1855.] THE FEEJEE ISLANDS. 115 These three young men have been "carried safely through the surf, and are well afloat on their Christian voyage. They were all baptized on Sunday, May 20th. May the spirit of Jesus unite them to Him! No outward bond of iron even, or brass, or silver, or gold, will suffice." We have another affecting case of the same kind, which we reserve for a future Number. www THE FEEJEE ISLANDS. (From the "Madras Christian Herald.") THE Feejee Islands were discovered by Tasman in the year 1643. Captain Bligh passed through a part of the group in the "Bounty's" launch in 1760, and again in the "Providence" in 1792. They form in all a cluster of about 154 islands, of which 100 are inhabited, and the rest are useful at particular seasons for pasturage and for the gathering of the bêche-de-mer. They range in size from a few miles in circumference to that of an English county: two of them especially extend throughout a large portion of the group, and have an area equal to that of Devonshire. The entire population is estimated at 300,000. To the eye of the naturalist or the poet these islands present features of unsurpassed attractiveness. Sometimes an islet spreads itself out in gentle beauty a little above sea-mark. More frequently they may be seen rising in basaltic peaks, or needles, to the height of several thousand feet, and covered with the most luxuriant foliage to their very summit; the decomposed volcanic matter forming a rich soil, to which plants cling with their picturesque fringes, and in the most unlikely positions. Down to the very shores, and even within high-water mark, vegetation and beauty extend their dominion. The hibiscus, with its rich yellow blossoms-the erythrina indica, with its scarlet flowers-the ixona and the bolkameria, with their constant fragrance, convert even the shore into a garden; while the mangrove is seen starting from chinks and cracks in the coral, and waving its fantastic arms above the foaming tide. The flowers, indeed, form a natural calendar to the people, by which they divide their year into its eleven parts, and the blossoming of a certain vine regulates their operations of husbandry. Excellent roots abound in these islands, some flourishing the most in dry, and others in wet seasons, and therefore never leaving the natives without food: the banana, the plantain, the cocoa-nut, the pine-apple, the orange, and especially the bread-fruit tree, are to be found in great variety even the fruits of the temperate grow beside those of the tropical zone. The cotton-tree raises its tufted head in many regions. In one island a magnificent species of the chestnut sheds such a fragrance when in bloom, as to fill the whole air with the scent of the violet, and even to send its odours far out to sea; while birds of endless variety and gorgeous plumage inhabit these fruitful forests, and share the teeming abundance with man. The shores are strewed with `shells of such elegance and delicacy of tint as would reward the enthusiasm of the most ardent conchologist; while over all spreads a midnight sky, in which the southern cross and the clouds of Magellan dispute the palm of glory with our own familiar Orion and Pleiades, and planets shine with the lustre of little moons. Such was the aspect of external nature 116 THE FEEJEE ISLANDS. [OCT. in those garden-islands, when, in the month of October 1835, Messrs. Cross and Cargill, Wesleyan Missionaries, who had come from the Friendly Islands, first landed on their shores-and what was the aspect of man? The dark photographic picture which Paul has drawn of heathenism in his Epistle to the Romans might be given as the answer, and even in its most hideous and revolting pictures the resemblance would hold. The people were indeed found to be ingenious in some of the useful arts, as in the formation of mats, in basketwork and earthenware; and a certain elegance of design and skill in workmanship were visible in the chequered cloths which they wove from the bark of some of their palms, placing them in these respects many degrees above the natives of the Friendly Islands; but their moral condition only admits of being partially unveiled, "for it is a shame even to speak of some of the things which were done of them in secret." The Missionaries found them to be strongly addicted to stealing. Falsehood was so common, that to "speak as a Feejee man" was an expression equivalent to speaking lies. Covetousness so raged in their bosoms, that they would glare with savage eyes upon a stranger, or a native of another tribe, in order to discover whether there was any thing about his person for which it was worth while to destroy him; and, on a slight temptation, a deadly stroke from the murderous club would lay the victim at their feet. Infanticide prevailed in its most revolting forms; the self-immolation of widows on the death of their husbands was common; the old, the decrepit, and even those who seemed to be afflicted with lingering sickness, were unscrupulously put to death. War was a pastime, and was considered the noblest employment of men. The warriors stood next in rank to the chiefs, and as each island, and even tribe, had its own separate chief, the spear and the war-club were almost never at rest, while the ferocity and treachery with which war was pursued more than doubled all its natural horrors. But the crime which of all others stood out as the most prominent feature in Feejeean wickedness, giving those islanders a ghastly preeminence even among heathen nations, was cannibalism. So completely had this crime intermingled