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New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 481, 23 November 1850, Page 1

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and if your god be a true god he will eat me." And lie was as good as bis word too, for lie lifted his ponderous club with his giant arm, and clubbed him on the spot, put him into an oven, and baked and eat him. He had to eat him alone, at the people dare not eat a priest, ai they expect that the piieit's god would in* flict vengeance on them for it. Inspiration.— l hare mentioned the inspiration of the priests. When a priest is inspired, or which is the same, when « god enters him, his whole body appears to be under the most violent convulsions, and every feature so distorted as to lose its human appearance. Whether this is done with or without supernatural aid I am unable to say. He will then shout, and deliver his oracle whatever it may be, whether a promise of fair wind, if they are about to sail, or of death to their enemies, if they be going to light, for these are the important subjects on which the gods are generally consulted. Sometimes a priest un der inspiration will run about the beams and rafters of the house like a cat ; and they beat themselves violently to show that they are invulnerable. But the god rarely forgets to ask for food or grog, or both, before he departs, saying he has come such a way from Bulu and is tired and must needs have some refresh, mem before he leives the world. But of this food the priest helps himself freely and the god may get his where he can. Offerings.— When the priests announce that a god is angry as when his buri (god's house) has fallen into decay, or when the front of the buri is overgrown with weeds, they make an offering of food, whales' teeth, &c. to appease his anger. When they want a fair wind to sail with on a long voyage, or when they are going to war, they make aa offering to the gods to help them. Wheu they have been turtlefishing and have had good success, or after they have bad a good voyage, or after recovery from sickness, they will sometimes offer thankofferings called a mandrali. There are also clubs offered to the gods, which then become sacred, and cannot be sold. We tried hard but in vain to get a club thus dedicated at Somosomo. But the first-fruits of their yams are regularly offered to the gods. This has been a bone of strong contention between the heatben and the Christian parties in some places, and has endangered one of our Mission stations, if not our lives. When the people embrace Christianity, they can no longer take the fruits of God's earth and offer them to them that are no gods. But this is cutting off one of the revenues of the priests, and of course they do not like that. And they will excite the chiefs and people to force the Christians into compliance with this heathenish custom. Thii hat been the case more especially on my station at Nandy. For these last two or three years when the season comes round the heathen to whom the Nandy people formerly took their first-fruits have been dreadfully excited about it, and threatened to burn down the town and destroy the Christians. And why they did not do it I can hardly tell you, excepting that, that God whom the Christians loved, Lord over all, doeth all things according to the counsel of his will. Last January or February, our enemies were lying encamped within about a quarter of a mile from the Christian town in which I resided for two or three days •, and we were watching day and night in suspense expecting an attack every hour. I went over to them and expostulated with them, telling them it had not been the case elsewhere. The christians at Vewa had not taken the rust-fruit or property to offer to the gods at Bau. I urged them to separate and return to their home, but in vain. They said they would not separate till they had burned down our town and forced the christians to relinquish Christianity. They said to me " You go and sit quietly in your house, we shall not hurt you ; we shall come and destroy your town and take you away to our town that you may be our priest. Go on, we shall come to-day or to-night and burn you up." In this state of miad I was obligad to leave them, as I tried in vain to bring them to a better mind. They threatened to kill a Tonga teacher that I took with me. I would not take any Fetjeeans with me lest they should be excited and fall upon them; One or two, however, of my faithful and affectionate servants followed me, and were with difficulty prevailed upon to return. "We fear," said they, " lest any harm should come to you, and we will die with you." For my own part, I felt no fear at all, scarcely so much as in standing up to address this large congregation to night. I returned home, and we fortified ourselves as well as we could, though the only defence we had was a bamboo fence around the Mission Premises, which we made as strong ai we could, and all the christiam, men, women, and children, came inside this fence. But a few hours after, we saw our enemies disperse, let off their muskets and return to their towns. We fear not the heathen : " He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision." I will give you an instance or Iwo of Feejeean filial affection. There were two youngVmen whose father was ill. They sent for the doctor (for all Feejeeans have doctors and surgeons of considerable skill, and will perform some operations pretty cleverly, and effect veryrespectable cures) ;these two young men said, "Our father is ill, you must bleed him, you must bleed him here," pointing to a particular place. "But" said the doctor "there is an artery there, I must not bleed him there." The young men insisted ; the doctor hesitated. " 0 lance away, you must bleed him here." The doctor saw their design, cut the artery, and the poor old man bled to death, which was what they desired ; he was getting too troublesome to them. In my circuit, at Nandy, the husband of one of our members died, and the heathen earnestly begged for his widow to be ati angled. The christians of course would not give her up, or allow it to be done. One of her sons, a young man of 16 or 1 7, who was living ten or twelve miles off, heard of it, aud was greatly incensed with his mother for not conforming to the heathed rite of strangling the widow on the death of her husband, and came to see what he could effect. He came one afternoon when his mother was ai her ctossMuecting, and waited outside the house till hn mother came out. His mother no sootier went out o1o 1

