Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/199

CHAPTEE YII EELIGION. BURE OF A NA UTDTU. An examination of the religious system of the Fijians is attended with considerable difficulty. Their traditional mythology is dark, vague, and perplexing. Each island has its own gods, each locality its own superstitions, and almost each individual his own modification of both. Yet, amidst all this confusion, there may be traced certain main tracks of belief, appearing again and again from among the undefined legends — wild, or puerile, or filthy — in which they are often lost. In these, without being over fanciful, there may be found some points of interest in the study of comparative mythology. The idea of Deity is familiar to the Fijian ; and the existence of an in visible superhuman power, controlling or influencing all earthly things, is fully recognized by him. Idolatry — in the strict sense of the term — he seems to have never known ; for he makes no attempt to fashion mate-