PHYSICAL POWERS
Though the contrary is asserted by European residents, I think that the
physical strength and endurance of a Fijian are greater rather than less
than that of the average Englishman. Native prisoners, used as porters,
will carry a box weighing from 50 to 60 lb., slung on a bamboo between
two men, over very hilly roads a distance of thirty miles in a hot sun
without distress, if they are allowed occasional halts, and will do this
for several days in succession. A letter-carrier will cover thirty-five
miles of hilly road as an ordinary day's march, and more if haste is
enjoined. On a fairly level road, such as the hard beach, a native will
walk ten miles easily in two hours and a quarter. It is probably true
that most Europeans in good training could do all these things equally
well in cool weather, if they were barefooted and could reduce their
clothing to a loin-cloth; for having once been shipwrecked at night,
with ten miles of sand in the darkness to cover, when I had given my wet
clothes and shoes to a native to carry, I found that I outpaced my men
easily. But this, of course, was no test, for the cool breeze which was
pleasant to me cut through them like a March east wind, and left them
shivering, starved and miserable.
On the sugar plantations the overseers have a good opportunity of
comparing the strength and endurance of Fijians and East Indian coolies,
and they find that where steady hard work, such as thrashing cane, is
required the coolie is the best labourer, but that the Fijian excels in
work such as unloading punts, or hauling logs, in which great muscular
effort is required, with rests between. This is exactly what one would
expect. In India the man who cannot work steadily must starve; in Fiji
food is so easily come by that a few spurts of labour at planting and
harvest and war time are the normal conditions of life.
A Fijian can hurl a spear and throw a reed into the air farther than a
white man can, and in those feats in which knack is in favour of the
white man, such as throwing the cricket ball, he is probably more than
his equal.
His extraordinary powers of endurance in the water far surpass anything
recorded of Europeans. I have twice talked with people just rescued
after being 48 hours in the water, swimming without support, in both
cases from the capsizing of their canoes in mid-channel. They seemed
little the worse, though they had been without food or drink for two
days in a burning sun and in constant peril of sharks, which had eaten
several of their companions, and their faces were raw, owing to their
continually brushing the salt water out of their eyes. Men suffer more
acutely than women in these cases, because the long immersion in salt
water produces a horrible and painful affection of the male organs.
On the other hand, Fijians seem to be more sensitive to cold and hunger
than Europeans. The average daily weight of roots consumed by a healthy
adult Fijian is from seven to ten pounds, and the stomach is probably
larger than that of a European, and feels hunger sooner. Cold and hunger
tell rapidly upon his buoyant spirits, and make him silent and
depressed. Fijians are heavy sleepers, and dislike being aroused. It is
difficult to induce a commoner to awake his chief at all, and if he
must, he does it by calling "_Iele!_" softly, or scratching at his
sleeping-mats, but never by touching him. He bears deprivation of sleep
less easily than a European, and for this reason he makes a bad sentry.