The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 50

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

50 _ THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.
eee EEE

Wonders of Transforming Grace.

THE FIJI ISLANDERS.

The Islands.

The Fiji group comprises eighty islands of con-
siderable size besides a number of smaller ones.
The group lies to the west of the Samoan Islands
and about as far south of the equator as Hawaii is
north. ‘The ‘beauty of these islands is wonderful,
and if loveliness of habitation would determine the
character of a people, the Fijians would always have
ranked among the best of men. And yet there
never was a more degraded race of men than these

islanders.
The People.

It is almost impossible to describe the former
moral degradation of these people. Cannibalism
was a national cult and custom among them. That
man ranked highest among them who could claim
to have eaten the most human beings. They set up
memorial stones to mark the number of victims they
had devoured, and one great chief among them had
set up nine hundred such stones to mark his
prowess! Children were given a taste of human
flesh when yet babes to incite in them a relish for
the horrible food. Yes, not only dead bodies, but
living captives were given over to young children
as playthings to practise for sport the art of muti-
lation and dissection. ‘The whole life of these
people was inwrought with the destruction and
devouring of human beings. The building of a hut
or the launching of a boat was connected with the
eating of human flesh. If the plump form of a
favorite wife or the tender flesh of a child promised
an unusual delicacy, the husband and father called
in his friends and without hesitation had a feast
on the dainty morsel!

To cannibalism must be added the awful crime
of infanticide. At least two-thirds of all the chil-
dren born were killed at birth. Parents, when old
and feeble, were dispatched without hesitation.
When a husband died, his widows were strangled,
and the sick and aged were buried alive.

Treachery and ferocity, evil passions and dey-
ilish cruelty, were branded on the faces of the
Fijians. One who knew the Fijians eighty-five
years ago paints this horrible picture of them:
“The forehead filled with wrinkles; the large nos-
trils distended and fairly smoking; the staring eye-
balls red and gleaming with terrible flashings; the
mouth distended into a murderous and disdainful
grin; the whole body quivering with excitement;

every muscle strained, and the clenched fist eager
to bathe itself in the blood of him who has roused
this demon of fury.” Simple devilishness in a high
state of development seems to have possessed these
people.

How the Gospel Came to the Fijians.

The story of how the Gospel was brought to
these blood-stained islands is very wonderful. On
one of the islands an awful epidemic swept away
thousands. Cutting themselves with knives and
offering many human sacrifices did not halt it.
Then the Fijians heard that the only true God was
Jehovah, and they sent to Tonga for a teacher to
teach them the religion of this Jehovah. A Chris-
tian Tongan came and taught them all he knew
of the new religion. Soon after, white missionaries,
hearing of this particular island, followed, and from
this island they went to the other islands with their
message of Jesus. Among these early missionaries
was John Hunt. When he landed on the island
of Tavinni, the natives were in the midst of a
cannibal feast. When one of their chiefs was
drowned at sea, his sixteen wives were strangled and
burned in front of the missionary’s house. Some
months later they threatened to burn down the
missionary’s house because his wife had put up the
shutters to shut out the sickening sight and smell
of eleven burning bodies that were being roasted for
a feast. Such were the vile sights the missionary
had to endure; but yet Hunt and his companions
worked on, and little by little a change could be
seen. Now this and then that chief was smitten
with his sins, and in course of time whole tribes
were gained. New men were added to the mission,
and the work grew apace. Three years sufficed so to
change the horrid life about Hunt that at least a
bloodless war was waged, a large canoe launched,
and a great feast held for weeks without one human
sacrifice, and this without direct interference by the
missionary. }

The last six of John: Hunt’s missionary career

of only ten years were spent at Vieva, a small island .

two miles from Mbau, then the stronghold of King
Thakombau, “the butcher of his people” and the
head king of all the Fijians. At first the king
hardened his heart against the Gospel. Hunt did
not live to see him abandon his cruel customs or
accept Christianity. “I hate your Christianity,” he
cried. “Do you think you can ever keep us from

‘wars and eating? Never!” When his father died,

he strangled all his wives, “for grass to line his
grave,” as he expressed it.

ee