From Fiji to the Cannibal Islands;
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Pages 29-45 CHAPTER III ^ Night in a Fijian House—A Colossal Bed—The City of a Dream— Fascinating Fijian—How to drink Yanggona—^Wanted, a Stanley ? Where are the Settlers —The Fairy Fortress . Pages 46-79 ^ \ > CHAPTER IV "Plenty Shark"—Introduction to a Mbili-mbili ^Down the Singatoka J y River—A Meke-meke at Mavua—Thalassa ! . Pages 80-98 CHAPTER V ^ The Song of the Road—Fijian Fun—^Night on the Wainikoro—^The Noble Savage Fails—The Village Plate—The Lot of the Kaisi—Sharks ^ Again—A Swim for it Pages 99-119 ' V k — — CONTENTS CHAPTER VI Off to the Ndreketi—Fijian Smart Society—A Native Princess —The Sugar-cane Dance—Getting Bogged—The Use of Bad Language The Ndreketi River—A Splendid Timber Country—A Native Diary —Truth about Tropical Forests—How to Live on Nothing a Day Pages 120-143 CHAPTER Vn At the Back of Beyond—The Last of the Cannibals —A Pleasant Old Devil—The Plague of Fleas —When Gideon went Wild—Nanduri once more—The Vanilla Planters—Cattle-ranching in Fiji Pages 144-165 CHAPTER Vni The Mysterious Islands—Where No One Goes ^What happened to the Cook—A Fairy Harboiir—Extraordinary Vila—History of the New Hebrides—What France intends .... Pages 166-182 CHAPTER IX New Hebridean Natives —Life in an Explosive Magazine—^The DeUghts of Dynamite Fishing—The Sapphire and Snow of Mele—On a Coffee Plantation—Plan to eat a Planter—The Recruiting System—The Flowering of the Coffee Pages 183-206 CHAPTER X Bound for Sou' -West Bay—The Wandering Steamer—The Marriage Market at Malekula—An Avenue of Idols —The Unknown Coimtry —A Stronghold of Savagery—Ten Stick Island . Pages 207-223 CHAPTER XI How Bilyas made itseK Strong—The Slaughtered Traders—Into th^ Unknown Country—The Cannibal Toilet—New Fashions in Murder —The?Ignorant White Woman .... Pages 224-240 CONTENTS CHAPTER XII — How a Malekulan Town is defended ^The Idol Dance—Fintimbus and the Pig—Gregorian Chant in the Wilderness—What are the Male- kulans ? —An Interview with a Cannibal Chief—The Lost Opportunity —No Admittance to the Temple—A Marvellous Mummy—The Bluebeard Chamber—Making of a Conical Skull—The Captain's Story Pages 241-261 CHAPTER XIII Idols of the New Hebrides—The Famous Poisoned Arrows—The Threa- tened Schooner—The Breaking of Navaar—An Ill-natured Sea- Chief Pages 262-278 CHAPTER XIV Hot Times in Tanna—An Island of Murderers—^The Terror that walks in Darkness—A Tannese Village—Avenging a Chieftain—Was it an Accident ?—A Council of War—Netik—The Work of British-made Bullets Pages 279-306 CHAPTER XV Somebody's Picnic—The Simple Life in Taima—The Returned Labour Trouble—Up the Great Volcano—The Valley of Fire Pages 307-331 CHAPTER XVI The Story of Norfolk Island—A Woman in the Case—The Fate of the Mutineers —In the New Home—A Valley of Peace—Good-bye Pages 332-353 APPENDIX How TO Reach Fiji . ' Pages 354-356 ILLUSTRATIONS Beatrice Grimshaw . Frontispiece Armed Native Constabulary ....... 9 Fijian Chiefs. Armed Native Constabulary Behind 13 His Excellency Sir Everard im Thum, C.B., K.C.M.G., Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of the Western Pacific To face L5 Fijian Chief 17 Sugar Boats, Rewa River . 19 A Fijian Jail .... 23 Coca ..... 30 Cinnamon .... 31 Joni making Fire 41 The Halting-place at Nandrunga 47 TinyTambale .... 53 The Ndalo Beds 55 Fijian Interior—Showing Plaited Sinne t Work 57 A Mountain House . 59 A Root of Yanggona 60 '. Yanggona Bushes . 61 A Feast by the Way. 65 Bringing up the Yams 67 Empty Pasture Land 71 Welcome to Natuatuathoko 73 View, Natuatuathoko 75 The Singatoka Valley 77 House of the Turanga Lilewa 78 Town of Lemba-Lemba 85 The Bull of Lemba-Lemba, with Fathei' and Famil 87 y • ILLUSTRATIONS FACE Morning, Lemba-Lemba ........ 88 My Followers on the Mbili-mbili 89 Getting Ready ......... 94 The Sitting Dance Begins . .95 The Cutter 98 " Three Sisters " Mountain, Vanua Levu ..... 103 The Distant Hills 107 The Village Plate . .113 Unpeopled Country . ... 116 The Boatless Wainikoro . .117 The Wild Pineapples 118 Makarita in Festival Dress ....... 124 Makarita in Sunday Dress ....... 