290 A MISSION TO VITI. 



arrowroot has become an article of foreign demand, it 

 has been pointed out to the natives that the impurities 

 imparting a greyish colour to the production, caused 

 partly by not peeling the tubers previous to rasping 

 them, partly by not washing the sediment a sufficient 

 number of times, must be removed in order to raise the 

 marketable value of the article. When a satisfactory 

 degree of whiteness has been attained, the starch is 

 dried in the sun. For their own consumption the Fiji- 

 ans do not dry their arrowroot, but tie it up in bundles 

 of leaves and bury it in the ground, when it speedily 

 ferments, and emits a rather disagreeable odour. South 

 Sea arrowroot fetches from threepence halfpenny to 

 fourpence per pound in London ; and, as it is invaluable 

 when taken in cases of dysentery and diarrhoea, the 

 bane of the South Seas, it is necessary to have it genu- 

 ine. The Tonguese have of late years been known to 

 adulterate it to a great extent with lime in order to in- 

 crease its weight and volume, but this fraud may readily 

 be detected by watching the arrowroot when it first 

 comes in contact with water ; if adulterated with lime, it 

 will fizz. Care should also be taken to guard against 

 the starch of the Cassava or Tapioco plant being passed 

 off for Polynesian arrowroot, which, from its slightly 

 purgative tendency and poisonous properties, is ill- 

 adapted for bowel complaints. It is much whiter than 

 the arrowroot made of Tacca, sticks to the hands like 

 flour, and when a little water is allowed to act upon it, 

 it assumes a pinkish colour ; whilst the arrowroot made 

 of Tacca has a granulated feel, does not adhere to the 

 hand like flour, and is not changed in colour by contact 



