covered their shapely limbs. Gay flowers stood out among the riot of their flowing locks, and like elfin things they flitted with tremulous arms outstretched until they stood fully revealed in the red glare, only to flutter silently backward and vanish. In days gone by that darkness concealed from view a gruesome meal.
Basil Thomson points out the fact that in Fiji the practise increased greatly just before the coming of white men, as had that of human sacrifice among the Aztecs a few years before the arrival of Cortez. With the sudden increase in the power of the great chiefs, it began to lose its religious significance and an acknowledged appetite for cannibal meat was boastfully proclaimed. Thus Tanoa, Ra Undre-undre, Tui Kilakila, and others were cannibals because they enjoyed the taste of man, but not all Fijians liked human flesh, even as terrapin is not enjoyed by all white men.
The most hideous features of cannibalism were the fiendish tortures, Vaka-totogana, connected with it wherein the victims were gradually dismembered and their noses, tongues, arms, or legs cooked and eaten before their eyes, pieces of their own flesh being offered to them in derision. Even if the missionaries had accomplished nothing else, their success in abolishing cannibalism would have sanctified their labors. Let nothing blind us to an appreciation of the undaunted courage and unexcelled devotion to their faith displayed by these unselfish men and women, who, actuated by high and simple motives, left homes and friends, and labored cheerfully through long years over the seemingly hopeless task of bringing the light of a happier day to the barbarians of Fiji.
People who had died a natural death were rarely or never eaten, and only those killed in battle, captured, or wrecked "with salt water in their eyes," were offered to the gods and roasted. The dead, if killed in battle and buried, they would disinter even after the tenth day when the body could not be lifted entire from the grave and was therefore torn apart and made into puddings. Every one agrees that decomposition did not deter their appetite for human flesh, any more than it impairs our own taste for game, yet all other meat was discarded by the Fijians as by us upon the least indication of dissolution.
Among old Fijian chiefs whom I knew between 1897-1899, none expressed the slightest abhorrence of cannibalism, and some were frank enough to state that were European influences removed they would at once renew the practise. To the Fijian no revenge is assuaged until you have eaten your enemy, but the deepest contempt for a fallen foe was indicated by roasting and then refusing to devour the body.
One of the best descriptions of a cannibal feast is that given by Jackson in Erskine's voyage published in 1853; and the Rev. Thomas William[1] in his work upon "Fiji and the Fijians" describes the rites in detail, having often observed them.
- ↑ Williams was by far the most assiduous and accurate observer of Fijian customs, and it is to be regretted that his manuscript was edited and "repressed" by a Mr. Rowe of London who had never visited Fiji.
