-nut colour cooked custom dead death deck dress drua eaten enemy favour fear feast feet long Fiji Fijian Fijian language fish friends give gods grave hair hands head heathen inches inhabitants instance islands killed kind King King's Lakemba land language Lasakau leaves liku live masi Mata mats Mbau Mbua Mbulu murder musket native Ndengei nouns observed Ovalau oven pandanus party passed person present priest Rakiraki rank receive reeds reef Rewa round sail seen shout sinnet sitting slain sometimes Somosomo soro spear spirits stones strangled tabu taro temple Tongan town tribe Tui Nayau Tuikilakila turmeric turtle Vanua Levu Vasu verb Viti Levu Vuna whale's tooth whales wife wives woman women words yams yaqona young
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Side 246 - one mode of operat' ing is to bury a cocoa-nut, with the eye upwards, ' beneath the temple hearth, on which a fire is kept ' constantly burning ; and as the life of the nut is ' destroyed, so the health of the person it represents ' will fail, till death ensues. At Matuku there is a ' grove sacred to the god Tokalau, the wind. The ' priest promises the destruction of any hated person in ' four days if those who wish his death bring a portion ' of his hair, dress, or food which he has left. This...
Side 141 - The right hand then describes a bold curve outwardly from the chest, whilst the left comes across the chest, describing a curve nearer to him, and in the opposite direction, till, at length, the left hand is extended from him, and the right approaches to the left shoulder, gradually twisting the vau by the turn and llcxures principally of that wrist.
Side 32 - The word means a nephew, or niece, but becomes a title of office in the case of the male, who in some localities has the extraordinary privilege of appropriating whatever he chooses belonging to his uncle, or those under his uncle's power.
Side 141 - ... better effect. The degree of strength which he exerts, when there is a large quantity, is very great, and the dexterity with which he accomplishes the whole never fails to excite the attention and admiration of all present. . . . Sometimes the fibres of the vau are heard to crack with the increasing tension, yet the mass is seen whole and entire, becoming more thin as it becomes more twisted, while the infusion drains from it in a regularly decreasing quantity, till at length it denies a single...
Side 172 - In the Fiji Islands the man seizes on the woman whom he wishes for his wife by actual or pretended force; but "on reaching the home of her abductor, should she not approve of the match, she runs to some one who can protect her; if, however, she is satisfied, the matter is settled forthwith.
Side 195 - For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
Side 139 - At this signal the chiefs, priests, and leading men gather round the well-known bowl, and talk over public affairs, or state the work assigned for the day, while their favourite draught is being prepared. When the young men have finished the chewing, each deposits his portion, in the form of a round dry ball, in the bowl, the inside of which thus becomes studded over with a large number of these separate little masses. The man who has to make the grog takes the bowl by the edge and tilts it towards...
Side 53 - Koroi. I once asked a man why he was called Koroi. " Because," he replied, " I, with several other men, found some women and children in a cave, drew them out and clubbed them, and then was consecrated.
Side 82 - ... doing it. The workers within pair with those outside, each tying what another lays on. When all have taken their places, and are getting warm, the calls for grass, rods, and lashings, and the answers, all coming from two or three hundred excited...
Side 103 - It was impossible not to admire the appearance of the chief: of large, almost gigantic size, his limbs were beautifully formed and proportioned ; his countenance, with far less of the Negro cast than among the lower orders, agreeable and intelligent ; while his immense head of hair, covered and concealed with gauze, smoke-dried, and slightly tinged with brown, gave him altogether the appearance of an eastern sultan. No garments confined his magnificent chest and neck, or concealed the natural colour...