296 A MISSION TO VITI. 
is met with in every part of the islands, especially in 
places under cultivation, producing rich harvests of 
red pungent fruits. The Fijians call it “ Boro ni papa- 
lagi” (7. e. foreign Boro), in contradistinction to “ Boro ni 
Viti,” or Fijian Boro (Solanum anthropophagorum, Seem., 
and 8. oleraceum, Dun.); thus indicating that the bird’s- 
eye pepper has been introduced by the white man, and 
is merely to be looked upon as naturalized, not wild. 
The staple food is the same all over Polynesia, being 
derived, with the total exclusion of all grain and pulse, 
from the yam, the Taro, the banana, the plantain, the 
breadfruit, and the cocoa-nut; but the bulk of it is 
furnished in the different countries by only one of these 
plants. In the Hawaiian group the Taro takes the 
lead, whilst the cocoa-nut is looked upon as a delicacy, 
from which the women were formerly altogether cut off. 
In some of the smaller coral islands the inhabitants live 
almost entirely upon cocoa-nuts. The Samoans place 
the breadfruit at the head of the list. Again, the Fijians 
think more of the yam than of the others, though all 
grow in their islands in the greatest perfection and in an 
endless number of varieties. A striking proof of how 
much the yam engages their attention is furnished by 
the fact of its cultivation and ripening season being made 
the chief foundation of their calendar; and that only 
such of the eleven months, into which the year is divided, 
bear no names indicative of it, in which the crop re- 
quires no particular attention, or has been safely housed. 
A version of this calendar has been published by Wilkes 
in ‘The Narrative of the United States Exploring Ex- 
pedition,’ and is placed in juxtaposition with one dic- 
