OVALAU. 151 



a dense vegetation gave the country about a most picturesque 

 aspect. On reaching the top of the ridge the heat became 

 insupportable, especially as there was not a breatli of air 

 stirring. I gave up proceeding any further, and laid down 

 under the shade of a banyan tree, beneath which several 

 species of pai'asite plants were growing. During this halt 

 my guides amused themselves with lighting a fire by a process 

 I had often seen employed in the Hawaiian Islands, that is, 

 by the friction of one stick upon another. 



My halt over, I set out on my return to the ship. On my 

 way I picked up some flat circular fruit, two inches in diam- 

 eter and one in thickness, — enclosed in a thick fibrous bark 

 — which I had boiled, and found to have a taste of chesnut. 

 I also saw some arborescent ferns. On nearing the coast, I 

 entered a village overshadowed by cocoanut trees, and was 

 soon surrounded by a crowd of natives, men, women, and 

 children, who appeared to me very ugly with their immense 

 mouths, and large prognathous jaws ; in fact, in the lower 

 part of their faces they resemble monkeys more than human 

 beings ; in general they wore, both men and women, a piece 

 of tapa round their loins. Their hair, harsh to the touch, 

 was more or less tinted red or yellow by chinam. They 

 brought me several articles which they wanted me to buy, 

 and among other things cocoanuts, at, as it seemed to me, an 

 unreasonable price. I bought for a shilling rather a fine 

 root of ava ; but it was with great difficulty that I could get 

 them to give me, for anything like a fair sum, a little brackish 

 water to quench my thirst. Most of the women had their 



