MISCELLANEOUS. 377 



shrub is about fourteen feet high, has fine dark-green 

 shining foliage, odoriferous flowers, which on opening 

 are pure white, but gradually change to cream-colour, 

 and bright-red drupes, about as large as a hazel-nut. 



Numerous plants serve for miscellaneous purposes. 

 The flat round seeds of the Walai (Entada scandens, 

 Bth. = Mimosa scandens, Linn.), called "ai Cibi," or "ai 

 Lavo," have suggested to the Fijians a comparison with 

 our coins, and supplied a word for money (ai Lavo), of 

 which their language was formely destitute, because 

 that article was entirely unknown to them, all com- 

 mercial exchange being carried on by barter. The 

 Walai or Wataqiri is a creeper, always associated with 

 mangroves and other maritime vegetation. Its stem, 

 when young used in place of ropes for fastenings, oc- 

 casionally attains a foot in diameter, and forms bold 

 festoons, whilst its pods arrest attention by their gigantic 

 dimensions, measuring as they do several feet in length. 

 The greyish bony involucre of the Sila, or Job's tears 

 (Coix Lacryma, Linn.), a grass growing in swamps and 

 having the aspect of Indian-corn, as well as the seeds of 

 the Diridamu, Quiridamu, or Leredamu (Abrus precato- 

 rius, Linn.), which resemble those of the Drala (Erythrina 

 Indica, Linn.) in having a bright red colour and a black 

 spot, are affixed with breadfruit gum to the outside of 

 certain oracle boxes, of which Wilkes has given fair illus- 

 trations in his ' Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedi- 

 tion.' These boxes have a more or less pyramidal shape, 

 and are kept in the temples, as the supposed abode of 

 the spirit consulted through the priests. Toys, consist- 

 ing of cocoa-nut shells, and covered with these materials, 



