GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLBY. 33 



Funafuti, but is eaten on neighbouring atolls where food is less 

 plentiful.* Rhizophora tan was formerly used as a dye, but its 

 place is now taken by European tar. " A mangrove which 

 supplies a black dye" is noted by Dr. Steinbach from the 

 Marshall Islands."! The hard wood of this mangrove was 

 carved into " afa," meshing needles. In Fiji, Dr. Seemann 

 observes of this tree: "The sap has a blood red colour, and 

 is much employed by the natives, amongst whom it is as 

 fashionable to dye their hair red as it was amongst the ladies of 

 ancient Rome, after their roving husbands had become acquainted 

 with the fair locks of the Teutonic race. On the Island of 

 Nukubati I also saw the sap employed by potters for painting 

 their crockery. Just after the pots had been baked, and were 

 still quite hot, a mixture consisting of this fluid and the sap of 

 of Hibiscus moschatus, L., was used for that purpose, the colours 

 of the paint remaining almost unchanged after the vessels had 

 become cool and dry. The aerial roots, being very elastic, offer 

 good materials for bows of which the Fijians avail themselves." \ 

 Both the Solomon Islanders and the Tongans also used this wood 

 for bows. 



The Fo fafini, or Woman's Fibre tree (Hibiscus iiliaceus, Linn.), 

 grows in abundance as a small tree thirty feet in height, bearing 

 numerous large, showy, lemon coloured flowers, with a brown 

 centre. The western end of the mangrove swamp was overgrown 

 by a dense thicket of this tree. I did not notice that its very 

 soft white wood was applied to any purpose by the natives. 

 The bark, as elsewhere in the Pacific, is a favourite material 

 with the local costumieres, who soak it in sea water for a couple 

 of weeks, dry it in the sun, and bleach it with lime, or stain it 

 red with Nonou bark, or blacken it with charcoal, bonito blood, 

 or Tonga tan. In the Ellice this use of Fo was restricted to 

 Nukulailai, Funafuti, Nukufetau, and Vaitupu, beyond which 

 it was replaced by Pandanus. 



Seemann says : " In most countries the fibre of this species is 

 extensively used for cordage, but in Fiji the chief use made of it 

 and that of the foregoing species (H. tricuspis) is for women's 

 "liku," a dress consisting of a number of fringes attached to a 

 waistband. The bark of these trees is stripped off, steeped in 



* Near Cooktown, Queensland, the writer saw in a black's camp a 

 quantity of Rhitophora fruit collected for food, and in Western British 

 New Guinea he learnt that it was resorted to in time of famine. In Proc. 

 Roy. Soc. Qd., v., 1888, p. 11, it is recorded as eaten by the Solomon 

 Islanders. For an allusion to its use as an esculent in Torres Straits, 

 see Haddon Folklore, i., 1890, p. 190. 



t Review, in Geogr. Journ., 1896, p. 297. 



J Seemann loc. cit., p. 91. 



Mariner Tonga, ii., 1817, p. 287. 



