306 FLORA VITIENSIS. 
The staple food is the same all over Polynesia, being derived, with the total exclusion of all grain and 
pulse, from the Yam, the Taro, the Banana, the Plaintain, the Breadfruit, and the Cocoa-nut; but the 
bulk of it is furnished, in the different islands, by only one of these plants. In the Hawaiian group the 
Taro takes the lead, whilst the Cocoa-nut is looked upon as a delicacy, of which the women were formerly 
altogether deprived. In some of the smaller coral islands the inhabitants live almost entirely upon Cocoa- 
nuts. The Samoans place the Breadfruit at the head of the list. Again, the Fijians think more of the 
Yam than of the others, though all the other plants just mentioned grow in their islands in the greatest 
perfection and in an endless number of: varieties. A striking proof of how much the Yam engages their 
attention is furnished by the fact of its cultivation and ripening season being made the foundation of 
their calendar; and that only such of the eleven months, into which their year is divided, bear no names 
indicative of it, in which the crop requires no particular attention, or has been safely housed. A version 
of this calendar has been published by Wilkes in ‘ The Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedi- 
tion,’ and is placed in juxtaposition with one dictated to me by an intelligent Bauan chief, and the con- 
sular interpreter, Mr. Charles Wise. The names given by me, as well as their succession, do not quite 
agree with those given by Wilkes. This discrepancy is partly explained by Wilkes having taken down his 
list from the lips of Europeans imperfectly versed in Fijian, and by his adopting a loose way of spelling. 
The names of the months may also be different in different parts of the group. The subject, however, re- 
quires Still further investigation. If, as has been averred, the Fijians invariably commenced the months 
with the appearance of the new moon, there would soon have been a vast difference between the lunar and 
the solar year. To guard against the irregularity that would thus have been introduced into the seasons, 
and to make the lunar year correspond with the solar, it would have been necessary either to intercalate 
a moon after every thirty-sixth moon, or to allow a greater period of time for one of the eleven months 
into which the Fijian year is divided. The latter seems to have been effected by the Vula i werewere 
(clearing month). Hazelwood (‘Fijian and English Dictionary,’ Viwa, 1850, p. 180) allows four months, 
May, June, July, and August, for it; but this cannot be correct, as it would i range the others. By re- 
stricting it to two or thereabouts, June and July, a proper arrangement is effected. I place the Vula i 
werewere first in my list instead of the month answering to January, because it is the commencement 
of the agricultural operations and natural phenomena upon which the calendar is based. 
Fijian Calendar, — 
ACCORDING TO SEEMANN. ACCORDING TO WILKES. 
1. Vula i werewere = June, July, clearing month; 1. Vulai were were, weeding month, 
when the land is cleared of trees and weeds. . 
2. Vula i cukicuki = August; when the yam-fields 2. Vulai lou lou, digging ground and planting. 
are dug and planted. 
3. Vula i vavakadi = September; putting reeds to 8. Vulai Kawawaka. 
Yams to enable them to climb up. 
4. Vula i Balolo lailai = October; when the Balolo 4. Bololo vava Konde. 
(Palolo viridis, J. E. Gray), a remarkable An- 
nelidan first makes its appearance in small 
numbers. 
5. Vulai Balolo levu = November; when the Balolo 5. Bololo lieb 
(Palolo viridis, J. E. Gray), is seen in great 
numbers; the 25th of November generally 
is the day when most of these animals are 
caught. 
6. Vula i nuga lailai = December; a fish called .6. Numa lieb, or Nuga lailai. 
* nuqa " comes in in isólated numbers. : 
7. Vula + nuga levu = January; when the nuqa 7. Vulai songa sou tombe sou, or Nuga levu; reed 
" fish arrives in great numbers. blossoms. : 
8. Vula ni sevu = February ; when offerings of the 8. Vulai songa sou seselieb, build Yam-houses. 
first-dug Yams (ai sevu) are made to the 
priests. vi 
9. Vula i Kelikeli = March; digging up Yams and 9. Vulai Matua, or Endoye doye; Yams ripe. 
storing them in sheds. (N.B.—Vulai Endoye doye probably is meant 
for Vula i doi; the Doi is a tree [Alphitonia 
à : : zizyphoides, A. Gray ].—B. Seemann.) 
10. Fula i gasau = April; reeds (gasau) begin to | 10. Pulai mbota mbota. 
sprout out afresh. 
11. Vula i doi = May; the Doi (Alphitonia zizy- 11. Vulai kelekele, or Vulai mayo mayo; digging 
phoides, A. Gray), a tree plentiful in Fiji Yams, PUE 
. flowers. 
a 
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