OILS AND VEGETABLE FAT. 287 



the trunk, has occasionally been witnessed in Fiji ; and 

 two interesting instances of it are given in Williams's 

 ' Fiji and the Fijians,' where one of the trees is described 

 with five branches. In Samoa Mr. W. Pritchard saw a 

 tree with two heads, regarded with just pride by the 

 natives who possessed it, and cut down during a war by 

 their enemies. As in other parts of Polynesia, the trunk 

 is made into small canoes, or supplies materials for 

 building and fencing ; stockades of it are impenetrable 

 to bullets. The leaves are made into different kinds of 

 mats and baskets ; yam houses are occasionally thatched 

 with them, but these roofs do not last much longer 

 than a year. The spathe enclosing the flowers is used 

 for torches; the fibres surrounding the nut are made 

 into " sinnet," used for fastenings of all kinds. The 

 young flesh is delicious eating, and the "water" con- 

 tained in the nuts a refreshing drink, which, as the 

 fruit advances, undergoes a gradual change, for all of 

 which there are distinctive names. New-comers soon 

 fix upon a certain stage most agreeable to their palate, 

 and on indicating it to the natives they will readily pick 

 it out by knocking with their fingers on the outside of 

 either the husked or the unhusked nut, and be guided 

 by the sound. This process requires long practice, and 

 though I tried hard to learn at least the sound of that 

 stage I preferred, I did not succeed in accomplishing it. 

 The ripe nuts are grated and used for puddings, or given 

 to fowls and pigs. Some persons have a predilection 

 for nuts when just in the act of germinating a taste 

 which the Asiatic shares in eating the young palmyras, 

 and the African in consuming the seedlings of the 



