Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/130

 104 FIJI AND THE FIJIANS. to death. For some time, none seemed disposed to attend to the message ; and the Queen, fearing lest her plan should, after all, fall through, went to the Chiefs again, carrying with her a present of large whales' teeth, stating that they, were sent by the King's hand to purchase the death of Koroi Tamana. Adding all her own eloquence and female persuasion, this determined woman prevailed, and the Chiefs went to the doomed man, informed him of the King's order, and killed him. They imme- diately went into the presence of the King to report his son's execution, when the putrid smell of the corpse told them the truth. But it was now too late. Tambai-valu and Koroi Tamana were both dead ; and, after burying the former, nothing was left to the Chiefs but to elect, as successor, Mathanawai, the Queen's son, an4 thus complete the triumph of his designing and unscrupulous mother, who, contrary to custom, did not die with her husband. These particulars, in the form of a meke, I heard at Lakemba. Another deformity which disfigures the Fijian, is his cowardice. This, too, has been mentioned before. Many examples might be given of most dastardly cruelty, where women and even unoffending children were abominably slain ; but such details would prove to be neither pleasing nor interesting. The boasting of which so much has been said, cannot exist with true bravery. A qaqa ni cau solevaki — " A brave man, when not surrounded by enemies " — is descriptive of nine out of ten instances of Fijian valour. Few are found who will walk alone at night or in the dusk ; and, on their visits to strange places, suspicious fear prevents enjoyment. The approach of a canoe makes every one uneasy, until they ascertain the character and disposition of those on board. Should a house take fire, the fear of the flames is overcome by a dread of imaginary enemies lurking about to kill those who may escape. Nearly every feast is a season of misgiving, because of reports that some particular person is selected to be slain during its celebration. I have seen women disperse, like frightened doves, at the appearance of 'a solitary man, and youngsters of various ages scamper pell-mell at the uplifting of a spy-glass. A Fijian cannot be comfortable with a stranger at his heels. It has so happened, several times, that when I have had a room full of visitors, the door was suddenly slammed with the wind, and, in an instant, the affrighted natives would rush out at the windows, like bees from a disturbed hive. In dragging a canoe that was only roughed out, from the forest, it received a jar so as to cause a split near a hole cut to receive one of the ropes. The man who first perceived this, whispered his discovery to the one next him, he to the third ; and so the news went round, until, in a few minutes, all were flying in every