\/ 



50 THE TRAVELLER'S TREE 



at the top of its trunk in the form of an immense fan. The 

 leaves are from twenty to thirty in number, and are from eight 

 to ten feet long by a foot and a half broad. They very closely 

 resemble those of the banana, and when unbroken by the wind 

 have a very striking and beautiful appearance. The name of 

 " traveller's tree " is given on account of its affording at all 

 times a supply of cool pure water upon piercing the base of the 

 leaf-stalk with a spear or pointed stick. This supply is owing 

 to the broad surface of the leaves, which condenses the moisture 

 of the atmosphere, and from which the water trickles down into 

 the hollow, where the leaf-stalks join the stem. Each of these 

 forms a little reservoir, in which water may always be found. 

 The leaves, as are also those of the banana, are used to beat the 

 thatched roofs in case of fire, on account of the amount of water 

 which they contain. 



The name of " builder's tree " might be given to it with equal 

 or greater propriety, for it is as useful to the coast people as the 

 cocoanut-palm is to the South Sea islanders. The leaves are 

 used for thatching, and the long leaf-stems fastened together 

 form the filling-in of the framework for the walls and partitions ; 

 the bark is beaten out flat and forms the flooring ; while the 

 trunk supplies timber for the framing. Quantities of the fresh 

 leaves are used every day and take the place of plates and 

 dishes ; and at the New Year's festival the jdka, or meat eaten 

 at that time, was always served up, together with rice, upon 

 pieces of the leaves of this tree or of the banana ; and a kind of 

 spoon or ladle was, and is still, formed, made by twisting up 

 part of a leaf and tying it with the tendrils of some climbing 

 plant. The tree ranges from the sea-coast to the height of 

 about fifteen hundred feet, after which it begins rapidly to 

 disappear. At an elevation of about a thousand feet it is 

 extremely abundant, much more so, in fact, than any other 

 tree, and is the one striking and peculiar feature in the vegeta- 

 tion. It is not found so much in the forests as on the hillsides in 

 the open country ; it has some half-dozen or more different 

 names among the various tribes on the eastern side of the 

 island. 



Our canoe voyage was nearly twenty miles in length, the last 

 two or three up a narrow creek not above twenty or thirty feet 

 in width. In one of the narrowest parts of the stream we were 



