CIRCUMCISION AND TATTOOING
Like the Arabs, the Fijians circumcised their boys when just entering
upon puberty, about the twelfth year. In heathen times the age seems to
have been somewhat earlier, for Williams gives the age at from seven to
twelve, which corresponds with the custom of the ancient Egyptians, from
whom the Jews probably derived the custom. It does not appear to have
been strictly a religious rite, though, like all ceremonial acts of the
Fijians, it was invested with a religious observance of the tabu. The
operation was generally performed in the village _mbure_, upon ten or
twenty youths at a time, by one of the old men, who used a piece of
split bamboo. The blood was caught on a strip of bark-cloth, called
_kula_ (red), which in some places was suspended from the roof of the
temple or the house of the chief. Food, consisting of a mess of greens,
was taken to the boys by women, who, in some places, as they carried it,
chanted the following words:--
"Memu wai onkori ka kula,
Au solia mai loaloa,
Au solia na ndrau ni thevunga,
Memu wai onkori ka kula."
"Your broth, you, the circumcised,
From the darkness I give it,
I give you _thevunga_ leaves,
Your broth, you, the circumcised."
[Pageheader: CIRCUMCISION A RELIGIOUS RITE]
The word for circumcision, _teve_, may not be uttered before women; in
their presence it must be called _kula_. The proper time for performing
the rite is immediately after the death of a chief, and it is
accompanied by rude games--wrestling, sham fights, mimic sieges, which
vary according to the locality. Uncircumcised youths were regarded as
unclean, and were not permitted to carry food for the chiefs. The
ceremony was generally followed by the assumption of the _malo_, or
perineal bandage, for children of both sexes went naked to the tenth
year, or even later if of high rank; but this was not invariable, for
the _malo_ was worn sometimes many months before, and sometimes not
assumed till some time after the ceremony. The assumption of the _malo_,
or of the _liku_ (grass petticoat) by the child of a chief was the
occasion of a great feast, and the postponement of this feast sometimes
condemned the child to go naked until long after puberty. The daughter
of the late chief of Sambeto was thus still unclad till past eighteen,
and the unfortunate girl was compelled, through modesty, to keep the
house until after nightfall.
The custom of circumcision still persists despite the abandonment of the
ceremonial that attended it. The instrument is now usually a trade
knife, and the operation is performed in the privacy of the boy's
family, who may, or may not, give a feast to his near relations. I have
tried unsuccessfully to obtain any traditions that would give a clue to
its origin. The most that a Fijian can say is that to be uncircumcised
is a reproach, though to a people who cover the pudenda with the hand
even while bathing, and probably never expose their nakedness even to
their own sex throughout their lives, this can have but little weight.
No doubt the Fijians brought the custom with them in remote times, and
its origin is probably the same in their case as in that of the Nacua of
Central America, the Egyptians, and the Bantu races of Africa--namely,
the idea of a blood sacrifice to the mysterious spirit of reproduction.
Shortly before puberty every Fijian girl was tattooed. This was not for
ornament, for the marks were limited to a broad horizontal band covering
those parts that were concealed by the _liku_, beginning about an inch
below the cleft of the buttocks and ending on the thighs about an inch
below the fork of the legs. The pattern covered the Mons Veneris and
extended right up to the vulva. There is not much art in the patterns,
which are, as a rule, mere interlacing of parallel line and lozenges,
the object being apparently to cover every portion of the skin with
pigment. The operation is performed by three old women, two to hold the
patient, and the third to use the fleam. It is done in the daytime, when
the men are absent in their plantations. The girl is laid stripped upon
the mats opposite the open door, where the light is best.
With an instrument called a _mbati_, or tooth, and a cocoanut shell
filled with a mixture of charcoal and candle-nut oil, the operator first
paints on the lines with a twig, and then drives them home with the
_mbati_, which consists of two or more bone teeth embedded in a wooden
handle about six inches long, dipping it in the pigment between each
stroke of the mallet, and wiping away the blood with bark-cloth, while
the other two control the struggles of the patient. The operation is
continued until the patient can bear no more, for in the tender parts
between the thighs it is excessively painful. There is usually some
inflammation, but the wounds heal quickly. A ceremonial feast is
generally given by the girl's parents.
