Reece's Place 6

Dillon, for his part, seized the priest who eventually came negotiated, thrusting loaded musket muzzles into his back and ears, and marching him through the thwarted throng of screaming warriors, back to the Hunter.  He later returned to the Wailea, ‘assisting them to destroy their enemies, who were cut up, baked, and eaten in his presence.’ Charlie Savage died the same year as the sandalwood trade. By 1840, the US Exploring Expedition had trouble finding even a few specimens for their collections. Every stick of the wood had blood on it. As the trees declined, the natives had become more hostile, wreaking their vengeance for outrages committed by one ship on the crew of the next. Traders were murdered for their metal implements, and eaten for their protein. It had been said of Savage that he shot certain Fijians, discovered in the act of eating human flesh, but the culture of cannibal cuisine was too pervasive to give this much credence.
Despite the fact that two-thirds of ethnic Fijians are Methodists, the highest proportion of the population of any nation, and that the exhibits at the Fiji museum had been made more presentable by this influence, the missionary movement in Fiji had initially been more about meat than Methodism.
The last documented act of cannibalism had occurred in Nabutautau, in 1867. The Reverend Thomas Baker, a Methodist missionary from Sussex, mistakenly broke a tabu by attempting to retrieve a comb from the Chief’s head, and ended up as the final feast. Other ministers witnessed horrific acts of cannibalism. In 1844, Reverend Thomas Williams witnessed the recapture of a Lakeba chief’s wife, who had run away in the middle of the night. Her arms were chopped off and cooked.  That evening, the chief made her sit across from his dining table and watch him consume her arms in horror.

    “Cannibalism among this people is one of their institutions; it is  
     interwoven in the elements of society; it forms one of their pursuits,
     and is regarded by the mass as a refinement.”
                                                          Reverend Thomas Williams

Two years later, Reverend John Watsford witnessed a regular display of slaughter on Bau, in a terraced arena, around which were sited raised stone seats for onlookers.

 ‘In this space was a huge ‘braining stone,’ which was used thus: two
  strong natives seized the victim, each taking hold of an arm and leg,
  and, lifting him from the ground, they ran with him head foremost – at
  their utmost speed against the stones – bashing out his brains.’

The Bau chief told Watsford that he did not like the taste of the flesh of white people, even when most delicately cooked, any more than he liked the flesh of the people of the Carpenter Tribe, both of which he considered tough and tasteless.
Fijians now regard those pre-Methodist times as Na gauna ni tevoro, the ‘Time of the Devil.’ Their original adoption of the act was an adaptation to the rigors of long voyages at sea. When they arrived in Fiji about 500 BC, they took on the customs of the Polynesians that had preceded them a thousand years earlier, including the constant warfare and cannibalism. The reputation of feasting Fijian ferocity deterred European ships from sailing anywhere near Cannibal Isles, and contributed to its isolation for decades longer than other archipelagos in the Southern Sea.
Sacrifices were an integral part of conquest and commemoration. Ceremonial occasions required stacks of piled-up freshly killed corpses, and ‘Eat me!’ was the proper ritual greeting of a commoner to a chief. No important business began without the slaying of one or two human beings as a fitting inauguration. For every chief’s canoe made, a man was slain for the laying of its keel, a fresh man was killed for every new added timber added, others were crushed to death, as rollers at its launching, and yet more were killed at the first taking down of the mast. Other men were slaughtered to wash its deck in blood, and furnish the feast of requisite human flesh. New buildings were consecrated by burying live adult prisoners in holes dug for the support posts, so the spirit of the ritually sacrificed would invoke the gods to help support the structure. Captured enemy children were hung by their, feet from the rigging of the victors’ canoes. The ultimate humiliation to an enemy, however, was to eat their flesh. Victims were bound ready for the ovens, as unharmed as possible, lest any of their blood should be lost. The more inpatient gourmands, unable to wait until the ovens were sufficiently heated, pulled the ears off the poor wretches and ate them raw, sliced off fingers and tongues, or chopped out large muscle groups to cook more quickly, while the sufferers, kept alive, watched in agony. Skulls were used as drinking bowls, and sexual organs were hung from trees as trophies of victory in battle.
William Speiden, the purser on the 1840 US Exploring Expedition, wrote from ringside.

