THE SACRED TURTLES OF KADAVU

On the island of Kadavu (pronounced Kandavu) one of the larger islands of the Fiji Group, and some fifty miles by water from the capital city of Suva is the Fijian village of Namuana. Namuana nestles at the foot of a beautiful bay adjacent to the Government Station in Vunisea Harbour. Here, the island of Kadavu narrows down to an isthumus, and by climbing the hill behind Namuana village, one can stand on the saddle and look out to the sea to the south and to the north. Legend says that in the days gone by, the warriors of Kadavu slid their canoes on journey around the east and the west of Kadavu island. The women of Namuana village still preserve a very strange ritual, that of calling turtles from the sea. If you visit Namuana village to see the turtle calling, your schooner anchors in a beautiful bay right under the cliffs of a rocky headland. You land on the beach and then, either sit on the rocks under the bluffs on the beach or climb a rocky tract to a point some 150 or 200 feet up the rock face. Here, you have a splendid view and will find assembled all the maidens of the village of Namuana, singing a strange chant. As they chant, if you look very carefully down into the water of the bay, you will see giant turtles rise one by one to lie on the surface, listening to the music. This is not a fairy tale: it actually does take place and the water in this area is f*******n for the fishing of turtles. Another interesting sideline to this perfomance is that if any member if the nearby village of Nabukalevu is present, then the turtles will not rise to the surface of the bay, and the turtle calling will have to be abandoned. As is usually the case with such strange ceremonies and customs, in Fiji, the turtle calling is based on an ancient legend still passed on from father to son, among the Fijian people of Kadavu