62 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



nations. Hair-dressers (vu-ni-ulu) are numerous, and find constant 

 employment in arranging the matted mass which covers the heads of 

 the chiefs. The manufacture of pottery is a business followed only 

 by women, who are termed lewa tunindau. 



Between the different towns belonging to the same state, as well as 

 between the different states and islands of the group, a continual 

 traffic is maintained. Some articles of food can only be produced in 

 certain districts ; other places are famed for particular manufactures. 

 The interchange of these articles creates an active commerce, which, 

 next to war, is the favourite business of the Feejeeans, who are no 

 less covetous than bloodthirsty. In the prosecution of this traffic, the 

 necessity of a medium of exchange has been perceived and supplied, 

 offering another evidence of the advance which this people has made 

 in civilization. This medium is furnished by the teeth of the whale, 

 and is the chief cause of the high factitious value which is given to 

 them. In former times, the teeth were obtained from whales which 

 were stranded on the numerous reefs in and about the group. At 

 present they are procured from whalers, who find in them a cheap 

 and convenient means of supplying their vessels with provisions. 

 The number lately brought in has somewhat lowered their value, but 

 a single tooth will still purchase a thousand yams, and with fifty a 

 man is considered wealthy. As these teeth (called by the natives 

 tambua] are comparatively light, will not lose by attrition, and may 

 be cut into handsome ornaments, they have many of the advantages 

 of the precious metals, and are no doubt as good a substitute as could 

 be found for them in the islands. 



A large proportion of the commerce of the group is carried on by 

 the Levuka people, who are said to be of Tongan descent. These 

 were the original inhabitants of the island of Mbau, many generations 

 back. While most of their warriors were absent on a trading voyage 

 to Lakemba, a party from the island of Moturiki made a descent upon 

 Mbau, and having obtained possession of it, expelled the former occu- 

 pants entirely. The Kai-Levuka are now a sort of " broken clan," 

 living scattered about among the various islands, and employed by 

 the chiefs as sailors and traders. They have a chief of their own, 

 who resides on the island of Lakemba, but he is not looked upon by 

 the Feejeeans as belonging to the real aristocracy of the islands. 

 When a Levuka man visits Mbau he is still treated with the best of 

 every thing, as a sort of acknowledgment of his just right to the soil. 

 This people, also, and those of Kamba, a promontory of Viti-levu, 



