Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/56

 36 FIJI A^TD THE FIJIANS. up, cooked, and offered to the gods. Then follow those who hole, or challenge. First comes the leader, and then others, singly at the be- ginning, but afterwards in companies of six, or ten, or twenty. It is impossible to tell all that is said when many are speaking at once ; but there is no lack of bragging, if single challengers may be taken as specimens. One man runs up to the Chief, brandishes his club, and ex- claims, " Sir, do you know me 1 Your enemies soon will ! " Another darting forward, says, " See this hatchet, how clean ! To-morrow it will be bathed in blood ! " One cries out, " This is my club, the club that never yet was false ! " The next, " This army moves to-morrow ; then you shall eat dead men till you are surfeited ! " A man, striking the ground violently with his club, boasts, " I cause the earth to tremble : it is I who meet the enemy to-morrow ! " " See," exclaims another, " I hold a musket and a battle-axe ! If the musket miss fire, the hatchet will not ! " A fine young man stepped quietly towards a King, holding a pole used as an anchor for a canoe, and said, " See, Sire, the anchor of Natewa ! * I will do thus with it ! " And he broke the pole across his knee. A man, swinging a ponderous club, said, " This club is a defence, a shade from the heat of the sun, and the cold of the rain." Glancing at the Chief, he added, " You may come under it." A fiery youth ran up, as though breathless, crying out, " I long to be gone ! I am im- patient ! " One of the same kind said, " Ah, ah ! these boasters are deceivers ! I only am a true man : in the battle you shall find me so." These " great swelling words " are listened to with mingled laughter and applause. Although the speeches of the warriors are marked with great earnestness, there is nothing of the horrifying grimace in which the New Zealander indulges on similar occasions. The fighting men have their bodies covered with black powder ; some, however, confine this to the upper part only. An athletic warrior thus powdered, so as to make his skin wear a velvet-like blackness, has a truly formidable appearance, his eyes and teeth gleaming with very effective whiteness. Fijians make a show of war at the iaqa, but do no mischief, and incur no danger : and this is just what they like. The challenging is their delight ; beyond it their ambition does not reach, and glory is without charms. Notwithstanding the boasts of the braves, the Chief will sometimes playfully taunt them ; intimating that, from their appearance, he should judge them to be better acquainted with spades than clubs, and fitter to use the digging-stick than the musket.
 * The place against which they were going to fight.