MORE ABOUT THE FIJIAN OF TO-DAY. ro 7 



he was washed over by a heavy sea. The boys who were with 

 him jumped overboard, remained swimming about in the 

 pitchy darkness for some hours, and were quite overcome with 

 grief at the failure of their efforts to find him. It was pitiful 

 to hear them reproach themselves for not having done more to 

 save him. On the other hand, the awe in which the white 

 man was once held has in great measure diminished. A rob) 

 told me that at one time the Fijians considered the whites 

 gods or immortals ; ' but since,' he added, ' we know you do 

 die and go there 'pointing to Draiba, the Levukan Kensal 

 Green 'now we know you are men like ourselves.' Like the 

 aboriginal races of other countries, they first deemed all 

 papidagi civilisation, arts, and sciences were the results of 

 enchantment; and a staggering blow to their self-confidence 

 was the appearance in Levuka Harbour of a steamer which 

 entered without a stitch of canvas set or any smoke or steam 

 escaping. A steamship is to them a 'fire-ship;' but their 

 wonder as to the doings of the white men has almost entirely 

 ceased. As a Taviuni friend once remarked to me, ' If you 

 were to cut off your head and carry it under your arm the 

 length of Levuka beach, and then fix it on again, you would 

 hardly astonish the Fijians.' We are past wonder, as far as 

 they are concerned. 



The Fijian is naturally cleanly ; he is constantly bathing ; 

 but after he has got himself thoroughly clean he somewhat 

 inconsistently anoints his body with cocoa-nut oil, with a not 

 over-pleasant result in warm weather. 



I found out this cocoa-nut oil fashion of the Fijians in a 

 very practical way. I was landing in Levuka one day from a 

 small boat, but the tide did not enable us to come up to the 

 little pier, which ran out from the shore. Not caring alto- 

 gether to chance the stones and bits of coral with bare feet, I 



