Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/122

96 FIJI Aim THE FUIANS. A reflection on a woman's character, her rank, her child, her domestic qualifications, or any one of a hundred other things, gives sufficient occasion for a wearisome cry. Nor is this demonstration restricted to the sex : men adopt it also. I once saw four villages roused, and many of the inhabitants under arms, in consequence of a man crying in this style : " War ! war ! -Will no one kill me, that I may join the shade of my father 1 "War ! war ! " This was the cry which, one clear day, sounded with singular distinctness through the air, and drew many beside myself to the top of a hill, where we found a little Mata goaded to desperation, because his friend, without consulting him, had cut sev- eral yards from some native cloth which was their joint property. To be treated so rudely made the little man loathe life ; and hence the alarm. A native of Mbua put together the frame of a house, and then applied to his fi-iends, in due form, for help to thatch it. They readily assented ; but in the course of the conversation which ensued, a remark was made that touched the pride of the applicant, who angrily resolved to make the unfuiished house a monument of his high stomach, by leav- ing it to rot ; as it actually did, in front of my own dwelling. Few things go more against a native's nature than to be betrayed into a manifestation of anger. On the restraint and concealment of passion he greatly prides himself, and forms his judgment of strangers by their self-control in this particular. When the hidden flame bursts forth, the transition is sudden from mirth to demon-like anger. Some- times they are surprised into wrath, or vexed beyond endurance ; when they throw off all restraint, and give themselves up to passion. The rage of a civilized man, in comparison with what then follows, is like the tossings of a restless babe. A savage fully developed — physically and morally — ^is exhibited. The forehead is suddenly filled with wrinkles ; the large nostrils distend and smoke ; the staring eye-balls grow red and gleam with terrible flashings ; the mouth is stretched into a mur- derous and disdainful grin ; the whole body quivers with excitement ; every muscle is strained, and the clenched fist seems eager to bathe itself in the blood of him who has roused this demon of fury. When anger is kept continually under curb, it frequently results in sullenness. Pride and anger combined oflen lead to self-destruction. A Chief on Thithia was addressed disrespectfully by a younger brother : rather than live to have the insult made the topic of common talk, he loaded his musket, placed the muzzle at his breast, and, pushing the trigger with his toe, shot himself through the heart. I knew a very similar case on the Yanua Levu. But the most common method of suicide in Fiji is by jumping over a precipice. This is, among the women, the