to kill their children. It was an ordinary matter for children to
bury their aged parents alive; and fathers and mothers have been known
to bury alive their grown-up sons who might complain of illness, or have
become weary of life, stamping down on their graves with the greatest
unconcern.

On the death of a chief his favourite wives were invariably strangled
with him. Numerous slaves also were killed, to form his band of
attendants to another world; and a great cannibal feast was also held.
Human victims were offered to their obscene deities by their priests in
their temples, groves, and high places. When a house was to be built
for a chief, four live slaves were placed in deep holes to support the
corner posts, when the earth was filled in on them, that their spirits
might watch over the edifice. When a large canoe was to be launched
victims were clubbed, or the canoe was drawn over their living bodies
like the car of Juggernaut, crushing them to death. For the slightest
offence a chief would club to death one of his wives, or any of his
people, and feast afterwards on their bodies.

But enough has been said to show the character of the people of Fiji.
They are, especially the chiefs, tall, handsome men; and though their
skin is black, they have not the features of negroes. They are also
very intelligent, active and energetic.

Dr Seemann says, page 77 of his work, "Until 1854, Bau, which is the
name of the metropolis as well as of the ruling state, was opposed to
the missionaries, and the ovens in which the bodies of human victims
were baked scarcely ever got cold. Since then, however, a great change
has taken place. The king and all his court have embraced Christianity;
of the heathen temples, which by their pyramidical form gave such a
peculiar local colouring to old pictures of the place, only the
foundations remain; the sacred groves in the neighbourhood are cut down;
and in the great square, where formerly cannibal feasts took place, a
large church has been erected. Not without emotion did I land on this
blood-stained soil, where probably greater iniquities were perpetrated
than ever disgraced any other spot on earth. It was about eight o'clock
in the evening; and, instead of the wild noise which greeted former
visitors, family prayer was heard from nearly every house.

"To bring about such a change has indeed required no slight efforts, and
many valuable lives had to be sacrificed; for although no