Fijian Bible History (3)

**List: Fijian Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Fijian... FEEJEEAN. "THE Feejee or Figi group of islands lies between New Hebrides and the Friendly or Tonga Islands, being situated between 16 and 21 degrees south latitude, and between 177 east and 178 west longitude. It comprises 154 islands, of which 100 are inhabited, and the others occasionally frequented; the two largest islands are supposed to be each about 300 miles in circumference.   The inhabitants number about 300,000: the relation which they bear to the rest of the Polynesian race is a problem of some difficulty to determine.   In person they possess all the characteristics of the negrito race, but their language, instead of being, as was at one time supposed, a negrito dialect, is closely allied to the Polynesian stock.   Although possessing certain peculiarities of its own, it is subject to the grammatical laws by which other Polynesian tongues are governed; and Humboldt has observed that Feejee agrees with the western dialects of Polynesia in many instances where the eastern and western idioms differ. It has a sibilant s, which other Polynesian dialects do not know; and like them it possesses a two-fold dual and plural for personal pronouns; with no inflections properly so called for either case, gender, or number.   In general activity of temperament the Feejeeans also resemble their Polynesian brethren; whereas, the true oceanic negroes are everywhere a sluggish and inert people.    The moral state of the Feejeeans is awfully depraved.   They are grossly addicted to cannibalism, and natural death is an accident in Feejee, the sick being usually strangled.   They even, says Mr. Lawry, rub human flesh over the lips of their little children, and put a portion into the infant's mouth, that it may be nourished by its juice, and trained in the practice of cannibalism!   The Feejeean chiefs rule in the most arbitrary and despotic manner, inflicting instant death on all who offend or disoblige them.   The religion of the Feejeeans, we are told, differs materially from that of the lighter-coloured Polynesian people.   They believe in a plurality of deities, and offer human sacrifices as a preliminary to almost all their undertakings.   They recognise a future state of existence; but this belief, guided by no just notions of moral obligation, is the source of many abhorrent practices, leading them to the immolation of their aged relatives, and to the murder of wives at the funeral of their husbands.    The Feejee Islands are divided politically into numerous small states, and a distinct sub-dialect of the general language is spoken in each.   The principal dialect is that of Bau, and a translation of the New Testament was made into this idiom by the late Rev. J. Hunt, in concert with other Wesleyan mies.   The work was completed in an edition of 1000 copies in 1849.   The expenses attending it were borne by the Wesleyan Society, who alone have mies. in these islands; and the value of the translation having been fully attested, some aid has been received from the British and Foreign Bible Society.   In 1854, the latter Society printed an edition of 5000 Feejee New Testaments, placing them at the disposal of the Wesleyan Society for distribution: subsequently, in 1858, an edition of 5000 Gospels was issued by the Bible Society and forwarded to Feejee for distribution, at the earnest request of the mies., whose supply of Scriptures had already become exhausted.   Meanwhile, the mies. employed in the Feejee Islands were diligently engaged in the translation of the Old Testament, which they completed in 1854.   Upon the representation of the Wesleyan body, the British and Foreign Bible Society at once agreed to undertake the cost of printing the entire body of Feejeean Scriptures, and arrangements are now in progress for the execution of this great work, so soon as the manuscript shall have undergone the necessary revision.   The Rev. Mr. Calvert, a Wesleyan my. long resident in the Feejee Islands, has undertaken the task of superintendence, and it is intended, immediately on his return to England, to print an edition of 5000 Bibles and 10,000 Testaments.    According to the late reports of the mies., we find that, in the face of much opposition, they meet with great encouragement, and that the impression begins to be very general among the natives that Christianity is true.   "The very devoted and spotless life of Varani, one of the native converts (says Mr. Lawry), has done much to soften prejudice, and to cast lustre on the Christian character.   His friend and companion in arms, Thakombau, king of Feejee, was very bitter and earnest against the Gospel, until he saw the true power of piety in this ‘living epistle.’   He now says that Christianity is true, and that his people shall embrace it; but that there are some wars to be completed first!"   In 1858 there were 17,649 native converts, and 36,561 day-scholars of both sexes, under the instruction of the mies.   It is said of those who have embraced the Gospel, that they adorn it, and that a goodly number of them go everywhere preaching the Word.   In the island of Lakemba in particular, two-thirds of the adult population are stated to have been members of the Christian Society, while about 800 children were under Christian instruction: the change (it is remarked) is so general that a heathen is a curiosity and a gazing-stock in the land.   This, however, it should be remembered, is an exception to the general condition of the still barbarous and benighted inhabitants of the Feejee group."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] FEEJEEAN.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]

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