VEGETABLE POISONS. 337 



travelling companion. The smoke of the burning wood 

 affects the eyes with intolerable pain, exactly as does 

 that of the manchineel tree, of which I gave an instance 

 in the ' Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald,' 

 vol. i. p. 141, one of our boat's crew becoming blind 

 for several days after lighting a fire with manchineel 

 wood. None, save those who have been sufferers from 

 the effect of these poisons, can form any adequate con- 

 ception of the agonies endured, and the courage dis- 

 played, by a Fijian who voluntarily submits himself to 

 being cured of leprosy by the smoke of the Sinu gaga 

 wood. The Rev. W. Moore, of Rewa, was well ac- 

 quainted with a young man of the name of Wiliami 

 Lawaleou, who underwent the process of being smoked. 

 Mr. Moore gave me the full particulars of this remark- 

 able case when I was his guest in 1860, and he has also 

 published a full account of it in ' The Wesleyan Mis- 

 sionary Notices,' Sydney, 1859, p. 157. After stating 

 that he knew Wiliami as a fine healthy young fellow, Mr. 

 Moore was surprised to find him one day so much altered 

 by the effects of leprosy. Some time after he again met 

 him full of health, and on inquiry learnt the treatment 

 adopted to bring about this change. Taken to a small 

 empty house, the leper is stripped of every article of 

 clothing, his body rubbed all over with green leaves, and 

 then buried in them. A small fire is then kindled, and a 

 few pieces of the Sinu gaga laid on it. As soon as the 

 thick black smoke begins to ascend the leper is bound 

 hand and foot, a rope fastened to his heels, by means 

 of which he is drawn up over the fire, so that his head 

 is some fifteen inches from the ground, in the midst of 



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