Chap, xiii.l A MISSIONARY MEETING. 281; 



their waists, mostly a combination of the yellow and red Panda- 

 nus leaf strips and the black fibrous girdles of the fungus 

 {Rhizomorpha). Most of them had also fringes of Rhizomorpha 

 just below the knee, often with beads strung upon them. All 

 had their bodies well covered with cocoanut oil, and their hair 

 trimmed with great care. 



By the time the first dance was over, there was a dense 

 concourse of spectators round the Green. The missionary 

 arrived, a table was set out under a tree opposite the chief's 

 house, and three native teachers, two of them Tongan men, sat 

 behind it to receive the money. The inhabitants of the various 

 villages and smaller districts now advanced in separate troops, 

 walking up in single file to the table and throwing down, each 

 man or woman, their contributions upon it, with as loud a 

 rattle as possible. 



As each contribution fell, the three teachers and some of the 

 members of a further large body of teachers from the college, 

 who were squatting close by, shouted, " Vinaka, vinaka " 

 (slowly), " Vinaka, vinaka, vinaka " (quickly), which means 

 "good, good," or " hear, hear." Many bystanders joined in the 

 applause. The money consisted of all sorts of silver coins, and 

 a very few -copper ones, and over ^100 must have been 

 collected in coin. 



The people of the various villages, and the districts subject 

 to their chiefs, spend many months in preparing dances for this 

 yearly occasion, and they vie with one another in the splen- 

 dour and perfection of the performance, h.% each band came 

 up and made its contribution, a part or the whole of it at once 

 proceeded to perform the prepared dance, and when this was 

 over another party approached the table, and so on. 



The people as they filed up to the table formed a wonderful 

 spectacle. The girls were most of them without coverings to 

 their breasts, but the upper parts of their bodies were literally 

 running with cocoanut oil, and glistened in the sun. The men 

 and boys were painted in all imaginable ways, with three colours, 

 red, black, and blue. There were Wesleyans with face and body 

 all red, others with them all blackened soot black, others with 

 one half the face red, the other black. Some had the face red 

 and the body black, and vice versa. Some were spotted all over 

 with red and black. Some had black spectacles painted round 

 the eyes. Some had a black forehead and red chin. Some 

 were blue spotted, or striped on the face with blue, and so on 

 to infinite variety. How amused John Wesley would have been 

 if he could have seen his Fijian followers in such guise ! 



For many of the dances the men were most elaborately dressed. 

 They were covered with festoons of the finest gauzy white tappa, 