the house than he fell upon her with his club, and fractured her skull. She lingered two or three days, and then died, though a Christian, yet a victim of heathen supentition. The chief of Somosotno wai con* sidered a very affectionate man to his father and children, and so he was, as far as heathen affection can extend ; yet he buried the poor old man, his father, then the second chief in Fccjee, before lie wai dead. This I witnessed with my ovrn eyes, as also the strangling of two of bis wires, the impresiion of which horrible spectacle will never be eraied from my mind. When we heard that the old chief wai near death, we hastened to hit house to intercede for hit wives, but we were too late. The awful scene which presented itself to our eyes on entering the house was two stout hale women sitting in the middle of the house, with ropes round their necks, and five or lix strong men at each end of the ropes pulling with all their might ; and among the rest was the son of one of the females, They encouraged and helped each other in the bloody work, while their victims continued to struggle, till the last effort of nature was over, and its vital spark had fled. They were in the struggle of death when we arrived, The home was full of spectators, both male and female, or rather friends, who geenied to revel in the bloody and infernal spectacle. I was witness to cases of individuals being buried alive at Somosomo. Another case 1 haard of occurred at Ovalau ; not that it is a rare thing, but I mention only the cases which come within my own knowledge. An old man who had been unwell for a long time and had become a burden to himself and to his sons, urged his two sons repeatedly to go and dig his grave and bury him. They refused for a long time, but one day he pressed them so hardly that they went and dug his grave. He went to see it, and said it was not deep enough. They dug it depeer, but then he refused to be buried that day. They said, "We will not be befooled in this way.'' They pushed him in and buried him up. We have many obstacles to the progress of our work in Feejee, and some which are unknown in Christian countries, bigamy and polygamy are serious obstacles. Many of the chiefs will say, " The lotu is a good thing ; it is only bad that we must give up our wives if we embrace it ; and this we cannot and will not do." There is a chief near my station at Nandy who is convinced of the truth of Christianity, but he has two wives, and he says he cannot give either of them up. He says " I love this one and that one, I love one as well as the other and how can I give them up? I shall never give either of them up till one of them die." Priests oppose, and chiefs oppose, and the people oppose, and ancient customs oppose, but our cause it progressing in the face of it all, and we are having a constant acceision to our numbers. But with our present number of men (six) we are utterly inadequate to the great work which has jet to be done in Feejee. We can hardly expect to maintain our present standing, much less to make inroads on the enemy's dominions. In the Lakemba circuit we have more than one thousand members, and between two or three hundred on the others ; but there should not be so few as five or six thousand within the range of the Lakemba circuit, nor fewer than ten thousand in the Bau and Nandy circuits, nor less than fifty or sixty thousand within the range of the Vewa circuit ; thus you see the harvest is plentiful, and the labourers are few. Come up, my friends, to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord agaiast the mighty. The reverend gentleman concluded by moving the following Resolution :—: — That the cause of Missions is the cause of the Redeemer ; and* regarding His command to preach the Gospel to every creature as impeiative, and considering past success, together with encouraging openings hi <hiFerent»arts of the woild, as indications of Hi's appioval, and calls to closer union, moie extended liberality, and more earnest prayer among all sections of evangelical Christians. This Meeting pledges itself to renewed exertion m the sacred cause, that existing Missions may be maintained in igour and eiheiency, opening helds white unto harvest be supplied with labouicrs, and the (saviour's piayer ior the union of Hia Church receive a speedy accomplishment. The Rev. S. Ironside seconded the Resolution, giving several conclusive confutations of the allegation sometimes made that " Missions have done no good." The Rev. J. WATKfN lupported the Resolution. At first he declined to make a speech, but being loudly called on by the Meeting, he dwelt with much force on the benefits already effected by Missions, and on the duty of maintaining and extending them. The third Resolution, which was as follows, was moved, seconded, atid supported briefly, but ably, by the Revs. J. Wallis, J. Buller, and J. Warren. That the thanks of this Meeting are due and are hereby presented to the Collectors for their valuable aid, and to all mho have advocated the interests of this great cause, with the earnest request that they peisevere in a -\voik at once so honorable to themselves, and so important to the world. The Rev. J. Hobbs— in an address in which he gave a lively description of parts of his own lengthened experience as a Missionary in New Zealand, moved the last resolution, which was as follows :— That the following persons be the Officers and Local Committee for the ensuing year:— Treasurer, Rev. W. Lawry ; Sccietaries, Rev. T. Buddie, and Mr. T. ltussell ; Committee, the Missionaries of the district, and Messrs. G. Uraham, Ehott, H. Ellis, A. Jones, M. Somerville. The Rev. R. Ward (Primitive Methodist) in seconding the Resolution, observed that he would have good hope for the cause of Missions if even the Weileyan Society alone existed. It had right principles, and right men, as might be shewn by reference to its operation! in India, Africa, the Southern Hemisphere, and other parts ol the world. This Resolution having, as well as all the preceding ones been unanimously adopted, The Rev. T. Buddle moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman, taking occasion to pay a well merited tribute to that gentleman's catholicity of spirit and conduct. This having been cordially agreed to, the Doxology was sung ; and the Benediction being pio nonnced, the proceedings terminated.