Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/229

 RELIGION. 199 formation, and especially anxious to decide the difficult question as to whether the moon was inhabited. To effect their purpose, they cast up a high mound, and erected thereon a great building of timber. The tower had already risen far skyward, and the ambitious hopes of its in- dustrious builders seemed near fulfilment, when the lower fastenings suddenly broke asunder, and scattered the workmen over every part of Fiji. It is remarkable that the people of Ono, the most distant island, say that they originally belonged to this locality ; and it is still more remarkable that there exists a dialectic similarity between these ex- tremes ; and the inhabitants of each are tauvu, worshippers of the same god ; and, in virtue of this, may take from each other what they like, and swear at each other without risk of giving offence. Namosimalua, on hearing of the translation of Enoch and Elijah, at once named Kerukeru, a woman of Yaro, who was very good, but un- kindly treated by her husband ; so the gods, in consideration of her high character removed her from this world without permitting her to die.