1 90 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



shell. Each nut weighs about 160 or 170 grains. The adher- 

 ence of the nut to the hard shell has been the difficulty in 

 dealing commercially with the candle-nut, as at present there 

 is no effective machine for separating them, and each nut has 

 to be shelled separately, of course at great expense to the 

 planter or merchant. They are called candle-nuts because in 

 Fiji, Hawaiian Islands, and Tahiti the kernels, threaded on a 

 split bit of cane or mid-rib of a palm leaf, are occasionally 

 used as a substitute for candles, and in some places they use 

 them when fishing at night. From burnt shells they make a 

 rude sort of lamp-black, which in Tahiti is used for tattooing, 

 and in Fiji for putting on ' war paint,' and printing patterns 

 on tappa, or native cloth. In some parts of Fiji, as soon as a 

 baby is born the nurse rushes to the tree, gathers a fresh fruit, 

 and squeezes the oil into the infant's throat to enable it to 

 announce its arrival more effectually. 



These nuts are common not only in the Pacific but in 

 Central America, India, the islands of the Indian Ocean and 

 Amboyna (one of the Moluccas). They are eatable, but are 

 said to intoxicate if taken in any quantity. The taste is like 

 that of a walnuty almond, and they are strongly aperient. By 

 twenty horse-power pressure sixty per cent, of oil can be 

 extracted, and this is said to be equal to the very finest rape. 



From maize and candle-nuts and coffee-growing we drifted 

 back to story-telling, and one of poor Mr. Black's yarns was 

 ' The Battle of the Beach,' which I translate from his charac- 

 teristic local idiom : 



About a year before annexation, the King's residence at 

 N asova was approached by a mob of whites with a petition, or 

 rather a demand, for the consideration of his Majesty. Mr. 

 Woods was informing the spokesman of the crowd that the 

 paper would be received, but must not be read out in public, 



