Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/121

THE PEOPLE. 95 which led Mr. Hunt to observe, with dry gravity, " Truly she is a beauty : what a fancy the god must have who can desire her ! " A burst of laughter from the spectators, in which the husband outlaughed the whole, followed this remark. The treatment was most successful. The woman's pride was so stung, that she at once sat up, assuring us that the god had gone away, and that she needed no more medicine. The Fijian is very proud of his country. Geographical truths are unwelcome alike to his ears and his eyes. He looks with pleasure on a globe, as a representation of the world, until directed to contrast Fiji with Asia or America, when his joy ceases, and he acknowledges, with a forced smile, " Our land is not larger than the dung of a fly ; " but, on rejoining his comrades, he pronounces the globe a " lying ball." The process by which a savage has his lofty views of his own country hum- bled gives him pain, which a feeling mind cannot witness without sharing. There is a danger, too, of the assurance and energy springing from his falsely conceived dignity giving way to listlessness and dis- couragement, as the pleasing error departs. Many, however, struggle against this feeling. They listen to the reports of foreigners about their own countries, and, knowing that on such a subject they could not speak the truth, comfort themselves by believing that the white man is, of course, telling lies. They repeat a common saying, — " the lie of a far away path," — and hope the best for Fiji. It will not, therefore, excite surprise that a travelled Fijian com- mands little respect from his countrymen. His superior knowledge makes him offensive to his Chiefs, and irksome to his equals. A Rewa man who had been to the United States, was ordered by his Chiefs to say whether the country of the white man was better than Fiji, and in what respects. He begged them to excuse him from speaking on that subject, but without avail. He had not gone far in telling the truth, when one cried out, " He is a prating fellow ; " an- other, " He is impudent ; " some said, " Kill him ! It is natural that a foreigner should thus speak, but unpardonable in a Fijian." The luck- less traveller, finding his opinions so little relished, made a hasty retreat, leaving his enraged betters to cool down at leisure, — a process considerably hastened by his absence. Anything like a slight deeply offends a native, and is not soon for- gotten. Crying is a favourite method of giving utterance to wounded pride. If the suffering individual is a woman, she will sit down, — the more public the place the better, — she will sigh, sob, whine, until she gets a good start, when she will trust to the strength of her lungs to let every one within hearing know that one of their species is injured.