38 A MISSION TO VITI. 
from the chief or his head wife, and after I had in- 
structed Koytoo into the mysteries of concocting it into 
soup, with which neither he nor the Fijians were pre- 
viously acquainted, the chief would never fail to appear 
at the very moment the soup was put on our table. In 
fact there were always boys of his loitering about the 
kitchen, eagerly watching the moment that it was 
ready, and then running as fast as they could to inform 
their chief of the important event. 
Koytoo was an expert climber, and thought nothing 
of ascending a tree to collect some specimens of flower 
or fruit for me. We often made excursions together, 
and I have frequently admired the way in which he 
would walk up the smooth trunk of a tall cocoa-nut 
palm, in order to knock down a few fruits for refreshing 
ourselves. Without closely embracing the tree, as we 
are wont to do in climbing, he actually walked up, his 
feet and hands just touching the trunk, and his body 
being far off. He was scarcely seated on the leaves 
forming the feathery crown of the palm, when down 
came a number of nuts, all of which he had carefully 
tapped with his fingers to ascertain by the sound 
whether they had arrived at that stage of maturity 
which I preferred for drinking; for there is a great 
difference in the taste of the cocoa-nut as it advances 
towards maturity, and for every one of these stages 
the natives have a distinct term. What is yet still 
more remarkable, they at once know the stage by 
merely tapping at the nut with their fingers. As the 
transition from one stage to another, from insipid to 
sweet, and very slightly acid, is brought about in a day 
