Page 37 - Melanesia

n the highlands of Viti Levu, the bones
I of cannibalized enemies were placed as
trophies in the forked branches of trees
but on the coasts, where leg bones were
needed for making sail needles, these were
replaced by less durable prizes in the form
of sexual organs cut from the corpses. As
well as made into sail needles, slivers of
leg bone made useful thatching knives and
were treasured as heirlooms recalling past
triumphs, more personally gratifying me-
mentoes, including smoked snacks which
could be nibbled on whenever a particular
hated victim came to mind. The Fiji Museum
catalogue states that yaqona cups were
made from enemy skulls, enemy teeth were
used for a necklace or to stud the head of
the fatal club and earlobe ornaments or
hairdressing pins were fashioned from long
bones.
I n his book Fijian Weapons & Warfare,
which is a bulletin of the Fiji Museum,
Fergus Clunie also gives a detailed descrip-
tion of cannibalism in the country. Clunie in the arms and legs, and riddled with
wrote that cannibalism was an integral arrows. Feelings ran high while the flesh
part of Fijian religion and warfare, with the was slowly cooking, with men and women
captured bodies of enemies slain in war dancing. “When human flesh was in good
offered to the gods, cooked and eaten on supply, such as after a large massacre, the
their behalf. The most notorious of the can- less desirable parts of the body including
nibals, Ra Udreudre, whose personal tally the hands, feet and heads were sometimes
of eaten foes ran into the hundreds, was to thrown away or fed to the pigs, as was the
emerge later in the 19th century. Captives entire fast-rotting trunk if it had putrified
destined for the ovens were clubbed down too far. “When the meat was in short sup-
before being offered to the gods in sacrifice ply, only the chiefs, priests and elders got a
or were bled at this stage and their blood share, the feast usually taking place in the
drunk before being executed. “Sometimes, temple of the war god on whose behalf the
however, they were deliberately stunned body was being eaten. “If in ready supply,
and cast alive into the fiery ovens, their however, the warriors all got cuts accord-
agonised thrashings as the flames revived ing to their social standing. The chiefs and
them then burnt them to death, delight- priests received the choicest pieces. Women
ing the vengeful spectators. “These cap- were not generally permitted to eat human
tives had often been subjected to such flesh, it being tabu to them. The religious
prolonged cruel tortures that death came aspect of cannibalism was clearly evident in
as a welcome release; it being a common the offering of the bodies to the war gods
practice to taunt, stone, bite, blind, burn and other things related to the act.
with firebrands and pull out the hair of
captives, who were also repeatedly speared