Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/36

 16 FIJI A^^D THE FIJIAXS. called Qali and Bail. Qali represents a province or town that is sub- ject and tributary to a chief to^vn. Bati denotes those which are not so directly subject : they are less oppressed, but less respected, than the Qali, Hence arises an awkwardly delicate point among the Fijian pow- ers, who have often to acknowledge inferiority when they feel none. The Chiefs sometimes lay the blame of the annoyance on some one of their gods. The Somosomo chiefs supply a ludicrous instance of this. Of all who visit Mbau, the people of Somosomo have most to abase themselves, and all, say they, " through a foolish god." Ng-gurai — one of their gods — wished to visit Mbau ; Yatu Mundre Supplied him with a bamboo, as a conveyance, and, as he was ignorant of the course, en- gaged to direct him. Ha^dng entered into a rat, Ng-gurai took his club and started. Yatu Mundre had to direct his friend past several islands at which the latter felt disposed to call, and, although many miles froni him, told him when he had reached his destination. Most pitiable was poor Ng-gurai's condition ; for he had fallen off his bamboo through weak- ness, and was floating about at the mercy of the waves, when a woman of Mbau found him, took him into the Chief's house, and placed him on the hearth with the cooks, where he sat shivering four days. In the meantime the Yuna god sailed up to Mbau in style, and was received and entertained in godlike sort by the Mbau god, who urged that his visitor should become tributary to Mbau, but without success. The day having come for the visiting gods to return home, he in the rat went back cold and hungry to Thakamidrovi,* chagrined at the mis- erable figure he cut, and the corresponding reception he had met with. He of Yuna returned well fed and gaily dressed. After a short time the Mbau god, Omaisoroniaka, returned the visit from the god of Yuna, who then retaliated and demanded tribute from his guest. But first he Imd made the path slippery, so that when Omaisoroniaka grew animated, his heels flew up ; at which moment the crafty Yuna god seized the op- portunity to press his demand, to which the humbled deity yielded con- sent, agreeing to be called Qali to Yuna, but refusing to make food or do more than give up his club ; whereupon the matter ended. In con- sequence of this, the Mbau people pay the Yuna people, who are subject to Somosomo, grefit respect, but exact from the latter a servile homage. When a Somosomo canoe visits Mbau, the sail must be lowered while yet at a great distance, and the canoe sculled by the men in a sitting posture ; for to stand might cost them their life. At short dis- tances they have to shout the tama. Arrived at ^Ibau, they are kept t The taina is described towards the close of this chapter.
 * The island on which the Somosomo Chiefs formerly resided,