Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/42

 22 FIJI AND THE FIJIANS. Justice is known by name to the Fijian powers, and its form some- times adopted ; yet in very many criminal cases the evidence is partial and imperfect, the sentence precipitate and regardless of proportion, and its execution sudden and brutal. The mjured parties, headed by the nearest Chief, form the " bench " to decide the case. If the defendant's rank is higher than their own, an appeal is made to the King as chief magistrate, and this is final. Offences, in Fijian estimation, are light or grave according to the rank of the offender. Murder by a Chief is less heinous than a petty larceny committed by a man of low rank. Only a few crimes are re- garded as serious ; e. g., theft, adultery, abduction, witchcraft, infringe- ment of a tabu^ disrespect to a Chief, incendiarism, and treason. Punishment is inflicted variously. Theft is punished by fine, repay- ment in kind, loss of a finger, or clubbing. Either fine, or loss of the finger, ear, or nose, is inflicted on the disrespectful. The other crimes are punished with death, the instrument being the club, the noose, or the musket. Adultery taxes vindictive ingenuity the most. For this offence, the criminals may be shot, clubbed, or strangled ; the man may lose his -wife, who is seized on behalf of the aggrieved party by his friends ; he may be deprived of his land, have his house burnt, his canoe taken away, or his plantations destroyed. Young men are deputed to inflict the appointed punishment, and are often messengers of death. Tlieir movements are sudden and destruc/- tive, like a tropical squall. The protracted solemnity of public execu- tions in civilized countries is here unknown. A man is oflen judged in his absence, and executed before he is aware that sentence has been passed against him. Sometimes a little form is observed, as in the case of the Yasii to Vuna. This man conspired against the life of Tuikila- kila ; but the plot was discovered, and the Vasu brought to meet death at Somosomo. His friends prepared him according to the custom of Fiji, by folding a large new masi about his loins, and oiling and black- ing his body as if for war. A necklace and a profusion of ornaments at his elbows and knees completed the attire. He was then placed stand- ing, to be shot by a man suitably equipped. The shot failed, when the musket was exchanged for a club, which the executioner broke on the Vasu's head ; but neither this blow, nor a second from a more ponderous weapon, succeeded in bringing the young man to the ground. The victim now ran towards the spot where the King sat, perhaps with the hope of reprieve ; but was felled by a death-blow from the club of a powerful man standing by. The slain body was cooked and eaten. One of the baked thighs the King sent to his brother, who was principal in the plot,