Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/220

 190 FIJI AND THE FIJlAJJfS. My informant on some of these points remarked rather drily, " The old people were more apt to hear these moans than we of this day are." In one instance, at any rate, these dreaded sounds could be explained by natural causes. Na Saunimbua was slain in April, 1850. A few nights after his death, his wife visited the place where he fell, in order to stroke his spirit, as it was raining fast. On reaching the spot, she sat down and gave vent to her feelings in piercing cries. The slayers of her husband lived in a village close by, and, on hearing the noise of her lamentation, closed their houses securely, lest the spirit should come and injure them, saying, as they did so, " What a strong man Na Sau- nimbua must be ! Listen to his moans ! " It is believed, further, that the spirit of a man who still lives ^vill leave the body to trouble other people when asleep. When any one faints or dies, their spirit, it is said, may sometimes be brought back by call- ing after it ; and occasionally the ludicrous scene is witnessed of a stout man lying at fiill length, and bawling out lustily for the return of his own soul ! The visits of certain classic heroes to the lower world would at once be credited in Fiji ; for some of its earlier inliabitants are said to have achieved a similar exploit while yet in the body. The escape of the spirits of brutes and lifeless substances to Mbulu does not receive universal credit. Those who profess to have seen the souls of canoes, houses, plants, pots, or any artificial bodies, swimming, with other relics of this fi^ail world, on the stream of the Kauvandra well, which bears them into the regions of immortality, believe this doctrine as a matter of course ; and so do those who have seen the footmarks left about the same well by the ghosts of dogs, pigs, etc. On Vanua Levu it is admitted that such things evince a desire for immortality, and, when set free from their grosser parts, fly away for Mbulu by Nai Thombothombo, where a god named Mbolembole intercepts their flight, and appropriates them to his own use. The native superstitions with regard to a future state go far to ex- plain the apparent indiflerence of the people about death ; for, while be- lieving in an eternal existence, they shut out from it the idea of any moral retribution in the shape either of reward or punishment. The first notion concerning death is that of simple rest, and is thus contained m one of their rhymes : — " Death is easy : Of what use is life ? To die is rest" * • "X mate na rawarawa : Me hula — na ka ni cava t A mate na cegu.'"