Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/159

 MANNERS AND CrSTOMS. 129 plunges keep the water all round white with foam. Youngsters use the surf-boards which are so often found in Polynesia. Nocturnal serenading is practised by companies of men or women. Although most of the Fijians are fond of music, yet their own at- tempts in that direction are very rude. Their musical instruments are the conch-shell, the nose-flute, the Pandean pipes, a Jew's harp made of a strip of bamboo, a long stick, large and small drums, made of a log hollowed like a trough, and having cross pieces left near the ends, and bamboos used for the same purpose. The shell is the favourite instrument of the fish- ermen. The long stick belongs to the dance. Clapping of hands al- ways accompanies singing, which is invariably in a major key. The dance is undoubtedly the most popular pastime of Fiji. The song by which it is regulated is often very dull, and the movements slow and heavy, consisting of stepping and jumping, mingled with many inflections of the body and gesticulations with the hands. There is always a conductor, and, in one or two of their dances, a buffoon is in- GIEL PLATING ON THE NOSE-FLUTE. DRUMS AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. troduced, whose grotesque movements elicit immense applause. In a regular dress or feast dance, two companies are always engaged, — the musicians and the dancers. Twenty or thirty persons constitute the