Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/132

 106 FIJI A2^B THE FIJIANS. parental love is sometimes such as to be worthy of admiration. The most remarkable case of this kind with which I am acquainted, was that of a Lakemba woman, whose child a friend was taking away to Tonga, to rear as his own. The mother had given a reluctant assent to the plan, and went on board the canoe, which was just starting, with her boy. Her affection kept her there until the canoe had passed the sea- reef, and yet she could not tear herself from her child. Being partly compelled to do so, she plunged into the sea, and faintly swam to- wards land. But her strokes grew feebler and feebler as she was fur- ther parted from her idol, until, in her great sorrow, she began to sink. The Mission canoe had followed the other, and the crew, seeing some- thing dark afloat, steered to it, and rescued the drowning woman. When the mother was restored to consciousness, she upbraided her deliverers with unkindness in not permitting her to end her grief in the deep sea. I have been astonished to see the broad breast of a m.ost ferocious savage heave and swell with strong emotion on bidding his aged father a temporary farewell. I have listened with interest to a man of milder mould, as he told me about his " eldest son — ^his head, his face, his mien — the admiration of all who saw him." Yet this father assisted to strangle his son ; and the son first named buried his old father alive ! Generally speaking, and with but few exceptions, suspicion, reserve, and distrust pervade the domestic relationship, and a happy and united household is most rare.