300 A MISSION TO VITI. 



duce large and abundant roots the settings ought to be 

 put into hard and unprepared soil. According to their 

 notion the yam ought to meet with resistance ere it will 

 put forth its whole strength, or, as they sometimes ex- 

 press themselves, it must get angry before it will exert 

 itself. I even heard of a bet won by a woman who 

 pursued this simple plan, and who fully made good her 

 word, that she would produce a root large enough to feed 

 twenty people ; whilst the man who bet with her could 

 only raise one that would not have fed one-third of that 

 number, though he took great pains to pulverize and 

 prepare the soil for the reception of the setting. The 

 general signal for planting is the flowering of the Drala 

 (Erythrina Indica, Linn.). As soon as its blossoms be- 

 gin to appear, which happens about July and the be- 

 ginning of August, all hands busy themselves about it. 

 The land having already been cleared during the pre- 

 vious months, hillocks, about two feet high and four or 

 five feet apart, are thrown up ; these hillocks are known 

 by the name of " Buke," whence the highest mountain 

 in Kadavu, for the first time ascended on the 6th of 

 September, 1860, by Mr. Pritchard and myself, and re- 

 sembling them in shape, takes its name of Buke Levu, 

 or large yam-hillock. There are no spades or any other 

 iron tool for digging; all is done with staves made of 

 mangrove-wood, and the bare hands. Pieces of old 

 yams are set on the top of these hillocks, and within 

 a short space of time they begin to sprout out. In less 

 than a month they require reeds for climbing, after 

 which little else is needed than keeping the plantations 

 free from weeds. About February the first yams begin to 



