136 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



ture of the Fijis, as cocoa-nut oil does during the cool season. 

 It is of a greenish tinge, and very little of it will impart its 

 hue to a whole cask of cocoa-nut oil. Its commercial value is 

 only partially known in the Fijis, and was found out accident- 

 ally. Amongst the contributions in cocoa-nut oil which the 

 natives furnish towards the support of the Wesleyan missions, 

 some dUo oil had been poured, which, on arriving at Sydney, 

 was rejected by the broker, who purchased the other oil, on 

 account of its greenish tinge and strange appearance. On 

 being shown to others, a chemist, recognising it as the bitter 

 oil of India, purchased it at the rate of .60 per ton ; and he 

 must have made a good profit on it, as the article fetches 

 90 a ton. In order to extract the oil, the round fruit is 

 allowed to drop in its outer fleshy covering, and rot on the 

 ground. The remaining portion, consisting of a shell, some- 

 what of the consistency of that of a hen's egg, and enclosing 

 the kernel, is baked on hot stones in the same way that Poly- 

 nesian meat and vegetables are. The shell is then broken, and 

 the kernels pounded between stones. If the quantity be 

 small, the macerated mass is placed in the fibres of the vim 

 (Hibiscus tiliaceus and tricuspis), and forced by the hand to 

 yield up its oily contents ; if large, a rude level press is con- 

 structed by placing a boom horizontally between two cocoa- 

 nut trees, and appending to this perpendicularly the fibres of 

 the van. After the macerated kernels have been placed in 

 the midst, a pole is made fast to the lower end of the fibres, 

 and two men, taking hold of its end, twist the contrivance 

 round and round, till the oil, collecting into a wooden bowl 

 placed underneath, has been extracted. Of course the pressure 

 thus brought to bear upon the pounded kernels is not suf- 

 ficiently great to express the whole of the oil, and there is 

 still much waste. Ipecacuanha, with senna, was introduced into 



