294 A MISSION TO VITI. 



fruit, which, unlike the cocoa-nut palm, it does only 

 once during the term of its existence, speedily dies and 

 crumbles into dust. The trees are easily felled, only the 

 outer layers of wood possessing any hardness, the central 

 parts being as soft as bread, so that a few strokes with 

 a good axe will bring the largest tree to the ground.* 



Several kinds of spice are indigenous, or have become 

 naturalized. Turmeric (Curcuma long a, Linn.), termed 

 " Cago " by the Fijians, grows abundantly in all the 

 lower districts. The whites use the rhizome in the pre- 

 paration of curry, and the natives the powder of it as 

 food, or more commonly to daub over the bodies of 

 women after childbirth and those of dead friends a 

 custom also prevailing in the Samoan group, according 

 to Mr. Pritchard. In the few districts that have as yet 

 not been brought under the immediate influence of the 

 British Consul or the missionaries, the heathen widows 

 are painted with it before strangulation. In fact, tur- 

 meric powder is with the Fijian what rouge and Kow- 

 land's preparations are with us, a cosmetic. Promoting 

 in their opinion health and beauty, it is put on with no 

 sparing hand by the women, and pointed remarks are 

 made about too great a proximity if a man be unfortu- 

 nate enough to have some stains of turmeric on his body 

 or scanty dress. The manufacture of turmeric is similar 

 to that of arrowroot, and is generally managed by the 

 women. The receiving pits dug in the ground are lined 

 with herbage, so as to retain the juicy parts. The grated 

 rhizome is afterwards placed in the body of a canoe, and 



* Dr. Bennett, of Sydney, found a sago palm on Botuma, north of Fiji, 

 possibly identical with the Fijian, but there are no specimens. 



