ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF FIJI. 137 



the island years ago by the Catholic missionaries, and both 

 grow wild all over the low lands. Another remarkable 

 remedy has recently been introduced from Fiji, and is now 

 well known under the name of ' Tonga.' A friend of mine 

 discovered that a certain mixture of native medicines wonder- 

 fully relieved him from neuralgia, and after successfully curing 

 himself, he sent the preparation over to a firm of manufacturing 

 chemists in England, Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, who named 

 it ' Tonga,' and physicians have declared it to possess the 

 qualities my friend claims for it. 



All Polynesia is in fact a great drug-producing country, but 

 so reticent are the natives, that it is difficult even on the spot 

 to ascertain the exact truth in regard to drug plants. It 

 may be stated in this regard that the native way of preparing 

 medicine is to break or cut up the herbs to be used into very 

 small pieces, and then to tie them in a piece of grass cloth and 

 to soak the packet in a drinking vessel of water for a while, 

 and so make an infusion which is then drunk as a 

 dose. 



Nearly all the animals now thriving are of imported origin. 

 There are about a hundred varieties of the lizard, some of 

 them very beautifully marked, and the centipede flourishes 

 too much to be altogether agreeable. There is a lizard which 

 inhabits trees (Choroscartes fasdatus) ; it is of a beautiful green 

 colour, and about two feet in length. There are snakes in 

 nearly all the islands, averaging three feet in length, but they 

 are perfectly harmless. 



Birds are plentiful, and many varieties, both of the edible 

 and ornamental kinds, exist, the principal being the wild-duck, 

 pigeon, teal, bittern, hawk, owl, and various kinds of paroquets 

 of great beauty and richness of plumage. There are two 

 varieties of wild-duck, the red and black, or the Ngandamu 



