A LITTLE ' BLOW THE CANDLE-NUT. 189 



Dickens struck a familiar key when he made Mr. Pickwick's 

 lawyer say : ' I wonder what the foreman of the jury had for 

 breakfast ?' A badly cooked meal, badly served, and worse 

 digested, is a wretched preparation for work or pleasure of any 

 sort, and I don't believe that the evening after ' the blow ' at 

 Wai- Wai would have been found either instructive or amusing 

 had not all of us dined well. 



We had soup and turkey, goat cutlets and salads, curry and 

 pine-apples. To our good appetites it was a feast worthy of 

 Lucullus ; after which we sauntered into the veranda. 



The moon was full, and the bay shone under its rays like 

 burnished silver, to which the dark foliage of the opposite 

 coast formed a most effective contrast. The Fijian is said to 

 be hopelessly insensible to the beauties of the surrounding 

 scenery, and he would barter all the loveliness of his group 

 for an extra dish of yams. As in the case of malua, the 

 Anglo-Saxon has been decidedly influenced by the Fijian in 

 this particular. Throughout the whole of the Pacific, if you 

 remark to any settler on the beauty of the scenery, he gene- 

 rally stares as if you Avere a weak-minded fellow, who ought 

 to be relegated out of the busy world. 



Intermixed with Polynesian yarns (no Pacific settler can be 

 five minutes in your company without some particularly good 

 story being told), the conversation at Wai- Wai was very interest- 

 ing, and sometimes scientific. I learned that evening a great 

 deal about candle-nuts (Aleurites Iriloba, or more correctlv, 

 Aleurites molacanna). They are the fruit of the Laud tree, 

 which is one of considerable size, and conspicuous in the 

 Oceanic forests from the fine white powder which covers its 

 leaves and young shoots, but which is easily rubbed off. As 

 the fruit matures, the shell hardens and becomes covered with 

 a chalky sort of coat, and the kernel closely adheres to the 



