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CHAPTER XVII. 
VEGETABLE POISONS.—MEDICINAL PLANTS.—SCENTS AND PERFUMES.—MA- 
TERIALS FOR CLOTHING.—MATS AND BASKETS.—-FIBRES USED FOR 
CORDAGE.—TIMBER.—PALMS.—ORNAMENTAL PLANTS.—MISCELLANEOUS. 
VEGETABLE poisons are extracted by certain natives who 
make a profound secret of their art, and it would re- 
quire an intimacy of years before any reliable infor- 
mation on this point could be elicited. I was ready 
to make presents of hatchets, knives, and other valued 
articles, to get some insight into their toxicology ; but 
Mr. Pritchard begged me to abstain: the natives would 
take alarm at my inquiry, and if perchance any great 
man should be taken ill or die during my visit, it would 
at once be said that 1, availing myself of the knowledge 
acquired, had administered a fatal dose—a most unde- 
sirable charge in the present state of political ferment. 
The Fijians have both slow and acute poisons, and when 
a man is gradually sinking (often, no doubt, from a very 
different cause), it is readily believed that “he has had 
a dose.” He will then seek the advice of some skilful 
native physician, if possible one at Bau, the capital, to 
administer the necessary antidotes, and restore him to 
health. However, very often there is no time to inter- 
pose between the fatal dose and its consequences, the 
