Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/114

 88 FIJI AOTD THE FIJIAiq^S. That considerable mechanical skill exists among the Fijians, will have been already evident, and their cleverness in design is manifest in the carved and stained patterns which they produce. Imitative art is rarely found, except in rude attempts to represent, on clubs or cloths, men, turtles, fishes, guns, etc. Almost all their lines are straight or zigzag ; the curve being scarcely ever found in ornamental work, except in outlines. Of admiring emotion, produced by the contemplation of beauty, these people seem incapable ; while they remain unmoved by the wondrous loveliness with which they are everywhere surrounded. But the savageism of the Fijian has a more terrible badge, and one whereby he is principally distinguished by all the world, — his cruelty is relentless and bloody. That innate depravity which he shares in common with other men, has, in his case, been fostered into peculiar brutality by the character of his religion, and all his early training and associations. Shedding of blood to him is no crime, but a glory. Whoever may be the victim, — whether noble or vulgar, old or young, man, woman, or child, — whether slain in war, or butchered by treach- ery, — to be somehow an acknowledged murderer is the object of the Fijian's restless ambition. This, however, has more to do with the moral character of the people. It will already be manifest, that the Chiefs who have to rule sub- jects like these, must be shrewd and sagacious men ; and it will be seen more clearly presently, that only such men can insure respect and obedience. As the character of a people's mind will, of course, reveal itself in their language, a few words are due to that subject here, although its fuller consideration is reserved to a future chapter. All, therefore, that need be mentioned now concerning the Fijian language is, that it is full, vigorous, of considerable internal resources, flexible, and bold. Poetry, too, for the reason just named, deserves notice ; but of Fijian poetry, strictly so called, there is but little to be said. What has been remarked about the insensibility of the natives to all that is beautiful, will show that a true poet among them is indeed a rara avis. Living amidst an " unimaginable luxuriance of herbage, in a green- house-like atmosphere," surrounded with " the fresh flush of vegetable fragrance, calculated to regale the senses, exhilarate the spirits, and difluse through the whole soul a strange delirium of buoyant hope and joy," the mind of the Fi ian has hitherto seemed utterly unconscious of any inspiration of beauty, and his imagination has grovelled in the most vulgar earthliness.