294 A MISSION TO VITI. 
fruit, which, unlike the cocoanut palm, it does only 
once during the term of its existence, speedily dies and 
crumbles into dust. The trees are easily felled, only the 
outer layers of wood possessing any hardness, the central 
parts being as soft as bread, so that a few strokes with 
a good axe will bring the largest tree to the ground.* 
Several kinds of spice are indigenous, or have become 
naturalized. Turmeric (Curcuma longa, Linn.), termed 
“Cago” by the Fijians, grows abundantly in all the 
lower districts. 'The whites use the rhizome in the pre- 
paration of curry, and the natives the powder of it as 
food, or more commonly to daub over the bodies of 
women after childbirth and those of dead friends—a 
custom also prevailing in the Samoan group, according 
to Mr. Pritchard. In the few districts that have as yet 
not been brought under the immediate influence of the 
British Consul or the missionaries, the heathen widows 
are painted with it before strangulation. In fact, tur- 
meric powder is with the Fijian what rouge and Row- 
land’s preparations are with us, a cosmetic. Promoting 
in their opinion health and beauty, it is put on with no 
sparing hand by the women, and pointed remarks are 
made about too great a proximity if a man be unfortu- 
nate enough to have some stains of turmeric on his body 
or scanty dress. The manufacture of turmeric is similar 
to that of arrowroot, and is generally managed by the 
women. The receiving pits dug in the ground are lined 
with herbage, so as to retain the juicy parts. The grated 
rhizome is afterwards placed in the body of a canoe, and 
* Dr. Bennett, of Sydney, found a sago palm on Rotuma, north of Fiji, 
possibly identical with the Fijian, but there are no specimens. 
