200.]

[Footnote 686: Th. Williams, _op. cit._ i. 189; Lorimer Fison, _op.
cit._ p. xvi.]

[Footnote 687: Th. Williams, _op. cit._ i. 189.]

[Footnote 688: Th. Williams, _op. cit._ i. 197.]

[Footnote 689: Ch. Wilkes, _op. cit._ iii. 100. Williams also says (_op.
cit._ i. 167) that the proper time for performing the rite of
circumcision was after the death of a chief, and he tells us that "many
rude games attend it. Blindfolded youths strike at thin vessels of water
hung from the branch of a tree. At Lakemba, the men arm themselves with
branches of the cocoa-nut, and carry on a sham fight. At Ono, they
wrestle. At Mbau, they fillip small stones from the end of a bamboo with
sufficient force to make the person hit wince again. On Vanua Levu,
there is a mock siege."]

[Footnote 690: Th. Williams, _op. cit._ i. 198.]

[Footnote 691: Rev. Lorimer Fison, "The Nanga, or Sacred Stone
Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji," _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, xiv. (1885) pp. 27 _sq._ On the other hand Mr. Basil
Thomson's enquiries, made at a later date, did not confirm Mr. Fison's
statement that the rite of circumcision was practised as a propitiation
to recover a chief from sickness. "I was assured," he says, "on the
contrary, that while offerings were certainly made in the _Nanga_ for
the recovery of the sick, every youth was circumcised as a matter of
routine, and that the rite was in no way connected with sacrifice for
the sick" (Basil Thomson, _The Fijians_, pp. 156 _sq._). However, Mr.
Fison was a very careful and accurate enquirer, and his testimony is not
to be lightly set aside.]

[Footnote 692: Rev. Lorimer Fison, "The Nanga, or Sacred Stone
Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji," _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, xiv. (1885) p. 26. Compare Basil Thomson, _The Fijians_, p.
147: "The _Nanga_ was the 'bed' of the Ancestors, that is, the spot
where their descendants might hold communion with them; the _Mbaki_ were
the rites celebrated in the _Nanga_, whether of initiating the youths,
or of presenting the first-fruits, or of recovering the sick, or of
winning charms against wounds in battle."]

[Footnote 693: Rev. Lorimer Fison, _op. cit._ p. 27.]

[Footnote 694: Rev. Lorimer Fison, "The Nanga, or Sacred Stone
Enclosure, of Wainimala, Fiji," _Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, xiv. (1885) pp. 14-26. The _Nanga_ and its rites have also
been described by Mr. A. B. Joske ("The Nanga of Viti-levu,"
_Int