482 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



often allowed to grow long and fall down the back ; it is oiled and powdered with 

 sandal-wood dust as a perfume. On Sundays a few women appear in complete European 

 dress, wearing muslin gowns, and hats profusely decorated with gaudy artificial flowers. 

 The girls are most accomplished coquettes. The missionaries have prohibited dancing, 

 and also the chewing of the kaava root, which is now grated instead. The chewing 

 method was believed to spread disease. The people are diminishing notwithstanding 

 all the efforts of the missionaries, there being now only about 8000 islanders in the 

 whole group. 



The Tongans are a fine manly race, and delighted everybody, and a longer stay in 

 their island would have been appreciated by the Members of the Expedition. They 

 are extremely merry, fond of practical jokes, and when a crew of them was rowing 

 anyone on shore, they kept playing all kinds of pranks on one another between the 

 strokes of the oars, such as bending over and catching at each other's legs, and were full 

 of laughter the whole time. 



Some difficulty was experienced in persuading one of the natives to get fire by 

 friction of wood. Matches are now so common in Tonga that the natives do not 

 care to undergo the labour necessary for getting fire by the old method, except when 

 driven by necessity. No doubt the younger generation will lose the knack of getting 

 fire by friction altogether. The method adopted in Tonga is the usual Polynesian 

 one of the stick and groove. The wood of the " Vau " (Hibiscus tiliaceus), which when 

 dried is extremely light, is used for this purpose. In order to procure fire, a stick or stout 

 splinter of very dry wood about a foot in length is cut at one end so that it has a sharp 

 edge bounded by two sloping surfaces on one side of the end. The side of the tip is 

 thus in the form of a wedge with a sharp edge. This stick is held in a slanting position 

 between the two thumbs crossed behind it, and the fingers of the two hands crossed in 

 front of it. The sharp edge of the wedge is applied to the surface of a large billet or 

 stem of the same dry wood, and the stick is rubbed backwards and forwards, a certain 

 amount of pressure being exerted. A V-shaped groove is thus cut into the billet about 

 four or five inches in length. If the piece of wood to be grooved is rounded and smooth, 

 a slight score is sometimes made upon it with a knife, beforehand in order to prevent 

 the stick from slipping. Of course everything depends on the larger billet being kept 

 absolutely immovable during the process ; sometimes the operator holds it with his 

 own feet, or often gets some one else to stand on it for this purpose. The stick is 

 rubbed backwards and forwards slowly at first. It must not be pressed too hard 

 or the rubbing surfaces become polished, nor too softly or no heating results. A 

 great deal of the knack of getting fire readily, no doubt, depends upon applying the 

 exact amount of pressure. If the operation is proceeding well, there should be a 

 constant feeling of slightly grating friction to the operator as he rubs, and a fine powder 

 should be rubbed off from the surface of the groove, and pushed along by the end of 



