ii2 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



not base their labours more phonetically. For instance, the 

 correct pronunciation of the word Bau (the native capital) 

 is really Mbaw. Again, there is a pleasant suburb to the north 

 of Levuka, where the cricket-matches come off, written 

 Vagadace ; it is pronounced Vagadally. ( What is that f is in 

 Fijian A cava ogo, and is pronounced athava ongo. Could not 

 the words have been spelt as pronounced ? It may be added 

 that the group is called Viti in the leeward, and Fiji in the 

 windward islands. 



The manufacture of the club is a serious matter, the shapes 

 of these instruments being as varied as the tastes of the owners. 

 Most of them are made at home, and frequently the club of a 

 Fijian aristocrat will have occupied months of patient toil. In 

 some the shape is imparted whilst the tree is growing. A 

 chief's club is carefully inlaid with ivory, adorned with human 

 teeth and elaborate carving. A similar diversity and elabora- 

 tion of carving and decoration is shown also in their spear-heads 

 and handles. 



Bows are made of the pendent shoots of the mangrove-tree ; 

 the arrows used for killing fish have several barbed points. 

 The manufacture of fancy dishes and bowls forms an important 

 branch of industry, and the natives display great ingenuity in 

 carving and shaping these articles. Formerly, the making of 

 cannibal forks was a somewhat extensive industry, but it has 

 of late years happily declined ; and, like everything else in this 

 nineteenth century, even cannibal relics are getting vulgarised, 

 and, so to speak, adulterated; and the honest 'beachcomber' 

 of the Fiji provinces is not at all above manufacturing relics for 

 Levuka, Sydney, or 'home.' The trade in 'curios' is a very 

 important one all over the Pacific, and there are several shops 

 in Levuka devoted almost entirely to their sale. Curios fetch 

 bigger prices at Levuka than they do in London ; and the 



