Fiji; then old King Cacobau and his retinue, followed by the chiefs in order of rank. Arriving at the spot which was chosen as a resting-place for the once most powerful chief in all Fiji, the service was read and the coffin was lowered into the grave and wrapped up in mats, with which it had been previously lined. Three rounds of blank cartridge were fired over the grave, and the procession moved homeward, followed by the landing-party to the bugle march. After this came more mourning with conch shells; the natives assembled to drink the kava and thence to the feast.

"Though the Fijians are large consumers of their peculiar foods at meals, they must not be considered gourmands at their feasts, for, though the preparations are on a large scale, the desire is not to eat so much as to have plenty if need be.'

CHAPTER XI.

FIJI LIFE, PAST AND PRESENT.

IN olden days marriage among the Fijians was celebrated as it is now by religious rites, and a short résumé of the ceremonial may be interesting. A woman could not marry without the consent of her brother, even if she had obtained that of both parents. The assent of the latter was shown by their acceptance of the lover's presents. The daughters of chiefs were engaged at a very early age; but bonâ-fide courtships were common among all ranks. In Commodore Wilkes's account of his cruise in the Pacific, he describes a wedding 'The ambati, or priest, having taken a seat, the bridegroom is placed on his right and the bride on his left. He then invokes

the protection of the god or spirit upon the bride, after which he leads her to the bridegroom, and joins their hands with injunctions to love, honour and obey, and be faithful, and die with each other.' The allusion to the widow sacrifice excepted, the formula closely resembled ours, and it was followed by a wedding-breakfast, which probably was as indigestible a meal as obtains with us. I quote Commodore Wilkes's account, however, with 'all reserve,' as the great Fiji missionary Williams has stated that though blessings were invoked, the presence of a priest was not considered necessary.

In some cases of mutual attachment, the courtship is of a formal character. After the gentleman's presents have been accepted, the young lady is taken off to the house of the future husband's parents with her presents. The bridegroom's friends console her with trinkets, and this quasiceremony is called vakamaca, or the 'drying up of tears.' Then food is prepared by the man and taken to the bride's friends. Four days of probation follow, after which the girl bathes, and, accompanied by matrons, goes fishing and prepares what is caught, which with yams, taro, etc., form the wedding-feast. In some places this completes the ceremony; in others, the man goes away to build a house, while the woman repairs to her parents' house till this is finished.

The marriage of Ratu Joe, the youngest son of King Cacobau, in 1879, partook somewhat of the nature of an elopement, and was evidently a union of pure affection. The parents and friends of the young chief were anxious that he should wed the daughter of Tui Suva, a damsel of parentage equal to his own and having a liberal dowry of broad acres. The young lady herself was somewhat smitten with Joe, but he remained true to his first love, and being unduly pressed, he arranged a clandestine wedding with a bride of somewhat

humble birth at the mission-house. The old king was at first very indignant at Joe's mésalliance, but eventually, like a sensible man, came round, and prepared a sumptuous feast for the propitiation of numerous friends and relatives.

Society in Fiji is divided into six recognised classes, in which there is much that resembles the system of caste. The grades are:

1. Kings and queens.

2. Chiefs of large islands.

3. Chiefs of towns and priests.

4. Distinguished warriors, chiefs of carpenters

and chiefs of the turtle-fishers.

5. Common people.

6. Slaves by war.

Rank is hereditary, and descends through females.

In cannibal days the dignity of a chief was estimated by the number of his wives, which used to vary from ten to fifty, or even one hundred. Polygamy was as much an institution in Fiji as it is to this hour in Utah. The ex-King Cacobau for a long time resisted the exhortations of the missionaries to give up heathenism. His conversion to Christianity was much owing to the earnest entreaties of his favourite wife— Andi Lydia. On one occasion he got very angry with her, and said, 'You don't know at all what you are talking about. If I become a Christian, I may marry one of my other wives, not you.' She replied, 'I don't mind, so that you do become a Christian.'

Polygamy died hard in Fiji. A worthy Catholic priest told me in Taviuni that a certain nameless chief was by no means a bad sort of man, but now and again he would burst out into polygamy.

As regards the children now so well looked after and daily

attending school, they were in the cannibal times tersely addressed as 'rats,' and infanticide was as systematically practised as in a model baby-farm in civilised England, the unfortunate little girl-babies being generally the victims, as they could not in the after-time wield a club or poise a spear.

Solomon's maxim about the child and the rod is thoroughly appreciated all over Coral Lands, but in the old days of Fiji the instrument of correction was a good-sized truncheon of about the thickness of a broomstick.

Fijian sailors are a merry race; they generally sing while at their work, which they seem to regard very much in the light of a joke. To this day they are very superstitious, but in old times they had very curious customs, which differed from those of any other native races. Certain parts of the ocean were passed over in silence and with uncovered heads, through fear of the spirits of the deep, and they were particularly careful that no fragment of food fell into the water. The common tropic bird was the emblem of one of their gods, and the shark another; and should the one fly over their heads or the other swim past, they would utter a word of respect. A shark lying across their course was considered an evil omen, and was greatly feared.

The Fijians thoroughly understand consecration, and to this hour certain things are tabu or sacred; and on some of the canoes it was tabu to eat food in the hold, on another on the house and deck, on another on the platform over the house. Canoes have been known to be lost in a storm because their crews, instead of exerting themselves, have left their work to soro, or propitiate their gods by throwing over whales' teeth, or angona or kava root.

The Fijian sailors are now all Christians, and are taught, I do not doubt, by their pastors that the highest form of prayer

is the performance of duty. In many parts of the Pacific, the whale's tooth is regarded as a propitiatory sacrifice, and at one time, on the death of a Fiji chief, two of these teeth were placed in his hands to throw at the tree which was supposed to stand on the road to the regions of the departed.

The Fijians are the most skilful boat-builders of all the inhabitants of Polynesia, and until comparatively recent times quite a brisk trade was done in this branch of industry. The larger kind of canoe is usually built double like the CalaisDouvres, braced together with a sort of extending upper-deck on which a small house is erected. The bottom of the canoe is formed of one single plank to which the sides are dovetailed, as well as being strengthened by lashings, and the joints are made watertight by gum. The depth of hold is generally about 6 feet, while they are frequently as long as 100 feet. When they cannot use the sails the natives propel the canoes by oars about 10 feet in length; and when rowing, they stand up to their work. In all canoes there are small hatchways with high combings at both ends, and when under way a man is continually employed in bailing out the water. The canoes of the rokos have immense white sails and royal streamers, and are much adorned with shells of the cypræa ovula. These crafts sail very fast, and have a beautiful appearance; but the picturesque is giving way to the practical in Fiji as elsewhere, as some of the chiefs have now small cutters of the English pattern, and I think it very unlikely that many more of the highest-class canoes will ever be built in the colony again.

These canoes are steered by an oar which, for the large ones, is about 20 feet long with an 8 feet blade and 16 inches wide, and which is very heavy. Their weight, however, is eased by means of a rope passed through the top of the blade, the other end being made fast to the middle beam of the deck. Rudder