THE FIJI ISLANDS AND THE FIJIANS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1977, 31 October 1863, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE FIJI ISLANDS AND THE FIJIANS.

The following are extracts from a lecture recently delivered at Dunedin, by the Rev. Mr Harding : —

It appears that the people of Fiji are a distinct race from the Malays of Polynesia — to which belongs Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, and other groups ; and, also, from the Australian and the NegrilU races.

The Fiji Islanders can be traced with tolerable certainty to the large islands of New Caledonia and New Guinea ; they belong to the Papuan race.

The islands nearest us are not more than 1300 miles from the north of New Zealand, and the passage has been sailed from Auckland in ten days.

The entire .group lies between 16 and 21 degrees south latitude, 177 and 178 degrees east longitude, occupying an area of 40,000 square miles of land. There are 200 islands of all sizes, of which about 100 are inhabited, and the population may be estimated at 200,000, or nearly half that of Victoria, more than double that of New Zealand.

The general appearauce of these islands is like the elevated points of a submerged continent. The interior is, in many instances, a single hill or mountain, and in others a range, the slopes of which, with the plains mostly found at their feet, constitute the island.

These islands are of remote volcanic origin and earthquakes are still occasionally felt.

The Fijians cultivate patches of ground and produce abundance of taro, yams, kawi, banana, kurnera, and sugar cane. Occasionally may be seen rows of maize, and patches of tobacco, while arrowroot and tapioca flourish with little care or culture. In some of the islands, nutmegs, sarsapariila, together with ginger, oranges, lemons, and citrons grow spontaneously.

Sugar cane is grown in large quantitieSj and ripens in twelve or fourteen months. The natives manufacture a treacle from it by boiling, and use it in their cookery. The canes attain a girth of six inches, and in cases of necessity their juice satisfies both hunger and thirst, while the leaves are used for thatching houses.

There is a root, yangona, much prized for its narcotic properties and yielding au intlxicating grog. This root sometimes grows to the weight of 1401bs.

Their agricultural implements tire exceedingly rude and few in number. A tool, about a yard long, and lancet shaped is used in breaking down and gathering the brushwood and coarse grass, which is burnt ; then the digging-stick or plough, nvade of a young mangrove tree-, about the size of the handle of a hay-fork. Three or four men work close together driving the stick down about eighteen inches, and then heaving out the large body of earth they had thus loosened ; lads follow with short sticks breaking the clods, which are crumbled by the hand and raised into mounds, in the top of which the yams are set, similar to the Maori method of planting potatoes. The vines of the yams are trained along a frame, and at the season the yam garden presents a very pretty appearance. A kind of hoe is used for weeding, the blade of which is made from the backbone of a turtle or the valve of a large oyster, the laborer squatting on the ground to work. A pruning knife is made of a plate of tortoiseshell lushed to a rod ten feet in length.

The women, like the ladies of more refined countries, retiie into their dwellings, exercising their ingenuity in the manufacture of articles according to taste aud lequirements— and mats, baskets, cloth, pottery, and fishing nets are procured in great variety, displaying a skill scarcely equalled in the South Seas, or among any other people of the uncivilized world.

In the construction of houses the Fijians are very superior to the natives of New Zealand. The largest take two or three months in building, while others are run up in a few days. A visitor says of the late chief Tanoa's house, "If surpasses in magnitude and grandeur anything I have ever seen in these seas, being 130 feel long and 42 feet wide, with massive pillars made of the trunks of large trees placed in the centre, and the strong cuiious ornamental work in every part. The palace of the Maori king is by no means equal to the ordinary house of a Fiji chief.".

The Fijians are naturally cunning and treacherous, malicious aud cruel. They express their malice in the strongest terms, and never forgive, "My hatred of thee begins at my'heels, and extends to the hairs of my head/is a mode of speech in accordance with their style. An angry chief sent the following message to his enemy : — " Let the shell of the giant oyster "perish by reason of years, and to these add a thousand more, still my hatred of thee shall be hot."

A missionary ouce saw a large stuke driven through the head of a poor fellow to gratify the malice of his enemy ; and another witnets saw a man take off the head of his victim and drink out his brains. Indeed, the revolting practice of slaking revenge by eating the tongue, heart and liver of its object is quite commou, The Fijians, it is well known, are the most ferocious and disgusting cannibals which, in any age or country, have shown by their fiendish depravity, the awful extent to which humau nature is fallen.

They'tiot onry relish human flesh and eat it a<pa luxury of the first class, but it is also eaten as a religious senioe, ac~

ceptable to the gods. This horrid practice is not confined to one sex, nor is any age exempt. Children and old people ore alike devoted to the ovens. They rejoice in the flesh of women because, as they say, they eat well ; and also because their destruction would give poignant distress to their husbands and families.

The human heart is regarded as a delicious dish ; and the thigh, and arm above the elbow, are considered the greatest dainties. In the island of Moalo the very graves have been opened, for the purpose of getting the inmate for food; and so late as 1852, part of a body ready for the grave was devoured by men.

When there are many bodies, portions are sent round by the chiefs as presents to their friends. When only one body is cooked it is eaten at home : but if this one be a man of distinction, and hated, parts of him are sent to other chiefs to a distanoe of 50 or 100 miles.

These people are not according to the strict sense idolaters ; they do manifest a reverence for certain clubs, and stones, and they persist iv a sort of functionary negotiating between men and the gods, but iv their heathen state they cannot be described as devoted to religion.

One of the most remarkable of the converted chiefs is Thaskacubow, who has been sometimes spoken of though somowhat improperly, as the '■ King of Fiji." Thaskambow derives his very name from his eminence as a cannibal, standing prominent among others of the worst order as a man desperate in cruelty and deeds of blood. But this man has become converted to the Church of Christ. His conversion was not more remarkable than his after life changed.