280 THE PLANT WORLD 



American name (Kamote or Kamuti). Plows are used in cultivating 

 rice and in low regions where the soil is deep enough. On the viesa or 

 plateau, where the soil is too thin and the substratum of coral rock too 

 hard for plows, the only implement is the fozino, or fusino, a kind of 

 thrust-hoe, with a broad transverse blade fixed T-like on the end of a 

 long handle, the stem of the T forming a socket for the handle and one 

 arm of the letter being shorter than the other. The short arm is used 

 for cutting small bushes or thick-stemmed plants which might break off 

 the longer arm on account of its greater leverage. It is surprising how 

 much can be accomplished with this simple tool in the hands of a 

 Chamorro. As whole families work together, miniature fusinos are 

 sometimes made for the little children. When engaged in weeding a 

 corn-field a family seems to be enjoying a merry-making rather than 

 performing an irksome task. 



We had now passed through Sinahaiia, a small inland village, with 

 its houses embowered in coffee-bushes, and had climbed the hill beyond 

 it. Here we were met by Baza's boy, with a one-horned cow, saddled 

 and bridled for me to ride. The bridle was in reality only a slender rope 

 of "Pago" fibre ^Hibisais tiliaceics), coiled many times about the base 

 of the horns, and then attached by a slipnoose to a gromet, or ring of 

 fibre, through the septum of the nose. I was soon on the animal's back 

 and was given a switch to urge her onward ; but I felt reluctant to beat 

 a female, and I could not help thinking of Stevenson's experience with 

 Modestine in his " Travels with a Donkey." I could not brutalize this 

 innocent creature, but let her go at her own pace. At first I did not 

 know how to steer her and I let the boy take her in tow by the line ; but 

 after having passed several natives, who saluted me in a most respectful 

 manner, but in whose eyes I thought I detected a shade of amusement, 

 I determined to navigate on my own hook. Baza passed the line over 

 the stub of the animal's left horn, and I soon found that she would go to 

 the left in answer to a gentle pull and to the right in obedience to a jerk. 



The road now led across a depression between two hills, where there 

 was a small lake. Here there were many screw-pines (^Pandanus) and a 

 clump of Cordyline terminalis. The latter is the sacred " Ki " of the 

 Hawaiians, a tall liliaceous plant with reddish or green leaves, which 

 they plant about the graves of their dead as a protection from evil spirits. 

 They also use its leaves for wrapping fish and make an alcoholic drink of 

 its root. In Samoa, where it is called " Ti, " the natives make their 

 fringe-like skirts (" titi") of its leaves. It was introduced into Guam 

 after the coming of the Spaniards and has no name in the vernacular of 

 the island, the natives calling it Bastoii de San Jose, or "St. Joseph's 

 staff." It is of wide distribution, and it is strange that it did not find 

 its way to Guam before the discovery, like other Oceanic plants. 



