Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/143

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 117 men employed nearly six hours in collecting and piling cooked food. There were six mounds of yams, taro, vakalolo, pigs, and turtles : these contained about fifty tons of cooked yams and taro, fifteen tons of sweet pudding, seventy turtles, five cart-loads of yaqona, and about two hun- dred' tons of uncooked yams. One pudding, at a Lakemba feast, meas- ured twenty-one feet in circumference. The head-men of the visitors sit to receive the food, as it is brought and piled before them, expressing their approval by saying aloud, " Vinaka ! VinaJca ! " " Good ! Good ! " Having finished, the carriers sit down near the heap, and clap their hands several times, and then retire. An officer from among the strangers now walks up to the food> extends his hands over it, and, inclining his head towards the Chief, says " The food. Sir." " Thanks ! thanks ! " He then stoops down and gently claps his hands, to which the Chief and his followers answer by a similar clapping, while they repeat, " It is good ! it is good ! Thanks ! thanks ! " Certain officials then proceed to share out the food ; a duty which, on account of the extreme punctiliousness of the people about rank, is attended with considerable difficulty. A Chief is honoured or slighted, according to the quantity or quality of the food set before him : and nothing of this kind can escape notice, as every eye eagerly watches the proceedings. When there are several Chiefs in the party, an accurate knowledge of the grade of each is necessary to avoid error. The food having been divided into as many portions as there are tribes, the Tui-rara, beginning with the first in rank, shouts out, " The share of Lakemba ! " or whichever may take preference. This is met by a reply from that party : " Good ! good ! " or " Thanks ! thanks ! " and a num- ber of young men are sent to fetch the allotted portion. The Tui-rara goes on, calling the names in succession, until his list is exhausted. If a foreigner should be observed among the spectators, he is sure not to be passed by, but a portion — very likely enough for twenty men — ^will be given to him. When each tribe has received its share, a re-division takes place, Answering to the number of its towns ; these, again, sub- divide it among the head families, who, in their turn, share what they get with their dependents, and these with the individual members of their household, until no one is left without a portion, the food disap- pearing forthwith, with a rapidity which baffles calculation. The males eat in the open air, sending the women's share to their houses. Should some wayfarer pass by, he is pressingly invited to partake of the enter- tainment, and allowed to dip in the same dish with those who bid him. Indeed, while Avitnessing such a scene, it is only by an effort of the mind that one can believe that a peopls so blithe and benevolent are