Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/193

 MAmnEKS AND CUSTOMS. 163 even before I was informed of its import. Soon after hearing it, I saw- two canoes steering for the island, while some one on board struck the water, at intervals, with a long pole, to denote that they had killed some one. When sufficiently near, they began their fiendish war- dance, which was answered by the indecent dance of the women. On the boxed end of one of the canoes was a human corpse, which was cut adrift and tumbled into the water soon after the canoe touched land, when it was tossed to and fro by the rising and falling waves until the men had reported their exploit, when it was dragged ashore by a vine tied to the left hand. A crowd, chiefly females, surrounded the dead man, who was above the ordinary size, and expressed most unfeelingly their surprise and delight. " A man truly ! a ship ! a land ! " The warriors, having rested, put a vine round the other wrist of the hakolo — dead body designed for eating — and two of them dragged it, face down- wards, to the town, the rest going before and performing the war-dance, which consists in jumping, brandishing of weapons, and two or three, in advance of the main body, running towards the town, throwing their clubs aloft, or firing muskets, while they assure those within of their capability to defend them. The following song was uttered m a wild monotone, finished with shrill yells : — " Yari au malua. Tari au malua. Oi au na saro ni norau Danua. Ti mudohia ! Yi mudoTcia ! Yi mudoJcia ! Ki Dama le ! Yi ! u-woa-ai-e ! " * On reaching the middle of the town, the body was thrown down before the Chief, who directed the priest to ofifer it in due form to the war-god. Eire had been placed in the great oven, and the smoke rose above the old temple, as the body was again drawn to the shore to be cut up. The carver was a young man ; but he seemed skilful. He used a piece of slit bamboo, with which, after having washed the body in the sea, he cut off" the several members, joint by joint. He first made a long, deep gash down the abdomen, and then cut all round the neck down to the bone, and rapidly twisted off* the head fi-om the axis. The several parts were then folded in leaves and placed in the oven. According to a popular rhyme, it is only the courageous who are thus treated, while life is the reward of cowardice : — ' Drag me gently. Drag me gently. For I am the champion of thy land. Give thanks ! Give thanks ! Give thanks 1" etc.