THE FIJI GROUP. 9 



(canoes with outriggers) dotted the surface of the bay, the 

 occupants of which, girls and men, with their hair profusely 

 adorned with gaily-coloured flowers, came aboard with baskets 

 of cocoa-nuts, oranges, and pine-apples for sale ; others had 

 Fijian clubs and curios of all sorts, while model canoes were 

 eagerly purchased by the Australian-bound passengers of the 

 City of Sydney. 



These humble traders were my first Fijian acquaintances, 

 and handsome specimens they were. The men stood nearly 

 six feet in height, of a dark-brown skin, and by no means for- 

 bidding in countenance ; their hair, frizzed like a banister's 

 wig, was also dark brown, and their simple attire was a sulu, 

 or fathom of tappa, a native cloth of spotless white made from 

 the bark of the mulberry-tree, which they wore round the 

 loins ; the women, at any rate in Kandavu, adding a short sort 

 of calico pinafore. Both sexes wore earrings, and some had 

 necklaces of sharks' teeth. They moved about the deck 

 quietly and respectfully, but seemed perfectly at home. On 

 board the City of Sydney was the menagerie attached to the 

 American circus of Messrs. Cooper and Bailey, who were en 

 route for Sydney, and the Fijians were profoundly astonished 

 at the camels, lions, tigers, and elephants they thus beheld for 

 the first time. 



' There's the Star of the South /' said Dr. Brower, a Fiji- 

 bound fellow-traveller; and straining my eyesight I discovered, 

 under the shelter of the land, a little steamboat, evidently 

 taking things very easily. 



' Well !' I rejoined, thinking perhaps she was the harbour- 

 master's steam-tender. 



' Oh, she's our mail-packet !' was the startling reply. ' She's 

 not what you may call a very quick steamer, but it's infinitely 

 better than having two or three nights in a sailing-cutter.' 



