Report of a Journey Around the JTor/d. 145 



gas engine runs press. We came back to the Zoological Museum 

 and there at last found our lost secretary. Quite a package of 

 letters in the diredlor's office awaiting us. 



In the afternoon two friends drove with us through the native 

 town, and we were all impressed with the good roads and the neat 

 comfortable homes of the natives. Stones with ancient inscrip- 

 tions were an object of worship in a wayside house ; it seemed to 



118. SAMPLE OF ROADSIDE VIEWS. 



be not the inscription ( which probably none of the worshippers 

 could read), but the antiquity. Wooden gongs much like the 

 Fijian ta/i were suspended by the side of small, rectangular, open 

 houses, and we were informed they were to call the people to auc- 

 tions or anj' other public gatherings. Lantana, \'crbesina and 

 Crotalaria were as common roadside weeds as in Hawaii. Our 

 road lay by a rapid river in which were man^- bathers ; house walls 

 and fences of bambu, often woven in fancy patterns as in Fiji; 

 fruit trees in every yard ; children plenty, clothes scarce ; scoop- 

 nets drying on some house walis. There was a well-built dam 



Occasional Papers B. P. B. M. Vol. V, No. 5 — 10. 



[293] 