itself with all the customs of the people, that a human being was sacrificed and eaten on every remarkable occasion. A house could not be built, a canoe launched, or an important voyage undertaken, without a human sacrifice. Cannibalism was not more prompted by revenge than by an appetite for human blood. Not only were the victims obtained in war reserved to be eaten, and often roasted alive in their horrid ovens, but persons of the same tribe have been slain by stratagem to satiate the inhuman lust; and when such deaths have occurred, a whale's tooth* has been considered by the relatives of the dead a sufficient compensation for his life. It was estimated by one Missionary, that, in the space of four years, 500 persons were put to death, and eaten, within twenty miles of Vewa. Cannibalism was in truth a part of infant education in Feejee. Mothers have been seen to rub a piece of human flesh on the lips of their children, that they might be imbued from the first with a taste * Probably the tooth of the narwhal is meant.-ED. C.M.G. 1855.] THE FEEJEE ISLANDS. 117 for blood; and among the games of Feejee children nothing was more common than the imitation of a cannibal-feast, with all the horrid mimicry of slaying the victim, carrying the body in procession, and the cannibal song, followed by the repast. When we add that death by natural means was one of the rarest occurrences, and that an old person was scarcely ever seen in those islands, it will be understood why the Missionaries were disposed to place Feejee in the "lowest deep" of heathenism, and, witnessing from day to day the orgies of hell amid the scenery of Eden, wrote of those islands with sickened hearts, as emphatically "dark places of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty." And the religion of the Feejeeans was in keeping with their morality. It is true that they generally professed their belief in a supreme god, Ove, whom they described as the creator of mankind, and as inhabiting the heavens or the moon; but there is no evidence that any worship was rendered to this deity. Their homage was spread over a multitude of inferior gods, with limited powers and narrow spheres, some of them the children and grandchildren of Ove, and others the spirits of departed ancestors, to whom they ascribed the presidency over particular districts or tribes, and whose numbers they were continually multiplying. Images of their gods were kept in their temples, but merely as ornaments; so that, in the usual sense of the words, they could not be charged with idol worship; but these gods were believed by them to inhabit particular shrines, such as stones, trees, vegetables, and even animals, and they unscrupulously rendered homage to them. The gods were communicated with by the priest, who, along with certain seers, that pretended inspiration and predicted future events, were in concert with the chiefs, and together swayed the people. These false gods of Feejee their worshippers endowed, as in the case of all false religions, with their own evil qualities, exaggerated and magnified, freely ascribing to them fornication, adultery, war, and even cannibalism, and only too faithfully, as we have seen, exemplifying the law by which man assimilates to whatever object he adores. The belief in immortality is common among those islanders, but is unaccompanied by that belief in a "judgment to come" which is necessary to arm the doctrine with moral power, while it is associated with, and degraded by, the strange imagination that the inferior animals, vegetables, and even stones, share the glory with man; and a natural well is actually shown in one of their islands, across the bottom of which runs a stream of water, in which, they say, may distinctly be perceived the souls of men and women, beasts and plants, of stones, canoes, and houses, and of all the broken utensils of this frail world, swimming along into the regions of immortality! There is even to be found among some of the tribes a belief that the earth is to be burnt and renovated by fire, in which we seem to recognise the broken fragment of a primeval revelation. But the most remarkable traditionary fragment of this kind is that of the universal deluge, which has found its way to these isles of the Pacific, like one of those flowers from remote lands, which the tide sometimes casts upon their coral shores. Not only is there the general account of the deluge, but the building of the ark by the carpenter Rodoka and the eight persons who were saved, identifying the story with the Noachic flood, and adding another 118 SIAMESE MERIT-MAKING. [OCT. instance to the rich store of evidence which Faber and others have accumulated of the universality of the tradition. (To be continued.) SIAMESE MERIT-MAKING. THE Buddhists in Siam, as elsewhere, make it the great business of living, so far as their religion is concerned, to acquire merit. By this they do not mean living pure and moral lives, being good parents, children, neighbours, speaking truth and doing right at all times: they mean, performing certain acts which may be done by very bad men, as most of them are. An American Missionary at Bankok gives the following specimens "The Buddhist priests of Siam are accustomed to go out every morning to gather their day's food. They do not beg, but pass around and present themselves with their rice-pot and satchel in front of the people's houses, or boats, or markets, and there remain in silence until those who are so disposed give to them, which nearly all are inclined to do. Siamese mothers appear to be