648 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
Australian blacks it is a mutilation, pure and simple. It is 
performed at puberty as a regular function, and its occasion is 
attended with much ceremony. 
The Fijians, on the other hand, merely resort to their procedure 
for the relief of pain or illness. With them it is a venesection, 
and is in no way associated with any idea of conferring a ¢oga 
virilis upon the sufferer. 
The Australian lays open the urethra and leaves it so once for 
all, whereas the Fijian expects the edges of his incision to re-unite, 
and succeeds in procuring that desirable result, sometimes 
operating upon the same patient three or four times. This is the 
more surprising when the employment of the seton is borne in 
mind. Yet perineal fistula is a thing never met with in the 
Fijians, nor have I been able to hear of any case of cicatricial 
contraction of the urethra in these natives, either after THoKA 
Losi or from any other cause. 
The staff used is made generally from a twig of the tree called 
by the natives /osz/ost. Hence the term employed for the whole 
operation, THOKA LOSI, which means piercing with /osz, or dost 
piercing, Occasionally, however, if the /osz/osi be not at hand, a 
reed is made use of instead, and answers equally well, save that 
its point is less smooth, and requires greater care in passing. The 
cutting instrument is generally a piece of sharp mussel or cockle- 
shell, according to the locality, but occasionally a slip of bamboo. 
Of late years, however, a piece of a broken glass-bottle has been 
often employed, and is to be found in every village. The bast 
from the well-known Vaz tree, hibiscus tiliaceus, forms a convenient 
seton, being both tough and unirritating. 
The Fijian applies no dressing after THoxa Lost, and I am afraid 
T must admit that he does not even wash the parts. This is only 
in accordance with his common custom of dating his convalescence 
from an illness from his first bathing after it. Though some 
urine naturally escapes during the first day or two through the 
wound at the times when urine is (voluntarily) passed, the natural 
opposition of the parts, and their elasticity, seem to be enough to 
ensure the satisfactory completion of the healing process, and the 
avoidance of fistula. 
Another mutilation of the urethra practised by the natives of 
Fiji, bearing a still greater similiarity than THoka Losi to that 
inflicted in Western Australia, but also resorted to only as a 
remedial measure, is the procedure known by the native name of 
TayA NGALENGALE. It consists in incising the urethra at its 
meatus to a point just behind the freenum preputi, including 
division of its artery. This is allowed to bleed to an extent 
varying from a mussel shellful to a cocoanut shellful (which 
means the half of a cocoanut-shell used as a cup), that is to say, 
from half an ounce to half a pint. 
