st of all the relics of their heathenism."[664] Indeed "native agents
of the mission who, in the discharge of their duty, have boldly faced
death by open violence, have been driven from their posts by their dread
of the sorcerer; and my own observation confirms the statement of more
than one observer that savages not unfrequently die of fear when they
think themselves bewitched."[665] Professed practitioners of witchcraft
were dreaded by all classes, and by destroying mutual confidence they
annulled the comfort and shook the security of society. Almost all
sudden deaths were set down to their machinations. A common mode of
effecting their object was to obtain a shred of the clothing of the man
they intended to bewitch, some refuse of his food, a lock of his hair,
or some other personal relic; having got it they wrapped it up in
certain leaves, and then cooked or buried it or hung it up in the
forest; whereupon the victim was supposed to die of a wasting disease.
Another way was to bury a coco-nut, with the eye upward, beneath the
hearth of the temple, on which a fire was kept constantly burning; and
as the life of the nut was destroyed, so the health of the person whom
the nut represented would fail till death put an end to his sufferings.
"The native imagination," we are told, "is so absolutely under the
control of fear of these charms, that persons, hearing that they were
the object of such spells, have lain down on their mats, and died
through fear."[666] To guard against the fell craft of the magician the
people resorted to many precautions. A man who suspected another of
plotting against him would be careful not to eat in his presence or at
all events to leave no morsel of food behind, lest the other should
secrete it and bewitch him by it; and for the same reason people
disposed of their garments so that no part could be removed; and when
they had their hair cut they generally hid the clippings in the thatch
of their own houses. Some even built themselves a small hut and
surrounded it with a moat, believing that a little water had power to
neutralise the charms directed against them.[667]

[Sidenote: The fear of sorcery has had the beneficial effect of
enforcing habits of personal cleanliness.]

"In the face of such instances as these," says one who knows the Fijians
well, "it demands some courage to assert that upon the whole the belief
in witchcraft was formerly a positive advantage to the community. It
filled,