Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/128

 102 FIJI AND THE FIJIANS When a person is offended, he seldom says anythmg, but places a stick or stone in such a position as to remind him continually of his grudge, until he has had revenge. Sometimes a man has hanging over his bed the dress of a murdered friend ; or another will deprive him- self of some favourite or even necessary food ; while another will forego the pleasures of the dance ; all being common ways of indicating sworn revenge. Sometimes a man is seen with the exact half of his head closely cropped, to which disfigurement another will add a long twist of hair hanging down the back ; and thus they will appear until they have wreaked vengeance on those who slew their wives while fishing on the reef. From the ridge-pole of some Chiefs house, or a temple, a roll of tobacco is suspended ; and there it must hang, until taken down to be smoked over the dead body of some one of a hated tribe. A powerful savage, of sober aspect, is seen keeping profound silence in the village council. To ordinary inquiries he replies with a whistle. His son, the hero of the village, fell by a treacherous hand, and the father has vowed to abstain from the pleasures of conversation, until he opens his lips to revile the corpse of his son's murderer, or to bless the man who deprived it of life. Irritating songs are employed to excite the hatred of those who are likely to let their vengeance sleep. The youths of the place assemble before the house, and, leletaka^ or lament, that none revenge the death of their friend. The effect of such a song, framed so as to appeal to the most sensitive points of the Fijian's nature, is to awaken the malice and fury of those to whom it is addressed with all their o]'iginal force, and vows of bloody retribution are made afresh. Impatient to accomplish their purpose of revenge, the natives some- times have recourse to witchcraft. Reeds or sticks, imbued with evil power by the necromancer's art, are placed in the path of the victim, that he may be wounded thereby, and stricken with disease or death, according to the potency of the charm. Instead of the reeds, leaves are sometimes used. Chiefs coimtenance a kind of Thuggism, availing them- selves of the assassin's help to get rid of a rival, or punish an enemy. The Fijian Thug is named Baii-Kadi (" Tooth of the black ant "). One of this class was employed by Thokonauto, the Rewa Chief, to kill his rival Nanggaraninggio. In the stillness of the night, the assassin stole into a lone house belonging to his intended victim ; but which happened to be occupied only by a powerful Tahitian, named Aboro, a faithful friend of Nangganinggio, who was sleeping nearer to the town. Groping round in the dark, the assassin found the berth, or raised shelf, on which Aboro was sleeping, and struck at him with a hatchet. The blow, fiilling on a bamboo tie-beam, woke the Tahitian, who sprang up