FEEJEE ISLANDS FEITH 113 them, and the principal men of the village often make the bure their sleeping place. When a chief wishes to propitiate a deity he offers a great quantity of food in his temple, and inviting his friends consumes it in a gen- eral feast. The Feejeean language belongs to the Oceanic or Malayo-Polynesian type. The letters may be easily represented with the Eng- lish alphabet, omitting h, x, and z. It has the same nine parts of speech as the English. The articles are Ico or 0, koi or oi, a or na, and ai or nai. All adjectives are used as abstract nouns, as mnaka, good, and also goodness ; but the verbs are the most fruitful source of nouns. All nouns used without taganne, a male, or alewa, a female, are of common gender; also nouns of relationship, as luvena, a son or daughter, watina, a husband or wife. The num- ber of nouns is shown by prefixing numerals, or by the personal pronoun used in relation to them. There are some nouns to express cer- tain things by tens, hundreds, and thousands only. Case is shown by particles preceding the nouns. Valca is a particle much used ; it changes nouns into adjectives, as vuravura, the world, vafcavuravura, like the world ; it changes adjectives into adverbs, as mnaka^ good, vakvinaka, well; with nouns it ex- presses the possession of the thing, as vale, a house, vakavale, having a house ; and it changes adjectives into verbs, and intransitive into transitive verbs. Some verbs have differ- ent terminations when affecting different ob- jects, as sokota na vanua, to sail to land, solco- talca na waga, to sail the canoe. There are many reduplicated forms of verbs. Repetition of words is used to a great extent, and implies either frequency or intensity : sa vosa vosa vosa, talk, talk, talk, means always talking. Prepo- sitions and conjunctions are few, but interjec- tions are very numerous. Expletives, or orna- mental particles, abound. Feejeean syntax is extremely simple. A proper accentuation is also very easily obtained. The accent is in- variably on the last syllable, or last but one. A different quantity often alters the sense of a Feejeean word. The Feejee group, which now contains, exclusive of coral islets, an area of about 5,500 square miles of dry land, is be- lieved to have spread at the period when the corals began to grow over at least 15,000 square miles. Viti Levu and Vanua Levu are sup- posed to have formed a single island, which subsidence has separated by inundating the low intermediate area. The natives present a mixture of Papuan and Polynesian characters. Ethnology offers nothing of importance con- cerning them, for the Papuan race is one of the least known sections of mankind. The na- tives know nothing of former immigrations ; they had no intercourse with other nations, except on casual visits, and they believe that they never occupied any country but the one where they now dwell. Even among the many independent states in the group there is little social and commercial communication, and no political connection. Intestine quarrels and wars make up the history of the Feejees. The Dutch navigator Tasman saw the group on Feb. 6, 1643, and called it Prince William's islands, but effected no landing. On May 4, 1789, they were seen by Lieut. William Bligh, in his long and perilous boat voyage after being turned adrift from the Bounty, who gave them his own name. The first settlement by Euro- peans was made by a party of escaped convicts from New South Wales in 1804. The Amer- ican exploring expedition under Lieut. Wilkes, 1838-'42, first excited the interest of civilized nations in the Feejee islands. The first British consul was appointed in 1858, and since then negotiations have been pending to put the group under the English government, on the suggestion of King Thakombau. But he was never king of Feejee, and he has long since lost the hold he formerly had upon the people and land. His reason for desiring to place the isl- ands under British rule seems to have been merely to escape a claim on the part of an American citizen named Williams, whose house was accidentally burned, and who demanded an enormous sum for " destruction and spolia- tion of property." In 1869, 70 white residents petitioned the United States government to as- sume the dominion or protectorate of the isl- ands. The white population having increased, a regular government was established in 1871, and a constitution adopted. This was subse- quently abolished, and the government relapsed into barbarism. In 1874, partly owing to the wretched state of the finances, the sovereignty of Feejee was accepted by Great Britain. In 1835 two Wesleyan missionaries made the first attempt to introduce Christianity in Feejee; missionaries of other sects followed ; and after the usual history of massacres and persecutions, the churches report a most wonderful suc- cess. There are said to be more than 900 chapels and preaching places, 1,500 day schools, a theological institute, and more than 100,000 attendants on public worship. See Wilkes's " United States Exploring Expedition around the World" (New York, 1856); Williams and Calvert's "Fiji and the Fijians" (London, 1858; revised ed., 1870); Mrs. Smythe's "Ten Months in the Fiji Islands" (London, 1864); the Rev. J. E. Wood's " Uncivilized Races of the World " (Hartford, 1870) ; and David Ha- zlewood's "Fijian aild English Dictionary," containing brief hints on native customs, &c. (London, 1872). FEHMARN. See FEMEEN. FEHMGERICHTE. See VEHMIO COUETS. FEITH, Rhijnvis, a Dutch poet, born at Zwolle, Feb. 7, 1753, died there, Feb. 8, 1824. He completed his studies at Leyden in 1770, when he returned to his native town, where he spent the rest of his life in literary pursuits, holding at the same time an office in connec- tion with the admiralty and that of burgo- master. His best lyrical productions are his Oden en gedichten (4 vols., Amsterdam, 1796-
