Shouldst thou forsake me, sleep would forever forsake me. 
     Shouldst thou enfold another in thine arms,
     All food would be to me as the bitter root of the via. 
     The world to me would become utterly joyless
     Without thee, my handsome, slender waisted,
     Strong-shouldered, pillar-necked lad.”

SERENADES AND PROPOSALS

At the time when Williams studied the Fijians, their poetry consisted of dirges, serenades, wake-songs, war-songs, and hymns for the dance (99).  Of love-songs addressed to individuals he says nothing.  The serenades do not come under that head, since, as he says (140), they are practised at night “by companies of men and women”—­which takes all the romance out of them.  One detail of the romance of courtship had, however, been introduced even in his time, through European influence.  “Popping the question” is, he says, of recent date, “and though for the most part done by the men, yet the women do not hesitate to adopt the same course when so inclined.”  No violent individual preference seems to be shown.  The following is a specimen of a man’s proposal.

Simioni Wang Ravou, wishing to bring the woman he wanted to a decision, remarked to her, in the hearing of several other persons: 

“I do not wish to have you because you are a good-looking woman; that you are not.  But a woman is like a necklace of flowers—­pleasant to the eye and grateful to the smell:  but such a necklace does not long continue attractive; beautiful as it is one day, the next it fades and loses its scent.  Yet a pretty necklace tempts one to ask for it, but, if refused no one will often repeat his request.  If you love me, I love you; but if not, neither do I love you:  let it be a settled thing” (150).

SUICIDES AND BACHELORS

Hearts are not likely to be broken by a refusal under such circumstances, which bears out Williams’s remark (148) that no distinctive preference is apparent among these men and women.  Under such circumstances it may appear strange that some widowers should commit suicide upon the death of a wife, as Seernan assures us they do (193).  Does not this indicate deep feeling?  Not in a savage.  In all countries suicide is usually a sign of a weak intellect rather than of strong feelings, and especially is this the case among the lower races, where both men and women are apt to commit suicide in a moment of excitement, often for the most trivial cause, as we shall see in the next chapter.  Williams tells us (106) of a chief on Thithia who was addressed disrespectfully by a younger brother and who, rather than live to have the insult made the topic of common talk, loaded his musket, placed the muzzle at his breast, and pushing the trigger with his toe, shot himself through the heart.  He knew a similar case on Vanua Levu.