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Thomson Basil. South Sea Yarns
South Sea Yarns
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
A COURT-DAY IN FIJI
THE LAST OF THE CANNIBAL CHIEFS
Footnote
TAUYASA OF NASELAI, REFORMER
A COOLIE PRINCESS
LEONE OF NOTHO
RALUVE
Footnote
THE RAIN-MAKERS
MAKERETA
ROMEO AND JULIET
THE WOMAN FINAU
IN THE OLD WHALING DAYS
I
II
THE FIERY FURNACE
FRIENDSHIP
I
II
III
THE HERMIT OF BOOT ISLAND
THE WARS OF THE FISHING-ROD
Footnote
THE FIRST COLONIST
Отрывок из книги
Basil Thomson
Published by Good Press, 2021
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This is not a very promising introduction to a paper intended to show that some cannibals at least may be very respectable members of society. But it must be clearly understood that the eccentricity which seems so revolting to us is not incompatible with a strong sense of duty, great kindness of heart, and warm domestic affection.
Out of the many cannibals and ex-cannibals I have known, I will choose the most striking figure as the subject of this sketch. I first met the Buli of Nandrau in the autumn of 1886, when I took over the Resident Commissionership of part of the mountain district of Fiji. His history had been an eventful one, and while he had displayed those qualities that would most win the admiration of Fijians, to us he could not be otherwise than a remarkable character. Far away, in the wild and rugged country in which the great rivers Rewa and Singatoka take their rise, he was born to be chief of a fierce and aggressive tribe of mountaineers. Constantly engaged in petty intertribal wars, while still a young man he had led them from victory to victory, until they had fought their way into perhaps the most picturesque valley in all picturesque Fiji. Here, perched above the rushing Singatoka, and overshadowed by two tremendous precipices which allowed the sun to shine upon them for barely three hours a-day, they built their village, and here they became a name and a terror to all the surrounding tribes. A few miles lower down the river stood the almost impregnable rock-fortress of the Vatusila tribe, and these became the stanch allies of Nandrau. Together they broke up the powerful Noikoro, exacted tribute from them, and made the river theirs as far as Korolevu; together they blotted out the Naloto, who held the passes to the northern coast, killing in one day more than four hundred of them, and driving the remnant as outcasts into the plain. Long after the white men had made their influence felt throughout Fiji,—long after the chief of Bau was courted as King of Fiji,—these two tribes, secure in their mountain fastnesses, lived their own life, and none, whether Fijian or white man, dared pass over their borders.
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