Page 36 - Melanesia

he savages sang and danced around and dashed out his brains with a blow of his watched him consumed her arms in horror.
club. Thereupon the two unfortunate fel- Udre udre was a Fijian chief who according
T them with demonstrations of the most to Guiness World Record (2003) for “most
ferocious joy. They fired several bullets lows were cut up and placed on the hearth prolific cannibal” who consumed between
872 to 900 people. This is recorded by the
at the inanimate bodies, using for this with their companions.’ stones he kept for every bodies he ate.

posthumous execution the guns which had E arly historical accounts from Christian T he catalogue states that those des-
fallen into their hands. When this ceremony missionaries like John Hunt (1848) and tined for the ovens were offered at the
was finished, the priests commenced to war god’s spirit house and accepted by his
chief and priests, with a favorite portion
cut up the corpses before our eyes, and the William Cross (1842) depicted the grue- being set aside on the god’s behalf. It says
the dead were then butchered and baked,
fragments were placed upon the hearths. some and inhumane-like behavior of the dissected or entire, in pits near the spirit
house before being eaten by the men of the
Meanwhile we ourselves were surrounded early Fijians. An account in John Hunt’s clan, with women and children receiving an
informal share when there was an excess
upon every side save that where a thicket book “A missionary among cannibals” supply of it. Furthermore, the catalogue
states that captives were routinely hu-
on mangroves bordered the river. Two of (1859) where he experienced the savages miliated and often tortured before being
clubbed or cast alive. Special wooden forks
Dillon’s companions, one named Savage digging up of the recently buried graves for were also used to eat the baked human
bodies. The forks were consecrated or tabu
and the other a Chinese, abandoned their human consumption. In the book “Fiji and and were kept as sacred relics in the spirit
house.
captain, foolishly believing the promises of the Fijians”(published in 1858) by Wesleyan

the barbarians that they would come to no missionary Reverend Thomas Williams,

harm. ‘Savage,’ Dillon said, ‘was soon in their witnessed a chief ’s wife from a small island

midst. They surrounded him, appearing to of Lakeba (east from the main land) who

congratulate him. Suddenly, however, they ran away in the middle of the night. The

uttered a great cry, seizing Savage at the chief ordered his trackers to look for her

same time by the legs. Six men held him the next day. A couple of days later, she

suspended head downwards and plunged was brought back to Lakeba. He had his

him into the hole full of water, where he wife’s arms chopped off and cooked. Later

was speedily suffocated. Meanwhile, a na- that evening, he called on her and as she

tive approached the Chinese from behind, sat across from his dining table while she