Show Me the Sky - Nicholas Hogg [72]
The king, hoping that a last-minute conversion of his brother would grant a pardon from death, begged his brother to give his soul to ‘the God of the white man’. Luckily for the reverend, Bithi would not swear allegiance to Jehovah. He reasoned that those he loved before the coming of the white man had died without knowing God and would be in a different heaven. Therefore, if he now became Christian he would be a Fijian without friends in the afterlife.
I say luckily, as Bithi soon took his final breath in the arms of his brother, a fate I doubt would have been different even with a last-minute conversion, thus saving the reverend from a circus test of his ‘powers’.
24 June 1835
All night the wives have wailed for the death of their husband. His body has been bathed, dressed and decorated as though he is about to stand before a great assembly. His skin has been daubed with soot, and white cloth bound around his temple. A club is fixed in his fist so that he may hold the rank of a chief and warrior even in death. Friends and chiefs of various tribes along the Rewa River have visited to present the gift of whales’ teeth and pay their respects. His wives, who have volunteered their death so they too may travel with their husband to the underworld, begged at the feet of King Tanoa to be strangled.
I implored the Rev. Thomas to intercede, to save these women from what ignorance and tradition has taught them. To my utter surprise, the reverend refused, insisting that those who have ‘heard the words of God and remained deaf, are doomed to follow Satan into his fiery depths’.
He then observed the ceremony of immolation as though sitting at a theatre, but with neither grief nor anger aroused upon his face as the murderous cord was in turn fastened about each wretched wife and pulled tight until she was left a breathless corpse.
27 June 1835
Now the wives lie beneath the earth, for ever beside the husband they followed to the grave, I have gathered enough Christian forgiveness to be civil to Rev. Thomas, a man with enough authority to have at least attempted the halting of this senseless murder.
Prepared to reconcile our differences over the affair, I was stunned by his reaction when I merely questioned his impotence before the death ceremony. He instantly turned to rage, stating in no uncertain terms that although we were on the soil of my country, I still owed a debt to England and the Mission Society, and that ultimately, I was still an employee expected to follow instructions.
1 July 1835
Since the row I have attended the needs of the Rev. Thomas with solemn respect and obedience. I should understand that he acts in the name of God, and if I too wish to consider myself one of his acolytes, I must follow his instructions without question.
Again he has declared that he should tutor the maidens, while I the men. A small schoolhouse is under construction farther up the hill, a site backing on to thick bush, and again his choosing.
2 July 1835
Unlike King Nayau of Lakemba, King Tanoa bows to none other than himself, and therefore a conversion to Christianity is but his choice alone. Whilst he listens with great keenness to the tales of Jesus Christ and his miracles, he only hears them as fables, not fact.
He also wishes to know of England, but prefers this discourse with the reverend, as I, who could be called upon to vouch for his words, am still one of his subjects, and must not upstage his majesty by boasting of my travels.
5 July 1835
The schoolhouse is complete. My first class proved too numerous to seat, with men crowded at the windows in wont of instruction. It is with great joy that I help my brothers begin to read and write, for I had quite forgotten the wonder and simplicity of attaching sound to symbol. That one can look at a printed page, and hear words, the very essence of another being, or God Himself, has been nothing short of the revelation it deserves.
Later in the