Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-16
1an0 Of Butterflies
MIR. Cell Writes of the Fiji Isla Missionary Labors
Among the CannibaI Inhabitants
By WILLIAM EDGAR CELL, F. r. C. s.
Copyright, 1906. by Church News Association)

of Fiji did not prohibit cannibalism. IL ma.
nrst have been a sacrificial sGvice
Indeed. L almost hold to this latter idea
Tor the Fijians had but one greater humIIi-
alton for vanauished foe than that OF
killing him: namely. utterly to refuse to
eat nm The religious tendency is seen in
the horrible custom of human sacrifice when
heather temple was erected In each post
hole was placed live savage who held in
his arms the timber and who was buii
alive as the hole was filled in. Graves were
sometimes lined with living peop.e, who
We're burned with the dead. Thus much
have had related standing beside the two
cannibal drums on the shore of the river
Rewa.
And now little farther on we see tho
church. In 1871 over one hundred persons
were killed and eaten in one village and
thirty-odd years later l saw some who had
taken part in that horrible feast I'm the
church where they sat down to the Lords
supper The same drums which called
nein W eat men men now summon them
10 worship the true God and help men.
These are big dividends. The drums and
the church have been tuned together
Durlng a voyage down the Rewa | set
up my typewriter and began writing. This
SO aroused the curiosity of the ex-cannibaI
paodiers that in watching me they ran into
sand bank and could not get off without
wettlng the evening dress which they wore
stopped at Withingtons hospital to ask
questions There are forty post offices I'm
FLU now. And the total number of letters
In 100 was 430, $50. and of papers 337 or
pretty good record for a country where
the total population is only 10000 Twelve
hundred and twenty-six Methodist churches
and preaching stations tell the story of
now the people have come to be humanized.
civilized and Christianized in forty years.
time.
Overlooking the Rewa, on the edge OF
the delta, is the University of Fill Here I
MADE a long stay to study the natives The
educational system of the past suited the
past but the present demands young man
and adjustment. Brilliant young Bennett Is
running an up-to-d college. One day he
said to me: do you want to see a war
dance?' The question nearly took my
breath away.
Yes! Yes! Half dozen OF them"
eagerly replied I've always liked any,
thing that could get a move on. There is
still in me much sympathy for the old
FARMER who tried to quote a popular Prov
erb, and ended by saying It's mighty
somewhere
"Ah." said Bennett lone war dance will
be sufficient" And it was
The day for the dance finally came. Out
onto level grassy plain tropped the
staiwart. ex-cannibal warriors. all beauti-
fully dressed in cocoanut oil. That's the
stuff to be dressed in Look at the powerful
arms and legs. splendid specimens of the
human anatomy. Every man a giant, and
d a
wicked knife ready for business They fell
into savage military formation. 1t SEEM
ed like madness, but there was method in
1t. What sight! Hundreds of them with
horrible faces! lie war dance grew fast
and furious until it reached a climax-it
seemed to me a hundred climaxes were
reached at once.
Up in the air they leaped. swung their
battle clubs. gave blood curdIing cannibal
Yell which sounded more fit for demons
than for men, and when they landed they
started for me as hard as they could come,
Il say, Bennett. those fellows con-
verted? If not, L will adjourn"
Yes" said Bennett, laughing they are
converted"
Thanks, Bennett. 1 believe in foreign
missions
Only forty years ago you could buy a
nice, juicy. fat man here in Fiji cut him
up into steaks or chops and fry him. grill
him, bake him or eat him raw for 81 And
now you can't buy thin, consumptive lit
tie CHAP, good for nothing but soup. for
81, 0OO, 900. l ask, seriously, what has caused
the tremendous rise in the value OF per-
sonal property?
The answer is easy and undeniably corr
rect. The whole change is due to the self
sacrificing work Of the missionaries. i am
not a missionary, but man of science, and
l believe in fair play. Give the missionary
his due. We owe him more than we can
pay. But for missionaries the British EN-
pire would be one-fifth smaller than ii is
today. But for the civilizing of native races
by missionaries factories which now turn
out trade cloth would be idle. But for
missionaries science would be poorer and
charity less widely distributed. Noble mis-
sonaries, all hail,