In addition to this tattooing, barbed lines and dots were marked upon
the fingers of young girls to display them to advantage when handing
food to the chiefs, and after childbirth a semicircular patch was
tattooed at each corner of the mouth. In the hill districts of Vitilevu
these patches are sometimes joined by narrow lines following the curve
of both lips. The motive for this practice, which even Fijians admit to
be a disfigurement, is to display publicly a badge of matronly staidness
and respectability. The wife who has borne children has fulfilled her
mission, and she pleases her husband best by ceasing for the remainder
of her life to please other men.
The tattooing of the buttocks has undoubtedly some hidden sexual
significance which is difficult to arrive at. It is said to have been
instituted by the god Ndengei, and in the last journey of the Shades an
untattooed woman was subjected to various indignities.
[Pageheader: REASON FOR TATTOOING WOMEN]
The motive of the girl in submitting to so painful an operation was the
same as that which underlies all subservience to grotesque decrees of
Fashion--the fear of ridicule. If untattooed, her peculiarity would be
whispered with derision among the gallants of the district, and she
would have difficulty in finding a husband. But the reason for the
fashion itself must be sought for in some sexual superstition. When I
was endeavouring to obtain some of the ancient chants used in the Nanga
celebrations on the Ra coast, I was always assured that the solemn vows
of secrecy which bound the initiated not to divulge the _mbaki_
mysteries sealed the lips even of their Christian descendants. I was
persuaded either that they had forgotten the chants, or that they
considered them unfit for my ears, for it was impossible to believe that
the reward I was able to offer would fail to tempt a Fijian to risk
offending deities in whom it was evident that he no longer believed.
After infinite persuasion the son of a _Vere_ was induced to dictate one
of the chants, and it proved to be an extremely lascivious ode in praise
of buttock tattooing--the only instance I am acquainted with in Fijian
chants in which lechery and not religious awe animated the composer.
Vaturemba, the chief of Nakasaleka in the Tholo hills, who was always
plain-spoken, chuckled wickedly when I questioned him upon the matter,
and declared that physically there was the greatest difference in the
world between mating with a tattooed and an untattooed woman (_Sa matha
vinaka nona ka vakayalewa, na alewa nkia_), and that the idea of
marriage with an untattooed woman filled him with disgust. He left me
with the impression that besides the other advantages he had mentioned,
tattooing was believed to stimulate the sexual passion in the woman
herself.
The Mission teachers have long waged war against the practice as a
heathen custom, and in most of the coast districts it has fallen into
disuse, but in the upper reaches of the Singatoka river, though the
people have long been Christians, it still persists, though not
universally. Interference with it by a man, albeit a Mission teacher,
was evidently considered indecent in itself, for men cannot, without
impropriety, concern themselves with so essentially feminine a business.
More than one teacher was charged before my court with indecency for
having returned to the village to admonish the tattooers while the
operation was being performed.
With the introduction of writing it has become common for young men and
women to tattoo their names on the forearm or thigh of the person to
whom they happen to be attached, and there are comparatively few who do
not carry some memento of their heart's history thus ineffaceably
recorded. The inconvenience of this custom in a people as fickle as the
Fijians does not seem to trouble them.
The keloids, or raised cicatrices, that may still be seen (though the
custom is dying out) upon the arms and backs of the women are formed by
repeatedly burning the skin with a firebrand, so as to keep the sore
open for several weeks. The wart-like excrescences that result are
arranged in lines with intervals of about an inch, in half-moons or
curves, or in concentric circles. Sometimes they are formed by pinching
up the skin, and thrusting a fine splinter through the raised part. They
are intended only for ornament, and have no other significance.
The only other interference with Nature is the distension of the
ear-lobes in the older men of the hill districts. The ear is first
pierced, and gradually distended by the insertion of pieces of wood of
increasing size, until the lobe forms a thin cord, like a stout elastic
band, and is large enough to receive a reel of cotton, or a circular tin
match-box, which are both in favour as ear ornaments. Sometimes the cord
breaks, and if the owner has not ceased to care about his personal
appearance he will excoriate the broken ends, and splice them with grass
fibre until they reunite.