300 A MISSION TO VITI. 
duce large and abundant roots-the settings ought to be 
put into hard and unprepared soil. According to their 
notion the yam ought to meet with resistance ere it will 
put forth its whole strength, or, as they sometimes ex- 
press themselves, it must get angry before it will exert 
itself. I even heard of a bet won by a woman who 
pursued this simple plan, and who fully made good her 
word, that she would produce a root large enough to feed 
twenty people; whilst the man who bet with her could 
only raise one that would not have fed one-third of that 
number, though he took great pains to pulverize and 
prepare the soil for the reception of the setting. The 
general signal for planting is the flowering of the Drala 
(Erythrina Indica, Linn.). As soon as its blossoms be- 
gin to appear, which happens about July and the be- 
ginning of August, all hands busy themselves about it. 
The land having already been cleared during the pre- 
vious months, hillocks, about two feet high and four or 
five feet apart, are thrown up; these hillocks are known 
by the name of “Buke,” whence the highest mountain 
in Kadavu, for the first time ascended on the 6th of 
September, 1860, by Mr. Pritchard and myself, and re-. 
sembling them in shape, takes its name of Buke Levu, 
or large yam-hillock. There are no spades or any other 
iron tool for digging; all is done with staves made of 
mangrove-wood, and the bare hands. Pieces of old. 
yams are set on the top of these hillocks,. and within 
a short space of time they begin to sprout out. In less 
than a month they require reeds for climbing, after 
which little else is needed than keeping the plantations 
free from weeds. About February the first yams begin to 
