FIJI, a group of islands belonging to Great Britain in the South Seas, about 1800 miles from Sydney. They extend from lat. 15° 30' to 20° 30' S. The group of 180 reef-bound islands occupy an area of 40,000 square miles. Only 40 of them are inhabited, and the population in 1863 was estimated at 200,000. The people, till the middle of the 19th century, were fierce savages and cannibals. They were then largely converted to Christianity. In 1851, 50 bodies were cooked and eaten at Nameng. In many wars, undertaken more to gratify revenge than from a desire for conquest, the slaughter of their enemies, and the obtaining the bodies for food, were objects sup posed to be as honourably obtained by stratagem and every species of treachery, as by personal strength or courage. Indeed, the extent to which the thirst for blood prevailed, would be incredible, but for the undeniable testimony of many reliable witnesses. Canoes launched over the living bodies of slaves as rollers houses built on similar founda tions, the immedia"te massacre of all unfortunates in whom were detected the fatal sign of shipwreck, salt water in the eyes,'—were practices sanctioned by their religion, the omission of which at the proper season for their performance, was sure to call down the indignation of the gods, and the punishment of the too merciful offenders, and bury ing alive of parents who had become burdensome to their children, and even of sickly sons by the hands of their own fathers were events of almost daily occurrence. They discouraged early marriages.
and the chastity of the young women was carefully guarded. Some at least of a chief's wives were always strangled on the death of their husband, to accompany him to the other world, and no reluctance was ever shown by women to submit to the sacrifice ; nor did young women con sider the age of a man as any objection to their marriage, although fully aware that they must probably follow him to the tomb long before the natural termination of their own lives. The name and nature of their future abode differed in many of the islands, but the greater number spoke of Bulu as the place of departed spirits. They pre pared and drank kava iu the same manner and on the same occasions as the Polynesians. They call it Angona or Yangona, aud the use of it was taught them by the Tongans.—Capt. Elphinstone Erskine, Islands of the Western Pacific, p. 263.