Note 21 — Chapter VIII

It was at this town that Jackson (an Englishman, who, thirty years ago, was detained among these people for two years) witnessed an incident of peculiar interest, as an illustration of sacrifice to the Earth spirits,—a custom which British antiquarians tell us was formerly practised by our own pagan ancestors, and of which traces have till very recently lingered among us. A new house was about to be built for the chief, Tui Drekete, and the people assembled from all tributary villages to bring their offerings, and dance and make merry. A series of large holes were dug, to receive the main posts of the house; and as soon as these were reared, a number of wretched men were led to the spot, and one was compelled to descend into each hole, and therein stand upright, with his arms clasped round it. The earth was then filled in, and the miserable victims were thus buried alive, deriving what comfort they might from the belief that the task thus assigned to them was one of much honour, as insuring stability to the chiefs house. The same idea prevailed with respect to launching a chiefs canoe, when the bodies of living men were substituted for ordinary rollers—a scene which Jackson also witnessed, and quotes to prove how cruelly the tributary tribes were treated by these Rewa chiefs, one of whom he accompanied to a neighbouring isle. They came to a place called Na ara Bale (meaning “to drag over,” literally corresponding to our own Tarbert), a low, narrow isthmus, joining two islands together. By dragging the canoes across this half-mile of dry land, they were saved a long row round the island. On landing, they found the villagers entertaining the people of another village which had fallen under the displeasure of Rewa, and at the bidding of the chief these people allowed their guests to be surprised in the night, when forty were captured; and each being bound hand and foot to the stems of banana-trees, were then laid as rollers, face uppermost, along the path by which the canoes were to be dragged across the isthmus. The shrieks of the victims were drowned by the hauling songs of their captors, and, with one exception, all were crushed to death. One poor wretch lingered awhile in torture till the ovens were made ready, in which all were cooked, the guests of the previous day affording the feast for this.