Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/44

 24: FIJI A^T) THE FIJIANS. " atonement," or something offered to obtain forgiveness. This is a provision acknowledged throughout Fiji, and in constant use. There are five kinds of soro. 1. The soro with a whale's tooth, a mat, club, musket, or other property, is in request for every kind of offence, from stealing a yam to running away with a woman, or the commission of adultery. 2. The soro with a reed, called maia ni gasau. Tliis is not commonly resorted to in private affairs, but by civil functionaries and small Chiefs, when accused or convicted of unfaithfulness to the duties of their position. It is more humiliating than the first. 3. The soro with a spear, mata nimoto, is used to secure forgiveness in cases of civil de- linquency of a graver sort. It is still more humiliating than the second kind. He who presents the spear, generally some one of importance, will stoop or nearly prostrate himself; the whole act is supposed to imply that he, and those whom he represents, have deserved to be transfixed by a spear to the earth. 4. Tlie soro with a basket of earth, a Jcau vamia, is generally connected with war, and is presented by the weaker party, indicating the yielding up of their land to the conquerors. Sometimes, however, the ceremony may be an expression of loyalty by parties whose fealty is suspected. 5. The soro with ashes, bisi dravu, belongs to an extreme case, involving a life or lives. A Chief or Mata- ni-vanua disfigures himself by covering his bosom and arms with ashes, and, with deep humiliation, entreats that the aggrieved person will com- passionately grant the life of the offender or offenders. On the part of the offerer, the presentation of the soro is a serious thing, and his faltering voice and trembling body testify the emotion within. When a soro is refused, it is repeated, it may be five or even ten times ; until the property given, or the importunity shown, gains the desired point. Whatever may have been the origin of this custom, and however beneficial its right use might prove to the innocent, or the unintentional offender, its operation in Fiji seems too generally to avert deserved punishment from the criminal, and in many cases is but legalized cor- ruption. No small proportion of the misdemeanours brought under the notice of Chiefs are deliberate acts, in which a balance has been pre- viously struck between the fruit of the crime and the soro which must follow, and the commission of the act has been accordingly determined on. In some cases those who are in danger of punishment place them- selves under the protection of an influential Chief of another tribe, who receives servitude in return for the shelter thus afforded.