impossible; I was unconscious that I breathed; and involuntarily, or rather
against my will, I sank to the floor, assuming the cowering posture of those who
were actually engaged in murder. My arrival was during a hush, just at the crisis
of death, and to that strange silence must be attributed my emotions; and I was
but too familiar with murders of this kind, neither was there anything novel in
the apparatus employed. Occupying the centre of that large room were two
groups, the business of whom could not be mistaken.
“All sat on the floor; the middle figure of each group being held in a sitting
posture by several females, and hidden by a large veil. On either side of each
veiled figure was a company of eight or ten strong men, one company hauling
against the other a white cord which was passed twice round the neck of the
doomed one, who thus in a few minutes ceased to live. As my self-command
was returning to me the group furthest from me began to move; the men
slackened their hold, and the attendant women removed the large covering,
making it into a couch for the victim.”
Mr. Williams now repaired to the hut of the deceased king, to intercede with his
successor on behalf of the other intended victims. Judge of his surprise and
horror to find the king still alive. He was very feeble, it was true, but he retained
complete consciousness, and occasionally put his hand to his side as his cough
shook and tortured him. The young king seemed overcome with grief, and
embracing Mr. Williams, said: “See, the father of us two is dead.” He regarded
his father’s movements, even his speaking and taking food, as mechanical; in his
view, the spirit had departed, and nothing remained but an infirm, and, therefore,
valueless body. The preparations for the funeral were not interrupted, and Mr.
Williams could obtain no hearing for his expostulations. The young chief’s
principal wife and an attendant busily dusted his body with black powder, as if
dressing him for the war-dance; and bound his arms and legs with long rolls of
white masi, tied in rosettes, with the ends streaming on the ground. He was
attired in a new masi robe, which fell about him in ample folds; his head was
decorated with a scarlet handkerchief, arranged turban-wise, and ornamented
with white cowrie-shells, strings of which flashed on his dusky arms; while
round his neck depended an ivory necklace, composed of long curved claw-like
pieces of whale’s teeth.
At the sound of a couple of conch-shells the chiefs present did homage, so to
speak, to their new king, who was still deeply affected, and gazing on the body
of one of the murdered women, his father’s eldest and most loving wife,
exclaimed: “Alas, Moalivu! There lies a woman truly unwearied, not only in the