Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/189

 MANNEES AND CTJSTOMS. 159 which we had received from the King, just as she was being oiled and dressed for death. It was evidently not unwelcome ; but it would have been at the risk of her reputation to have said or done anything indica- tive of gratitude. A vexatious circumstance took place on Taviuni. A Chief of that island was slain on Vanua Levu, in war. On receiving in- formation of this, the principal women soon assembled in his house to prepare for the murder of his wives ; but an interdict from the King prevented them, and the prey was rescued. But they were not to be defeated. The prohibition did not include the Chief's mother, whom they at once surrounded, and, before we could get authority to check them, dispatched with their own hands. Often, on that island, have I been compelled to acknowledge the truth of the couplet, — " woman ! woman ! when to ill thy mind Is bent, all hell contains no fouler fiend." The advancing light of a mercifal religion is daily exposing the hor- rors of this practice, and preparing the way for its abandonment. Na Thilathila, a heathen whose children were Christians, was visited by them on the death of her husband. They admonished her that she was dying without preparation for so solemn a change. She replied, "I know it. I know it. As certainly as I die, I shall go to the flaming fire ; but there is no remedy, there is no one to procure my reprieve." One case I knew, in which a Christian man tore the cord from the neck of his heathen cousin, and rescued her, amidst the cuffs and execrations of those who had commenced the work of death. One heathen woman saved herself by stratagem. Having directed a man how he might ob- tain her deliverance, she gave herself up, and was outrageously deter- mined to die. The friend pursued the plan she had advised, and they retired together to laugh over its success. As it affects the children, this dreadful custom is fearfully cruel, de- priving them of the mother when, by ordinary or violent means, they have becoHQe fatherless. Natural deaths are reduced to a small number among the heathen Fijians, by the prevalence of war and the various systems of murder which custom demands. A proper examination of this subject would, I am persuaded, educe appalling facts. Minute in- quiries of this kind have never yet been instituted ; but one or two made by myself on Vanua Levu will show what results might be ex- pected. Of nine boys presented for baptism, three were brothers, and the parents of the whole would therefore number fourteen. Of these only four were living ; and, of the rest, one half had come to a violent death. In a class of seventeen children under twelve years of age, I found nine orphans. None of these were related ; so that the parents