98 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



realised in our new colony, as it is a fact that few cases will be 

 found of anyone, from a lad of twelve years up to an aged man, 

 who has not his own plot of cultivation each year ; and in some 

 places even the women have their own particular gardens. How 

 different is this prosaic record of facts from the commonly 

 received accounts of writers whose experience of the great South 

 Sea has been only one of pleasure or excitement ! The articles 

 the Fijians most largely produce are yams, bananas, masi which 

 has already been referred to sugar-cane, arrowroot, tobacco, 

 and angona, the root from which kava, is manufactured. Dalo 

 or taro is also extensively cultivated by the natives ; there are 

 two ways of treating this vegetable : one is planted on the dry 

 land, and the other, and by far the most important, is grown in 

 the water. 



The implements of cultivation used by the Fijians consist of 

 an axe and knife for [cleaving purposes, and the universal 

 digging-stick (doko), for dealing with the soil. Some Europeans 

 have considered this doko to give a better cultivation than the 

 plough ; and it is certain that no foreign native yet introduced 

 into Fiji can effectually compete with a Fijian in the use of his 

 doko. 



Whilst each individual attends to his plot or plots of cultiva- 

 tion, whatever they may be, yet in the spring or planting 

 season they work in communities. Thus a whole town or 

 village will be employed at one time in the garden of one indi- 

 vidual. Commencing with a mataqali, they will go through the 

 land of every individual until the whole' of the inhabitants' 

 gardens are complete. This common helping not unfrequently 

 extends to the seed to be planted, as well as the digging and 

 working of the soil ; all that is required of the actual owner 

 being that he furnish a plentiful supply of good provision for 

 the day. 



