No less than three of our boatmen have lost their parents in these wars, and pointed out to us the spots where they had respectively been clubbed; one also pointed out the grave beside which (only two or three years ago) he had watched for ten nights and days, to be sure that his father’s body was not dug up and eaten. Even then it was scarcely secure, as bodies have been dug up after twelve days, at which stage (in the tropics!), as they could not be lifted whole, they were made into puddings! One favourite phase of cold-blooded revenge and insult was to collect the bones of bodies thus eaten and reduce them to powder. Then, when peace was restored, and the tribes next feasted together, this nice ingredient was added to some favourite pudding. Afterwards, should war again break out, it was the height of triumph to taunt the late guests with having eaten the dishonoured bones of their kindred. Yet the people who could plan and execute such deeds as these were so punctilious in some respects that it would have been considered the grossest breach of Fijian etiquette to take an enemy unawares: even in the case of a besieged town, formal notice must be sent to the foe that an assault was about to be made; it might then be delayed for many days, but the intimation must be sent, that the foe might be on their guard. Nevertheless tales of gross treachery prove that this chivalrous law was not always carried out. Another hideous act of revenge—one among many—was perpetrated near this spot. A chief had one daughter, of rare beauty, whom he loved dearly. The foes who could not conquer him in battle contrived to waylay her, as she came down to the river to fish. They carried her back to their village in the mountains, and there made a great feast of her dainty flesh, giving part of it to the pigs, as the grossest insult they could invent. Then her bones were scattered before the doors of the houses, that all comers might constantly walk over them and spit upon them. Is it not hard to realise that such deeds as these can so recently have been committed by the gentle friendly people among whom we now travel so safely, and whose child-like earnestness and devotion to the new religion of peace and love is so striking? Nothing is to me more difficult than to reconcile this mixture of utter heartlessness and indifference to the anguish of others, with the high-bred refined courtesy which seems so perfectly natural, not only to the chiefs, but to all these people. I can only account for it by considering how many British children have delighted in pulling off flies’ legs and wings, who, nevertheless, when they attained years of discretion, have turned out excellent members of the Humane Society. But then these people have always hitherto possessed both characteristics simultaneously, and it is only since they have become Christian that they have ceased to be cruel.