Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/212

 182 FIJI AND THE FIJIANS. to supply the horrible demand. This practice was checked in an unlooked for manner. The Chief, seeing the head and legs of a man, who had been cooked without being cut or tied up, hanging over the ends of a basket of food, was so disgusted at the spectacle, as to order that, in future, pigs and not haholo should be offered. But human flesh is still the most valued offering, and " their drink-offerings of blood " are still the the most acceptable in some parts of Fiji. I know that they consume the blood of turtles and pigs, and have heard that human blood is not excepted. Some priests are tabu from eating human flesh. The priest of Ndau Thina has assured me that neither he nor those who worshipped his god might eat it, nor might the abomination be taken into his temple. Probably the shrine of Ndau Thina is a man, and hence the prohibition. To the priest of second rank in Somosomo, I know that no greater delicacy could be presented than hashed human flesh. I had been in Fiji some years before I had good evidence of the existence of the practice of severe mortification among the people. Mbasonga, the Wailevu priest, after supplicating his god for rain in the usual way without success, slept for several successive- nights exposed on the top of a rock, without mat or pillow, hoping thus to move the obdurate deity to send a shower. When the Tiliva people found their land parched with drought, notwithstanding the presentation of the ordinary offerings, they repaired in companies to the bush, to dig up the yalca^ which is a creeper with edible roots from two to three feet long, taking care not to detach the long vines springing from them. On returning, each man wound these round his neck, leaving the roots to hang beneath his chin, while the the rest of the vines dragged after him on the ground. To this was added a large stone carried on the back of the neck. Thus equipped, the whole company performed a pilgrimage to the hure on their hands and knees, making a noise as though they were crying. At the end of this painful journey they found the priest waiting to receive them, and to him one of their number stated their distress, and begged him to accept their prayer and offering. " The yaha is for you to eat ; the stones are for strengthening the base of your temple. Let our sore be accepted, and procure us rain." Some who took part in this humili- ating scene gave me the above particulars. The superstitious observances of Fiji are, however, mainly of a trivial kind. In one temple, it is tahu to eat food ; in another, nothing may be broken ; some may not be entered by strangers, and arms may not be carried over the threshold of others. Dogs are excluded from some, and women from all.