FIJI ISLANDS. 



313 



prepared by an old woman, in Hawai, Sandwich Islands, as of 

 extra strength, make an Englishman intoxicated within ten 

 minutes of the time at which it was drunk. 



The effects are very like those of alcohol, in that the gait 

 becomes very unsteady, and the slightest touch sends the person 

 affected off his balance. An elation of spirits is produced also, 

 but apparently no drowsiness. 



At Bureta I was able to buy, for sixpence each, a dozen stone 

 Adzes, such as were used for canoe making in the Fijian group, 

 before iron implements were imported. The adze blades are of 

 basalt. They are bound to the handles with twisted or plaited 

 cocoanut fibre. Many of these were still mounted on their 



FIJIAN STONE ADZES. 



Showing two methods in which the blades are mounted. 



handles, and are now used by the people who have not parted 

 with them, for cracking nuts. For an exactly similar adze I had 

 paid six shillings in Levuka, and clubs which here were to be 

 bought for a shilling, cost a dollar on the other side of the ridge. 

 It is wonderful how little knowledge has penetrated as yet from 

 Levuka to Bureta, so short a distance off. The natives could 

 not understand a half-crown, nor could they be induced to give 

 four sixpences for a florin. Threepenny-bits they would not 

 take at all. " Sixpenny " and shilling they knew well. The 



