00 A MISSION TO VITI. 



this lonely spot, far away from human habitations, where 

 in the depth of night the heathen priest used to con- 

 sult the gods whether it was to be war or peace. If at 

 dawn of day blood was found on the path, more blood 

 was to be spilt ; if no such sign was discoverable, peace 

 was the watchword. Several celebrated groves were de- 

 stroyed on the introduction of Christianity, and a large 

 one near Bau was felled the day after King Cakobau 

 had embraced the new faith, the native carpenters trem- 

 bling when they had to lay the axe on objects so long 

 sacred to them by all the laws of " tabu." They were 

 taught by tradition that when, once upon a time, their 

 forefathers felled some of these trees, and repaired the 

 next day to the spot in order to square the logs, they 

 found the trees again in their proper position, and 

 growing as if no sacrilegious axe had ever laid them 

 low. 



Besides these groves, there were isolated trees which 

 were held sacred ; and in days of yore European saw- 

 yers came occasionally in unpleasant contact with the 

 Fijians when, unknowingly, they had cut them down 

 for timber. Vesi (Afzelia bijuga, A. Gray) and Baka 

 (Ficus sp.) seemed to have been those principally selected. 

 The Vesi furnishes the best timber of the islands, and 

 may, as the most valued tree, have been thought the fit 

 residence of a god ; there is nothing in its appearance 

 that is extraordinary, our beech most nearly resembling 

 it in look. The Baka is not famous for its timber; but 

 its habit is as remarkable as that of the banyan- tree of 

 India, aerial roots propping up its branches and forming 

 a -fantastic maze which no words can describe. At first 



