296 A MISSION TO VITI. 



is met with in every part of the islands, especially in 

 places under cultivation, producing rich harvests of 

 red pungent fruits. The Fijians call it " Boro ni papa- 

 lagi" (i. e. foreign Boro), in contradistinction to " Boro ni 

 Viti," or Fijian Boro (Solatium anthropophagorum, Seem., 

 and S. oleraceum* Dun.) ; thus indicating that the bird's- 

 eye pepper has been introduced by the white man, and 

 is merely to be looked upon as naturalized, not wild. 



The staple food is the same all over Polynesia, being 

 derived, with the total exclusion of all grain and pulse, 

 from the yam, the Taro, the banana, the plantain, the 

 breadfruit, and the cocoa-nut; but the bulk of it is 

 furnished in the different countries by only one of these 

 plants. In the Hawaiian group the Taro takes the 

 lead, whilst the cocoa-nut is looked upon as a delicacy, 

 from which the women were formerly altogether cut off. 

 In some of the smaller coral islands the inhabitants live 

 almost entirely upon cocoa-nuts. The Samoans place 

 the breadfruit at the head of the list. Again, the Fijians 

 think more of the yam than of the others, though all 

 grow in their islands in the greatest perfection and in an 

 endless number of varieties. A striking proof of how 

 much the yam engages their attention is furnished by 

 the fact of its cultivation and ripening season being made 

 the chief foundation of their calendar ; and that only 

 such of the eleven months, into which the year is divided, 

 bear no names indicative of it, in which the crop re- 

 quires no particular attention, or has been safely housed. 

 A version of this calendar has been published by Wilkes 

 in ' The Narrative of the United States Exploring Ex- 

 pedition,' and is placed in juxtaposition with one die- 



