Wanderings Among South Sea Savages | Page 7

formed his bed) on the floor of his own private room,
which, however, greatly resembled an old curiosity shop. Everything
was in great disorder, and piles of London Graphics and other papers
littered the ground, and on the tables were piled indiscriminately clocks,
flasks, silver cups, fishing rods, guns, musical boxes, and numerous
other articles which I discovered later on were presents from high
officials and other Europeans, and which he did not know what to do
with. Nearly every window in the house had a pane of glass[3] broken,
the floors were devoid of mats or carpets, and in places were rotten and
full of holes. This will give some idea of the state of chaos that reigned
in the Prince's "palace."
Ratu Lala himself was a tall, broad-shouldered man of about forty, his
hair slightly grey, with a bristly moustache and a very long sloping
forehead. Though dignified, he wore an extremely fierce expression, so
much so that I instinctively felt his subjects had good cause to treat him
with the respect and fear that I had heard they gave him. He belongs to
the Fijian royal family, and though he does not rank as high as his
cousin, Ratu Kandavu Levu, whom I also visited at Bau, he is infinitely
more powerful, and owns more territory. His father was evidently a
"much married man" since Ratu Lala himself told me that he had had
"exactly three hundred wives." But in spite of this he had been a man of
prowess, as the Fijians count it, and I received as a present from Ratu
Lala a very heavy hardwood war-club that had once belonged to his
father, and which, he assured me, had killed a great many people. Ratu
Lala also told me that he himself had offered to furnish one hundred

warriors to help the British during the last Egyptian war, but that the
government had declined his offer. One of the late Governors of Fiji,
Sir John Thurston, was once his guardian and, godfather. He was
educated for two years in Sydney, Australia, and spoke English well,
though in a very thick voice. Not only does he hold sway over the
island of Taviuni, but also over some smaller islands and part of the
large island of Vanua Levu. He also holds the rank of "Roko" from the
government, for which he is well paid.
After reading my letter of introduction he asked me to stay as long as I
liked, and he called his head servant and told him to find me a room.
This servant's name was Tolu, and as he spoke English fairly well, I
soon learned a great deal about Ratu Lala and his people.
Ratu Lala was married to a very high-caste lady who was closely
related to the King of Tonga, and several of whose relatives
accompanied us on our expeditions. By her he had two small children
named Tersi (boy) and Moe (girl), both of whom, during my stay (as
will hereafter appear) were sent to school at Suva, amid great
lamentations on the part of the women of Ratu Lala's household. Two
months before my visit Ratu Lala had lost his eldest daughter (by his
Tongan wife). She was twelve years old, and a favourite of his, and her
grave was on a bluff below the house, under a kind of tent, hung round
with fluttering pieces of "tapa" cloth. Spread over it was a kind of
gravel of bright green Stones which he had had brought from a long
distance. Little Moe and Tersi were always very interested in watching
me skin my birds, and their exclamation of what sounded like "Esa!"
("Oh look!") showed their enjoyment. They were two of the prettiest
little children I think I have ever seen, but they did not know a word of
English, and called me "Misi Walk." They and their mother always
took their meals sitting on mats in the verandah. Ratu Lala had two
grown-up daughters by other wives, but they never came to the house,
living in an adjoining hut where I often joined them at a game of cards.
They were both very stately and beautiful young women, with a
haughty bearing which made me imagine that they were filled with a
sense of their own importance.

As is well known all over Fiji, Ratu Lala, a few years before my stay
with him, had been deported in disgrace for a term of several months,
to the island of Viti Levu, where he would be under the paternal eye of
the government. This was because he had punished a woman, who had
offended him, by pegging her down on an ants' nest, first smearing her
all over with honey, so that the ants would the more readily eat