125 Sunday Morning in Nanduri ....... 126 The Sugar-cane Dance ........ 127 In the Prince's House—Fijian Bed . 129 ADakuaTree 135 The Wood-cutter 139 "Bad Lot" 145 The " Tevoro " 147 VaniUa 155 Drying Vanilla .......... 157 On a Cocoa-nut Plantation ....... 161 Entering the Stock-yards . .165 Havana Harbour, Efat^ ........ 177 An Armed Cruiser ......... 187 On the Open Road 191 Near Undine Bay, Efate ........ 195 Settlers on Efate 199 Coffee in Flower 203 Coffee-drying .......... 205 The Refuge Island of Wala—Natives coming Home to sleep . 211 The Avenue of Idols 215 Chiefs' Collection of Boar Tusks and Jaws ..... 217 Malekula Warrior ......... 235 Dancing and Singing ........ 242 The Women's Dance ........ 243 The Idol Dancers 245 X ILLUSTRATIONS The Dance of Atamat and Fintimbus A Dancing Mask Bringing out the Mummy The Mummy of a Chief The Forbidden Temple Infant Head- binding Typical Idols . " Wishing- Arch " Idol The Strange Faced Idol Poisoned Arrows Bushmen Spying The Recruiting Schooner Afraid to Land—Sou' -West Bay Conscience-stricken . A Notorious Cannibal Tannese Scar-tattooing Shooting Fish . Night Refuge . In the Yam Fields . Burning the Banyan Log The Allies Coming in Sentries Screened by Bush Looking out for Trouble The Bad Old Man . Armed Guard protecting Women Bathers A Council of War—The Speaker for War The Council of War—" What was that? ' Council of War—the Speaker for Peace Tannese Women .... Tannese Girl Climbing a Cocoanut Palm Tannese Man ..... Bushmen Coming to see a White Child Approaching the Volcano . At the Foot of the Cone Fashions in Erromanga The Shore Road, Norfolk Island " " After Life's Fitful Fever Main Road, Norfolk Island ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE 341 Captain Drake, R.N., and Mrs. Drake, Government House . • Evening Among the Pines .....••• ""^ 347 Garden Fence of Whale's Ribs and Vertebrae .... 349 VaUey in Norfolk Island ^^^ Tennis, Norfolk Island Govenmient House, Norfolk Island 352 zu CHAPTER I A Far Cry to Fiji—The Wonderful Hills—History of Fiji—Link between Eastern and Western Pacific—The Days of Thakombau / —How the Colony is Governed—Trade of the Islands—The '' Humoxirs of the Penal System It is a " far cry " to Fiji. Take ship from London, sail down the coasts of France and Spain, journey up the Mediterranean, by Scylla and Charybdis, and all the ancient world ; reach Port Said, pass through the Gateways of the East, and steam through the torrid Red Sea into the Indian Ocean—and as yet we have hardly started. A little further, and we come to sun-baked Aden, and see the India-bound passengers leave the ship, congratulating themselves that the long tiresome voyage is over now. Ceylon, and the magnificent East, lift like a splendid comet on the horizon, glow for one gorgeous day, and slip back into the past. Now the East lies behind, and the West is long forgotten, and what is there to come ? The South is still to come—the wide, free, wonderful world that lies below the Line, and that is as utterly unlike all things met with above, as the countries East of Suez are unUke the countries lying West, in outworn, unmysterious Europe. Happenings are largely a matter of latitude. About the fiftieth parallel, nothing interesting happens but FROM FIJI TO policemen, bankruptcies, and Lord Mayors' shows. (Millionaires also happen—if you wish to be a millionaire you must on no account stray below forty north—^but millionaires are not interesting, only instructive—in the uselessness of money.) Down towards the thirties, colour begins to glow upon the grey outlines of Northern life, and in the twenties, strange scenes and astonishing peoples paint it over and over. Cross the Line, and now you may take the brush, and indulge your vagrant fancy to the full, for nothing that you can paint will be too bright or too strange. Below the equator is the world of the South, and here anything may happen, for here the new and the wild and the untried countries lie, and here, moreover, you shall come upon unknown tracts and places in yourself, on which, if you had stayed within sound of the roaring throat of Piccadilly, no sun had ever shone.