comes an expression
of flattery. 'You are a _kalou_!' or, 'Your countrymen are gods!' is
often uttered by the natives, when hearing of the triumphs of art among
civilized nations."[702] The Fijians distinguished two classes of gods:
first, _kalou vu_, literally "Root-gods," that is, gods strictly so
called, and second, _kalou yalo_, literally, "Soul-gods," that is,
deified mortals. Gods of the first class were supposed to be absolutely
eternal; gods of the second class, though raised far above mere
humanity, were thought nevertheless to be subject to human passions and
wants, to accidents, and even to death. These latter were the spirits of
departed chiefs, heroes, and friends; admission into their number was
easy, and any one might secure his own apotheosis who could ensure the
services of some one to act as his representative and priest after his
death.[703] However, though the Fijians admitted the distinction between
the two classes of gods in theory, they would seem to have confused them
in practice. Thus we are informed by an early authority that "they have
superior and inferior gods and goddesses, more general and local
deities, and, were it not an obvious contradiction, we should say they
have gods _human_, and gods _divine_; for they have some gods who were
gods originally, and some who were originally men. It is impossible to
ascertain with any degree of probability how many gods the Fijians have,
as any man who can distinguish himself in murdering his fellow-men may
certainly secure to himself deification after death. Their friends are
also sometimes deified and invoked. I have heard them invoke their
friends who have been drowned at sea. I need not advert to the absurdity
of praying to those who could not save themselves from a watery grave.
Tuikilakila, the chief of Somosomo, offered Mr. Hunt a preferment of
this sort. 'If you die first,' said he, 'I shall make you my god.' In
fact, there appears to be no certain line of demarcation between
departed spirits and gods, nor between gods and living men, for many of
the priests and old chiefs are considered as sacred persons, and not a
few of them will also claim to themselves the right of divinity. 'I am a
god,' Tuikilakila would sometimes say; and he believed it too. They were
not merely the words of his lips; he believed he was something above a
mere man."[704]

Writers on Fiji have given us lists of some of the principal gods of the
first class,[705] who were