d whom he announced his fixed intention of saving, died a few hours
afterwards.[712]

[Sidenote: Human sacrifices in Fiji.]

Ferocious and inveterate cannibals themselves, the Fijians naturally
assumed that their gods were so too; hence human flesh was a common
offering, indeed the most valued of all.[713] Formal human sacrifices
were frequent. The victims were usually taken from a distant tribe, and
when war and violence failed to supply the demand, recourse was
sometimes had to negotiation. However obtained, the victims destined for
sacrifice were often kept for a time and fattened to make them better
eating. Then, tightly bound in a sitting posture, they were placed on
hot stones in one of the usual ovens, and being covered over with leaves
and earth were roasted alive, while the spectators roared with laughter
at the writhings and contortions of the victims in their agony. When
their struggles ceased and the bodies were judged to be done to a
nicety, they were raked out of the oven, their faces painted black, and
so carried to the temple, where they were presented to the gods, only,
however, to be afterwards removed, cut up, and devoured by the
people.[714]

[Sidenote: Human sacrifices offered when a king's house was built or a
great new canoe launched.]

However, roasting alive in ovens was not the only way in which men and
women were made away with in the service of religion. When a king's
house was built, men were buried alive in the holes dug to receive the
posts: they were compelled to clasp the posts in their arms, and then
the earth was shovelled over them and rammed down. And when a large new
canoe was launched, it was hauled down to the sea over the bodies of
living men, who were pinioned and laid out at intervals on the beach to
serve as rollers on which the great vessel glided smoothly into the
water, leaving a row of mangled corpses behind. The theory of both these
modes of sacrifice was explained by the Fijians to an Englishman who
witnessed them. I will quote their explanation in his words. "They said
in answer to the questions I put respecting the people being buried
alive with the posts, that a house or palace of a king was just like a
king's canoe: if the canoe was not hauled over men, as rollers, she
would not be expected to float long, and in like manner the palace could
not stand long if people were not to sit down and continually hold the
posts up. But I said, 'How could they hold the posts