A SAMPLE OF POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 181 



gentleman, and after some little parley H.B.M. Consul con- 

 sented to go ashore. 



' What's the matter now, Tommy ?' he inquired. 



' Oh !' said the sailor, his voice broken with suppressed 

 emotion, ' she won't have me, sir.' 



' Well, how can I help that ?' was the reply. ' You English 

 people think your consuls can do anything for you make 

 your fortunes, and settle your love affairs. This is really out 

 of my province altogether.' 



' Come and see her do, sir,' implored the lover ; and with 

 his usual good-nature Mr. Thurston consented, and interviewed 

 the Fijian belle as she lazily lay on a bed of mats, gently 

 touching her delicately-shaped feet with a long fan she carried 

 in her hand. One-legged Tommy addressed her passionately 

 in her native tongue with all the Oriental imagery of the 

 Fijians. She made no answer. At last, being somewhat 

 sharply interrogated by Mr. Thurston, she scornfully replied 

 that if she married at all, ' she would prefer a man with two 

 legs.' 



Swiftly changing his language from the softest and most 

 classical Fiji to the most unmitigated Billingsgate, Tommy 

 ' rounded on ' the recent object of his affections, and with a 

 host of unnecessary expletives, asked : ' If she married a man 

 for his legs, why did she not marry a d d centipede, and 

 have done with it ?' 



There is a tolerable road between Vu-ni-wai Levu and Wai- 

 Wai, and several minor streams have to be crossed. The first 

 cocoa-nut tree log bridge I went over was, to put it very 

 mildly, a surprise. We are not all Blondins ; a single log 

 placed some feet above the level of a rapidly-running stream 

 caused in my case some unheroic fears as to my probable fate 

 if I fell over. However, confidence was soon gained, but 



