140 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



other variety which supplies the shells. Five or six varieties 

 of sea-slugs are dried and sent vid Sydney to China, for the 

 delectation of the Celestials. 



Horses were introduced in the year 1851, and were the 

 cause of a panic among the natives when they first beheld 

 them with their riders. The advent of these quadrupeds 

 caused as much astonishment as that of a centaur would do 

 here. 



The existing animals all being imported, their names in the 

 Fijian language indicate to the traveller the nationality of the 

 people to whom the introduction is due.* For instance, a 

 horse is to them orsee; a dog, coolie (evidently from collie) ; an 

 ox or cow, bule-ma-lcau, pronounced bulemacow; while a sheep is 

 simply se-epi, the h being unpronounceable by the Fijians. I 

 give the sounds of the words from memory, and as to spelling 

 rely much on the forbearance of Fijian scholars. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



A VERY SUGGESTIVE CHAPTER. 



SIR ARTHUR GORDON, in his lecture on Fiji, delivered before 

 the Royal Colonial Institute, said : 



' I believe Fiji to be an admirable field for the investment 

 of large capital. . . . After a careful investigation extending 

 over more than a year, it has been reported to me by most 

 competent and most cautious scientific authority, that the 



* I am told, by the way, that in parts of Japan the name of a dog is 

 ' comeer,' the repeated admonition of ' come here ' by Englishmen and 

 others having got the animal the name. 