very particular to instruct their children in the work of feeding priests; and I have seen them, before their little ones were able to walk, force them to make their little contributions. They tell them if they do thus they will get much merit and be happy. "It is no small tax upon the people to support their priests, but they do it with a willing heart. When I was once at the old capital, I saw a woman, from her own stock, feed more than fifty priests, who each came to her in his turn, and received his portion. She gave to each a cup of boiled rice, some curry stuff, a little betel-nut, and a cigar. This, I suppose, she was in the custom of doing daily. If I had asked her why she thus spent so much of her living, her answer would have been, To make merit.' "One who travels in Siam will often see a shelf fastened up on a tree or a post, in front of the Siamese houses. If he were to ask the dwellers there what these shelves are for, the answer would be, 'To feed crows upon.' And when he further asks,' And why do you feed the crows?' the answer comes, To get merit, to be sure.' So when a Siamese has thrown out some fish, or rice, to the wolfish dogs that throng the land, he feels an inward satisfaction, flattering himself that by this act he has added to his store of merit. Missionary physicians here are accustomed to treat those who are sick, and desire their help, without charge. The natives in turn seem almost to envy our situation, and, instead of feeling much obligation to us for the services we may have rendered them, congratulate us because we have the means of making merit so fast. "The Buddhist religion teaches that it is sin to destroy animal life, and that whoever is the means of saving or prolonging it has done a meritorious act. A few months ago I caught a serpent of the poisonous kind near my back door. The natives say that its bite will produce death in thirty minutes. My old teacher urged me to set this serpent at liberty, as I had now a good opportunity to get merit. They hold that the only acts which produce merit to any great amount, are those put forth unselfishly. The man who feeds his elephant because he carries burdens for him, or his dog because he watches his house, or his buffalo because he ploughs his ground, gets no merit, because he does it selfishly. But 1855.] JEWELLERY VERSUS MISSIONARIES. 119 if he feeds an elephant, a buffalo, a dog, or a crow, from which he can expect no favour in return, then his act becomes highly meritorious. To set at liberty a serpent whose bite is not poisonous is of little account, but to liberate one that is evil and deadly to mankind is pure merit." [The Macedonian. www JEWELLERY VERSUS MISSIONARIES. THERE is jewellery enough in Christendom to sustain all our Missionary operations, on their present scale, for a whole generation. Could not some of it be spared to send the gospel to the perishing? With what alacrity did God's ancient people pour their golden ornaments, their precious stones, their fine linens and peltries, into His treasury, when it was signified to them that these articles were needed to furnish the tabernacle in the wilderness! "They came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all His service, and for the holy garments. And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought bracelets, and ear-rings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold," &c. (Exod. xxxv. 21, 22.) So great was their liberality, that the officers came to Moses, saying, "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make." And Moses was obliged to issue a proclamation commanding them to desist. "So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much." (Exod. xxxvi. 5-7.) Would that we might see another such collection in our day! Let no one say that such offerings are not needed now, because the sanctuary God is now raising is not a material, but a spiritual one. It is true these rich gifts are not to be beaten into golden censers, and candlesticks, and sockets, and knobs, and made into vestments for the priests to wear. But they are needed, nevertheless; for they can be transmuted into what is of far more value than these-into light for those who sit in darkness; into rivers of the water of life for thirsty souls, and spiritual bread for those who are famishing. By such offerings as these, Missionaries may be sent into heathen lands to proclaim the glad news of salvation; the Bible may be printed, tracts distributed, the ignorant instructed, and souls, by the blessing of God, may be converted to Christ and gathered into churches, to become living stones in the spiritual temple that is going up in the earth. This is the true science of alchemy. The gospel of Christ has revealed the secret to the world, by which we may transmute what is now valuable, not into gold merely, but into what is far more precious; and then scatter it, as the leaves of the tree of life, for the healing of the nations. Will any one say that such offerings are not needed, at such a time as this, when the wants of the foreign field are so urgent, and the treasuries of all our Missionary Boards are overdrawn? Oh, how timely would they be, and how refreshing to the hearts of those who are toiling at the work. What a new impulse would it give to the cause at home, and what joy and gladness would it send to the isles that wait for His law, and to the ends of the earth, if the people of God, "both men and women, as many as are willing-hearted," would again pour their offerings into the treasury of the Lord for the service of His temple, till our |