Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/221

EELIGION. 191 According to general opinion, the future world is to be much the same as the present. The Fijian Mbulu is the abode of departed spirits, where the good and the bad meet, and the road to which is long and difficult ; for although we often hear the natives talk of going to Mbulu, as a plunge into the sea ; and though every island, and nearly every town, has its Ndrakulu or Thimbathimba, yet these are but the portals where the sprit enters that mysterious path, the arrival at the termi- nation of which is a precarious contingency. Native traditions on this subject, which are variously modified in different localities, may be thus stated. On the road to Nai Thombothombo, and about five miles from it, is a solitary hill of hard reddish clay, spotted with black boulders, having on its right a pretty grove, and on the left cheerless hills. Its name is TAKIVELEYAWA. Takiveleyawa. "When near this spot, the disembodied spirit throws the spirit of the whale's tooth which was placed in the hand of the corpse at burial, at a spiritual pandanus ; having succeeded in hitting this, he ascends the hill, and there waits until joined by the spirits of his stran- gled wife or wives. Should he miss the mark, he is still supposed to remain in this solitary resting-place, bemoaning the want of afiection on the part of his wife and friends, who are depriving him of his expected companions. And this is the lone spirit's lament : " How is this 1 Eor a long time I planted food for my wife, and it was also of great use to her friends : why, then, is she not allowed to follow me ? Do my