Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/54

 34 FIJI Am) THE njIA^S. upon between two powers, a formal message to that effect is interchanged, and informal messages in abundance, warning each other to strengthen their fences and carry them up to the sky. Councils are held, in which future action is planned. Before going to war with men, they study to be right with the gods. Ruined temples are rebuilt, some half-buried in weeds are brought to light, and new ones erected. Costly offerings are brought to the gods, and prayers presented for the utter destruction of the enemy, and every bowl of yaqona is quaffed with an expression of the same wish. KanaTcanai yarua^ to eat with both contending parties, is very tabu, and punished, when discovered, with death. On one occasion I saw offered to the god of war forty whales' teeth, (fifty pounds of ivory,) ten thousand yams, thirty turtles, forty roots of yaqona, some very large, many hundreds of native puddings, (two tons,) one hundred and fifty giant oysters, (chama gigas,) fifteen water melons, cocoa-nuts, a large number of violet land-crabs, taro, and ripe bananas. Much con- fidence is placed in the god's help thus purchased. On remarking to a small party on their way to war, " You are few ; " they promptly replied, " Our allies are the gods." Frequently the men separate themselves from their wives at such times, but sometimes the wives accompany them to the war. Orders are sent by the Chief to all under his rule to be in readiness, and application is made to friendly powers for help. A flat refusal to com- ply with the summons of the Chief, by any place on which he had a claim, would, sooner or later, be visited by the destruction of the offenders. Efforts are made to neutralize each other's influence. A sends a whale's tooth to B, entreating his aid against C, who, hearing of this, sends a larger tooth to B, to bilca — " press down " — the present from A; and thus ^ joins neither party. Sometimes two hostile Chiefs will each make a superior Chief the stay of their hopes : he, for his own interest, trims between the two, and often aids the weaker party, that he may damage the stronger, yet professing, all the time, a deep interest in his welfare. When many warriors are expected to help in an expedition, slight, houses are built for their accommodation. Tongans who may be visiting the Chief at the time are expected to assist him ; to which they rarely object, their services being repaid in canoes, arms, mats, &c. In some rare cases Tongan Chiefs have had small islands ceded to them. When an appeal for help to a superior Chief is favourably received, a club or spear is sent to the applicant with words such as these : " I ^ have sent my club : by and bye I will follow." This form of earnest, I understand, is modern : the old fashion was to return a spear with a