VEGETABLE POISONS. 337 
travelling companion. The smoke of the burning wood 
affects the eyes with intolerable pain, exactly as does 
that of the manchineel tree, of which I gave an instance 
in the ‘Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald,’ 
vol. i. p. 141,—one of our boat’s crew becoming blind 
for several days after lighting a fire with manchineel 
wood. None, save those who have been sufferers from 
the effect of these poisons, can form any adequate con- 
ception of the agonies endured, and the courage dis- 
played, by a Fijian who voluntarily submits himself to 
being cured of leprosy by the smoke of the Sinu gaga 
wood. The Rev. W. Moore, of Rewa, was well ac- 
quainted with a young man of the name of Wilami 
Lawaleou, who underwent the process of being smoked. 
Mr. Moore gave me the full particulars of this remark- 
able case when I was his guest in 1860, and he has also 
published a full account of it in ‘The Wesleyan Mis- 
sionary Notices,’ Sydney, 1859, p. 157. After stating 
that he knew Wiliami as a fine healthy young fellow, Mr. 
Moore was surprised to find him one day so much altered 
by the effects of leprosy. Some time after he again met 
him full of health, and on inquiry learnt the treatment 
adopted to bring about this change. Taken to a small 
empty house, the leper is stripped of every article of 
clothing, his body rubbed all over with green leaves, and 
then buried in them. A small fire is then kindled, and a 
few pieces of the Sinu gaga laid on it. As soon as the 
thick black smoke begins to ascend the leper is bound 
hand and foot, a rope fastened to his heels, by means 
of which he is drawn up over the fire, so that his head 
is some fifteen inches from the ground, in the midst of 
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