132 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



In some of the islands a favourite way of self-adornment is 

 to slash the arms and legs with broken glass, the scars coming 

 out as crosses or the like. Children are often treated in this 

 way, and sometimes injure themselves on their own account. 

 The natives of the Southern Seas certainly do not feel pain as 

 we do. 



The native medicine-men used to study the art of killing as 

 well as curing. The flora of Fiji abounds with poisonous 

 plants, but the knowledge of their properties is confined to a 

 few families of the native professional men. The latter are 

 looked upon with a certain amount of fear, and are generally 

 attached to the person of a chief as body-guards and ministers 

 of his vengeance. They used to be seen, says Mr. Litton 

 Forbes, lounging one day in the neighbourhood of some village 

 on the next they disappeared. Soon afterwards the chief 

 or some other head-man drooped, and died suddenly under 

 unusual circumstances. No inquiries were made and no ques- 

 tions asked, but perhaps within a week or two the dead man's 

 wife would join the harem of the superior chief. The prudent 

 said little on such occasions, lest a similar fate should befall 

 themselves. 



As regards some of the medicinal plants, they are perhaps 

 more difficult to find out than the poisonous ones used for illegal 

 purposes. Those who profess to be acquainted with their pro- 

 perties often women, and answering to our herbalists cannot 

 be tempted by any presents to disclose secrets which prove 

 to them a lucrative source of income for life. It is only the 

 virtues of commonly known plants that a casual inquirer has 

 any chance of learning. The leaves of the kura (Morinda 

 citrifolia, Linn.), a middle-sized tree, with shining leaves and 

 white flowers, not unlike those of the coffee shrub, are heated 

 by passing them over flame, and their juice squeezed into 