  ‘The men doomed to death were made to dig a hole in the earth for the
   purpose of making a native oven, and were then required to cut
   firewood to roast their own bodies. They were then directed to go and
   wash, and afterwards to make a cup of a banana-leaf. This, from
   opening a vein in each man, was soon filled with blood. This blood was
   then drunk, in the presence of the sufferers, by the Kamba people.
   Sern, the Bau chief, then had their arms and legs cut off, cooked and
   eaten, some of the flesh being presented to them. He then ordered a
   fishhook to be put into their tongues, which were then drawn out as far
   as possible before being cut off. These were roasted and eaten, to the
   taunts of ‘We are eating your tongues!’ As life in the victims was still
   not extinct, an incision was made in the side of each man, and his
   bowels taken out. This soon terminated their sufferings in this world.
   One man actually stood by my side and ate the very eyes out of a
   roasted skull he had, saying, ‘Venaca, venaca,’ that is, very good.’


He also described how a whole tribe had been condemned to be eaten to extinction by the Namosi people, as a punishment for some misdeed. This was achieved over a period of years, with one household eaten each year.
The most famous Guinness book world record holder for ‘most prolific cannibal’ was a chief named Udre Udre, who recorded his human consumption by making a placing a rock on a cairn he had created, for each one eaten. The final count was 872 stones. Over a hundred had been white men.
Because a bokola feast was constipating, human flesh was always eaten with three kinds of vegetables, the leaves of malawaci and tudauo leaves, boro dino cannibal tomatoes, and taro, stuffed into the victims’ cavities.
The iculanibokola forks behind the glass cases of the Fiji Museum were more elaborate and elegant and less embarrassed than their Methodist descriptions. Our search for cannibals in the Cannibal Isles seemed to have been hermetically sealed. Robyn and I wandered down to the market for dinner.
The land for the original town of Suva had been extorted from King Cakobau by the Americans, for looting that had taken place, after a cannon exploded at the house of the US consul. The Australian Polynesia Company bought out the Americans, with the intent of turning it into a cotton plantation. Cakobau ceded the whole country to the British. Commonwealth. In 1953 the Richter 6.5 Suva earthquake had triggered a reef platform collapse and a submarine landslide tsunami that killed eight people, two in Kandavu.
Southeast trades moisturized the evening mountains behind us, and the sinusoidal centipedes of shops, squirming down to the sea. It was my birthday, and the market stall we chose was full of big Fijian families of big Fijians, gorging on favorite dishes. One of them was palusami, a casserole of taro leaves and coconut milk and onions and cannibal tomatoes, and Spam. It was delicious. There was a rumor about the popularity of Spam that must have brought a combination of smiles and shivers to the Hormel executives back in Austin, Minnesota. The smiles had come from the market saturation they have enjoyed in the Southern Sea, since it invaded with American GI stomachs in World War II. For almost the same reason, it now forms the basis for wedding gift boxes in Seoul, since the Korean War. But the popularity of the mystery meat in the Pacific was more attributable to the shivers. It seems that pork is not the only ‘other white meat.’ Spam tastes like long pig, and the Fijians were passionate about the stuff. I shared this insight carefully with the immense Fijian rugby player at the next table, tucking into his Fiji Bitter and his Spam palusami.
“I think this one used to be a clown.” He said.
“A clown?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He said. “Tastes funny.”


   “Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.”
                                                                                               Samuel Pepys



                                   Isa lei, na noqu rarawa
                                   Ni ko sana vodo e na mataka.
                                   Bau nanuma, na nodatou lasa,
                                   Mai Suva nanuma tikoga.

                                 Isa Lei, the purple shadows falling,
                                 Sad the morrow will dawn upon my sorrow.
                                 Oh! Forget not, when you are far away,
                                 Precious moments beside Suva Bay.





‪                                      *         *        *