up after they were
dead?' They said, if they sacrificed their lives endeavouring to hold
the posts in their right position to their superior's _turanga kai na
kalou_ (chiefs and god), that the virtue of the sacrifice would
instigate the gods to uphold the house after they were dead, and that
they were honoured by being considered adequate to such a noble
task."[715] Apparently the Fijians imagined that the souls of the dead
men would somehow strengthen the souls of the houses and canoes and so
prolong the lives of these useful objects; for it is to be remembered
that according to Fijian theology houses and canoes as well as men and
women were provided with immortal souls.

[Sidenote: High estimation in which murder was held by the Fijians.]

Perhaps the same theory of immortality partially accounts for the high
honour in which the Fijian held the act of murder and for the admiration
which he bestowed on all murderers. "Shedding of blood," we are told,
"to him is no crime, but a glory. Whoever may be the victim,--whether
noble or vulgar, old or young, man, woman, or child,--whether slain in
war, or butchered by treachery,--to be somehow an acknowledged murderer
is the object of the Fijian's restless ambition."[716] It was customary
throughout Fiji to give honorary names to such as had clubbed to death a
human being, of any age or either sex, during a war. The new epithet was
given with the complimentary prefix _Koroi_. Mr. Williams once asked a
man why he was called _Koroi_. "Because," he replied, "I, with several
other men, found some women and children in a cave, drew them out and
clubbed them, and then was consecrated."[717] Mr. Fison learned from
another stout young warrior that he had earned the honourable
distinction of _Koroi_ by lying in wait among the mangrove bushes at the
waterside and killing a miserable old woman of a hostile tribe, as she
crept along the mudflat seeking for shellfish. The man would have been
equally honoured, adds Mr. Fison, if his victim had been a child. The
hero of such an exploit, for two or three days after killing his man or
woman, was allowed to besmear his face and bust with a mixture of
lampblack and oil which differed from the common black war-paint;
decorated with this badge of honour he strutted proudly through the
town, the cynosure of all eyes, an object of envy to his fellows and of
tender interest to the girls. The old men shouted approval after him,
the women would _lulilu