312 A MISSION TO VITI. 



in half, and filled with grated cocoa-nut and sugar-cane, 

 make a favourite pudding (vakalolo), which, on account 

 of its goodness and rich sauce of cocoa-nut milk, has 

 found its way even into the kitchen of the white settlers. 

 Wilkes has already mentioned that the natives, instead of 

 hanging up the fruit until it becomes mellow, bury it 

 (occasionally, it should be added) in the ground, which 

 causes it to appear black on the outside, and impairs the 

 flavour. The fresh leaves are used as substitutes for 

 *plates and dishes in serving food or for making tempo- 

 rary clothing, the dry instead of paper for cigarettos 

 (sulu ka). In place of the finger-glasses handed round at 

 our tables after dinner, Fijians of rank are supplied, with 

 portions of the leafstalk of the plantain, not a super- 

 fluous luxury when forks are dispensed with except at 

 cannibal feasts. 



The breadfruit is seen in regular forests, and in a great 

 number of varieties, which a new-comer has some diffi- 

 culty in distinguishing until he has learnt to observe 

 that in the shape of the leaves which are either entire, 

 pinnatisect, or bi-pinnatisect their size and their either 

 bullate or even surface, the shape and size of the fruits, 

 the time of its maturity, the absence or presence, as well 

 as the length of the prickles on its outside, and the 

 abortion of its ovules or their development into seeds, 

 offer good marks of distinction. The general Fijian 

 name for the breadfruit is " Uto," signifying " the heart," 

 from the resemblance of the form of the fruit to that 

 organ, whilst the varieties are distinguished by additional 

 names. Those less frequently cultivated are, however, 

 not known by the same names throughout the group, but 



