STAPLE FOOD. 297 



tated to me by an intelligent Bauan chief, and the con- 

 sular interpreter, Mr. Charles Wise. The names given 

 by me, as well as their succession, do not quite agree with 

 those given by Wilkes. This discrepancy is partly ex- 

 plained by Wilkes having taken down his list from the 

 lips of Europeans imperfectly versed in Fijian, and by 

 his adopting a loose way of spelling. The names of the 

 months may also be different in different parts of the 

 group. The subject, however, requires still further in- 

 vestigation. If, as has been averred, the Fijians inva- 

 riably commenced the months with the appearance of 

 the new moon, there would soon have been a vast dif- 

 ference between the lunar and the solar year. To guard 

 against the irregularity that would thus have been in- 

 troduced into the seasons, and to make the lunar year 

 correspond with the solar, it would have been necessary 

 either to intercalate a moon after every thirty-sixth 

 moon, or to allow a greater period of time for one of 

 the eleven months into which the Fijian year is divided. 

 The latter seems to have been effected by the Vula i 

 were were (clearing month). Hazel wood (' Fijian and 

 English Dictionary,' Viwa, 1850, p. 180) allows four 

 months, May, June, July, and August, for it ; but this 

 cannot be correct, as it would derange the others. By 

 restricting it to two or thereabouts, June and July, a 

 proper arrangement is effected. I place the Vula i 

 werewere first in my list instead of the month answering 

 to January, because it is in the spring of the year (June 

 and July), and the commencement of the agricultural 

 operations and natural phenomena upon which the ca- 

 lendar is based. 



