Howitt and Fison

Folklore ISSN: 0015-587X (Print) 1469-8315 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfol20 Howitt and Fison J. G. Frazer To cite this article: J. G. Frazer (1909) Howitt and Fison, Folklore, 20:2, 144-180, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1909.9719870 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1909.9719870 Published online: 14 Feb 2012. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1 View related articles Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rfol20 Download by: [Temple University Libraries] Date: 14 June 2016, At: 09:34 HOWITT AND FISON. BV J. G. FRAZER. ANTHROPOLOGY in general, and Australian anthropology in particular, has lately suffered two very heavy losses by the deaths of the Rev. Lorimer Fison and Dr. A. W. Howitt, two old friends and colleagues, who passed away at an interval of a few months,—Mr. Fison dying in December, 1907, and Dr. Howitt in March, 1908. To their insight, enthusiasm, and industry we owe the first exact and comprehensive study of the social organisation of the Australian tribes; and the facts which they brought to light, together with the explanations which they gave of them, have not only contributed to a better under standing of the Australian aborigines, but have shed much light on the early history of institutions in general, and especially of marriage. Lorimer Fison was born on November 9th, 1832, in the picturesque village of Barningham in Suffolk.1 His father was a prosperous landowner there till the repeal of the Corn Laws diminished the value of his property. With the help of a steward he farmed his own land and also some adjoining land, which belonged to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. The father was a man oi great integrity and nobility of character with a kind heart and a genial manner, all of which his son inherited Downloaded by [Temple University Libraries] at 09:34 14 June 2016 1 For the facts of Mr. Fison's life I am indebted mainly to bis sister, Mr* Potts (14 Brookside, Cambridge), and his daughter, Miss Fison (Essendon, Victoria, Australia). In addition to her own reminiscences Mrs. Potts b»* kindly given me access to some of her brother's letters, from which I have extracted some of the facts mentioned in the text. Howitt and Fison. 145 from him to the full. As there was neither a great landowner in the neighbourhood, nor a resident rector, Mr. Fison ruled supreme in the little village, using his Power both wisely and kindly. A man of deep piety, he was a friend of the Quaker, Joseph John Gurney, after whom he named one of his two sons. His sym pathies were with that old school of Quakers in Norwich and also with the early Wesleyans, but he brought up his family in the Evangelical school of the Church of England. There is a beautiful window to his memory 'n the old village church. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. John Reynolds, whose translations of Fenelon, Massillon, and Bourdaloue were well known in their day. Educated by her father, Mrs. Fison inherited from him his love of languages and his literary taste. She assisted in- her sons' education, preparing the Virgil lesson over n»ght with the holiday tutor whom she had engaged for the boys, and striking out all passages which she did n°t wish them to read. To her Lorimer owed much of his fine character. She was something of a Roman Mother, and believed that the strong instinct of hero- worship in human nature should be fostered in children from their earliest years. Accordingly, while her children We«"e gathered round the board at their simple meals, she, sitting at the head of the table and looking stately and beautiful, would tell them stories of great men, who with heaven's help had worked for the good of mankind. The seed dropped on receptive soil and bore fruit, though Downloaded by [Temple University Libraries] at 09:34 14 June 2016 Perhaps not always of the sort which the worthy lady desired; for Lorimer and his brother Joseph fought over their favourite heroes even in the nursery. The books she gave them to read were mostly the old English lassies expurgated by her father's careful pen. The Faerie Queen was a living reality to the boys, and Lorimer personated its heroes with dauntless bravery. 0n the other hand, the virtuous hero of The Pilgrinis 146 Howitt and Fison. Progress was less to his taste; indeed it is to be feared that he found the foul fiend Apollyon the most attractive character in that edifying work; for, fired with emulation, he would "straddle quite over the whole breadth of the way," so far at least as his little legs allowed him to do so, and for lack of a flaming dart to hurl at Christian he would snatch a large gravy spoon from the nursery table and roar out in a terrible voice, " Here will I spill thy soul." When a righteous retribution overtook the counterfeit Apollyon for this or other escapades, his small brother and sister would stand one on either side of the sufferer and exhort htm to fortitude, saying: "Be a Spartan, Lorry, be a Spartan!" And a Spartan, agreeably blent with the character of Apollyon, Lorry proved to be, for not a muscle of his little white face would twitch till the punish ment was over. In the intervals between these heroic deeds and sufferings Lorry scoured the country round. There was not a stack of corn nor a tall tree in the neighbourhood on the top of which he had not perched; not a pond into which he had not waded to explore its living inhabitants. The old groom was kind to the children ; but the steward frowned when Lorry and his young sister would gallop past with a clatter of hoofs at daybreak, mounted on forbidden horses, to ride five miles to the nearest post town for the joy of placing the post-bag before their father at breakfast. In time these youthful delights came to an end. Lorimer and Joseph were sent to school at Sheffield, Downloaded by [Temple University Libraries] at 09:34 14 June 2016 where they had the benefit of an able staff of Cambridge masters. After leaving school Lorimer read for a year in Cambridge with Mr. Potts of Trinity College, whose edition of Euclid is well known. He entered the Univer sity in 1855, being enrolled as a student of Gonville and Caius College. But the spirit of adventure was too strong in him to brook the tame routine of a student's life, and after keeping only two terms, the Michaelmas Howitt and Fison. H7 term of 1855 and the Lent term of 1856, he left the University without taking a degree, and sailed for Australia to dig for gold. He was at the diggings when the news of his father's death reached him unexpectedly. It affected him deeply. In his distress he was taken to a mission meeting held in the open air, and there, under the double impression of sorrow and of the solemn words he heard, he fell to the ground and underwent one of those sudden conversions of which we read in religious history. Accordingly he left the gold-diggings in or about 1861, and repaired to the University of Melbourne, where the terms which he had kept at Cambridge were allowed to c°unt, though even then he did not proceed to a degree. At Melbourne he joined the Wesleyan communion, and, hearing that missionaries were wanted in Fiji, he offered himself for the service. The offer was accepted; he was 0rdained a minister, and sailed for Fiji in 1863. He had Previously married a lady of the Wesleyan Church, who survives him, together with a family of two sons and four daughters. Mr. Fison laboured as a missionary in Fiji from 1863 to 1871, and again from 1875 to 1884. During the first of these periods he was appointed to .the mission stations of Viwa, Lakemba, and Rewa ; his name and that °f his devoted wife are still household words there. After wards he acted as Principal of the Training Institution for natives in Navuloa, and his lectures were highly esteemed and treasured in memory by his students long after he Downloaded by [Temple University Libraries] at 09:34 14 June 2016 had left Fiji. His frank, manly, cheery nature, ready sympathy, quick intelligence, and sound common-sense Won him the love and confidence of natives and Europeans alike. Governors such as Sir William MacGregor and S>r J. B. Thurston treated him as a friend; Government officials in every department of the service regarded him ^ a safe and trustworthy guide in all matters affecting the relations of the Government with the natives; and 148 Howitt and Fison. merchants and planters, some of whom at the outset had not been very friendly to the mission, greeted him affec tionately and welcomed him to their homes, when his big burly form appeared in Levuka; for he was a man of genial manners and a ready wit, sometimes flavoured with a touch of sarcasm. The natives loved him because they knew that he loved them; and, while he faithfully reproved them for their faults, he was lenient to all mistakes which sprang from ignorance or errors of judgment A few kindly words, blent with a judicious touch of ridicule and an appeal to common-sense, were often more effectual than a stern reproof or the rigid exercise of Church discipline would have been.

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