MEKE-MEKES. 1 1 1 



subjected to this decoration. The Fijians say that this 

 peculiarity of the Tongans arose from a blunder on the part of 

 a Tongan chief jvho was chanting a well-known formula, 

 * Tattoo the women, and not the men ;' his foot stumbled, and, 

 hardly knowing what he did, he altered the refrain to ' Tattoo 

 the men, and not the women.' 



The softness and flow of the Fijian language will at once 

 strike the traveller. It is evidently a branch of the Polynesian- 

 Malay or Oceanic type. I made no great study of it, as I 

 generally travelled in the company of English-speaking settlers 

 or half-castes, who were thoroughly at home with our tongue. 

 Of course, for a planter it is absolutely necessary to pick up 

 something of Fijian, though I met with many who, at any rate 

 two years since, knew little more than I did. 



In many respects it is a very full language, inasmuch as there 

 are distinctive names for every shrub and plant which grows ; 

 there are names for the various kinds of yams, of which the 

 natives enumerate fifty ; and there are Fijian words which are 

 capable of affording expression to the most delicate subtleties 

 of thought. There are very many dialects ; in fact, the Fijian 

 of the leeward groups can only make himself understood with 

 some little difficulty in Vanua Levu or other of the windward 

 islands. It is said there are seven distinct dialects, the most 

 classic being that of Bau, into which the Testaments and 

 prayer-books of the missionaries have been translated. 



There is a good grammar and dictionary published, and I 

 should say it is not at all a difficult language to pick up. 

 The vowels are pronounced as in Italian, and the sound of m 

 always comes before b, and the c is pronounced as the exact 

 equivalent of our th, so difficult for the continental foreigner to 

 acquire. The n has always d before it, and g has the sound of 

 ng. It seemed to me a great pity that the missionaries did 



