Beutiful Fiji

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19108, 28 June 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

Beutiful Fiji

(Written for the “S(tar” by

H. McC. STUDHOLME.)

GOING from Auckland to Suva the traveller crosses only seventeen hundred miles of sea, but when he lands in Fiji he is in a new world. He is among men who are only two generations removed from cannibalism of the sort celebrated in so many popular songs of days past. He is in the kind of tropics that many novelists have made famous, complete with palms, dusky maidens, kava, #md brilliant blue seas.

The -novelist writes of all things delectable when he writes of the islands, and forgets conveniently that there are many disadvantages. He forgets the rain, sometimes at the rate of four inches in the hour, and above all he forgets the million and one insects, from tiny stinging midges to six inch centipedes which make the operation of getting dressed or into bed a matter for extreme caution

However, the advantages of tropical existence far outweigh the disadvantages, especially if the tropical country you inhabit is Fiji. The group contains four hundred islands more or less, over half of them inhabited, the biggest as big, nearly, as Canterbury, and the smallest merely a rock sticking out of the sea with a few coconut palms growing on it. In one thing they are all alike. They are all beautiful, each in its different way, and each has some fresh sight or custom to interest the traveller lucky enough to see it. Suva, which forms the total’ Fijian experience of most visitors there, is not at all a prepossessing place. It might very well be compared in the size of its white population with Rangiora. Its native population brings the total of inhabitants up to about 20,000, and only in few places in the world are so many different breeds of men found in the one place. The biggest proportion of the native population is divided about equally between Fijians and Indians, both Hindus and Mohammedans, but the remainder consists of representatives of every Polynesian and Melanesian race, beside Japanese, Chinese, Malays, and even negroes. Most of these races wear their native costumes, and the ’ streets of Su\'a are a source of continual interest.

Suva, however, is very far frem being a piece of the real Fiji. To get any idea of the true character of the people it is necessary to get out into the small islands, where whites seldom go, or to the hilly parts of the big islands which are more or less in the same state as

they were before whites ever set foot in the group. By nature the Fijian is a most lovable creature. He has tile happiest temperament imaginable, and makes an ideal host if you are lucky enough to be asked to stay in a village. Nature has been kind in these sun-washed islands, and very little labour will keep a man and his family in luxury the whole year round, so that when one is invited to stay in a village, work is practically suspended for the duration of one's stay, in order that the whole village may give its mind to your entertainment.

Unless the visitor is old, his first introduction to the life of the village will almost certainly be a swim with the young ladies of the place. He is asked by apparently guileless young woman to accompany the party and, wishing to oblige, he goes. As soon as he gets into the water, the visitor is attacked by the whole unmarried female strength of the village and ducked, splashed and thrown about. It is an old custom, but one which the average European visitor could well do without.

Fiji was the home of the most bloodthirsty of cannibals before the missionaries came, and" the present native king is the m*eat-grandson of the original “King of the Cannibal Isles.” Ratu Pope Seniloli is a most charming person, but his great-grandfather. Tanoa, and his grandfather, Thakambau. were the source of many grey hairs to the first few missionaries to land in Fiji. There are countless stories of the cannibal days, and you will occasion ■ally meet an old man who, in an expansive mood, will mourn their passing. There are still a few venerable natives who remember in their youth tasting human flesh, and each one votes it better than pig. Tanoa kept a herd of captured enemies on his little island, and fattened them specially for the pot. There <s a well-authenticated story of a man on one of the big islands who made a habit of putting a stone in front of his house for every man he ate. When he died, one of the very early settlers counted the stones and found that there were well over nine hundred, and the old man’s son maintained that a lot had been lost. The son was bitten with a desire to keep up the family reputation, and began on a career of cannibalism, but by the time he had eaten six of his fellow’ islanders, the authorities had a firm grip, and he w T as removed. A whole man sounds a big order for one meal, but the fact of the matter is that body was not eaten. Only the upper arm was used, and more rarely the thigh. Since the early

seventies there has been only one instance .of cannibalism recorded, and that was in a very wild and mountainous part of the main island. Ceremony forms a most important part of the life of the Fijian, perhaps the most picturesque being the ceremony of drinking kava. Kava is the main native amusement, and is dr link either socially, as a white will drink tea, or else ceremonially. Kava is the root of a particular shrub, pounded into a powder, and mixed with water. The remains of the pounded root arc strained off, and the resulting liquid served in bowls made of half a coconut shell. It is a very bitter drink, but one which appeals after a short acquaintance.

During the ceremonial mixing of the drink, which is done with the utmost punctilio, songs are sung so old that their meaning has been entirely lost. They are remembered perfectly, but the words are not Fijian, or of traceable language. More modern compositions are also introduced, one of tliein being an exhortation to those present to drink till they vomit. It is’ not an invitation to bestiality, but an expression of-goodwill, and an indication that the host wants the guest to have all he wants. Kava is,not intoxicating to the European, but a native can apparently get quite a good kick out of it. The intoxication is peculiar, as it does not affect the head, but deprives the too-willing drinker of the use of fits legs. In one village they have a white coconut palm, which they proudly exhibit. It is alleged that the tree sprang up on the spot where one Maafu vas murdered, and got its nourishment from his blood A tiny fringe of the leaf is undoubtedly w’hite, but the visitor to Ono i Lau, who expects a wonder, is. apt to be a little disappointed. A terrible devil in the shape of a I shark, variously estimated to be from forty to a hundred feet long, inhabits the Koro Sea between the islands of

Taviuni gk-nd. Vanua Leva. ; Dakuwn.nga, as the shark is : has' been ;6efi by two or-' tlfree whites, who ' all ’ tell the tale that their ciitter was 'seized by Dakuwanga, and borne, clasped in

i life fliiipfefs,; hitlifer and .thlthet -abMrt! l the sea. -\yhatever the whites may l think about -it,- the native, 'in spite of l missionary training, believes implicitly i in Dakuw’anga's existence, and not one

would think of crossing the Koro Fea without first throwing overboard an offering, generally.. in. the form of a packet of kava root. Thousands of people pass- through

a Fiji in a year, as all - the trans-Pacific ‘ n mail boats call here,/but very few ever a see more than the very false face Suva presents. To see the real Fiji it is h necessary to go as far as possible from

' the centres - where -white, influence 5s felt, and in one of these out-pf-the-wav places a traveller can fill his mind with all sorts of strange tales, and see all manner of strange sights.