The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of CustomThomson, Basil
History
The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of Custom
Thomson, Basil
Ethnology -- Fiji; Fijians
[Pageheader: WHERE THE SHADES MEET]
The children cry to the Shades as they pass, "How are my father and my
mother?" If the Shade answers, "The smoke of their cooking-fire is set
upright" (meaning that they are still in their prime), then the
child-Shade cries, "Alas, am I still to be orphan?" But if the Shade
replies, "Their hair is grey, and the smoke of their cooking-fire hangs
along the ground," the Shade of the child rejoices greatly, crying, "It
is well. I shall soon have a father and a mother. O hasten, for I am
weary of waiting for you."
Thence the Shade follows the "Long Road" to a place called
Vuningasau-leka (Short reeds). Here the Shades stop to rest for a time,
and they turn to see who is following them, and there they recognize
each other, and become companions for the rest of their journey to
Kauvandra. Hence this place of Vuningasauleka is a by-word when there is
strong anger between two persons. If one would tell the other that he
will not see his face or speak to him again until one of them is dead,
he says, "We two will meet again at Vuningasaleka," meaning that they
will never meet again in this world.
Thence the Shades journey to Nankasenkase (the Crawling-place). Here
they kneel down and crawl to the place called Naisausau (the
Clapping-place), where they stand upright and clap their hands. In
former times a village of the Naimbosa tribe was in this place, and they
say that in those days they used to hear about them the sound of the
hand-clapping which the Shades made at Naisausau.
Thence they pass on to a place called Tree-fern-target (Balabala-ulaki),
where there is a tree-fern at which reeds are thrown, and here they stop
to throw at it. And next they come to Levukaniwai, and then to
Vakanandaku, where they rest for a time with their backs turned to one
another (Vakanandaku). Then they come to Naterema (the Coughing-place),
and here they cough loudly. Thence they pass through the place called
Buremundu, to Nainkoronkoro (the Place of Wonder), and there they stand
and marvel at the world, the beauty, the pleasures, the sorrows, and the
labour of it. Here they take their last look at the world before passing
on to Kauvandra.
Passing through Nakovalangi, and Bulia, and Navunindakua, and
Matanikorowalu (the-Gate-of-the-eight-villages), which is a village of
Vungalei, they come to a place called Naisa-vusavu-ni-weli (the
Spitting-place). Each Shade as it arrives at this spot spits at the foot
of a _ndrindriwai_ tree, and go on to another place called Naikanakana
(the Eating-place), and here they stop to eat. Now our fathers have told
us that when we dream that the spirit of a dead man is eating us, it
signifies that the Shade has reached Naikanakana-ni-yalo, and that there
he finds the spirits of us the living, and that straightway he pursues
our spirits with intent to devour them. Therefore we sometimes say,
"Last night the Shade of so-and-so ate me, and I shouted till I almost
died."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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