he had destroyed nine people at different places, partly on this island, and partly on another small island, close in the neighbourhood, when an old man, who had observed that he came on shore every morning at one particular place near the lake, in which he afterwards concealed himself, boldly devised a method to destroy him. Between the beach and the lake was a large fehi tree; and the old man's plan was this:—to procure a long rope, and, passing it over a strong branch of this tree, to let one end, at which there was a running noose, hang near the ground, whilst the other end was to be in the possession of about fourteen or fifteen strong men, concealed at a little distance in high grass. The old man, who was a staunch warrior, and well fitted for such a perilous task, having engaged the solemn promise of his confederates to act their parts with steadiness and fidelity, undertook to walk about on the beach at the time the monster was to be expected, and, at his approach, to recede behind the noose, through which the animal must necessarily pass his head to lay hold of him; at which moment he would call out to them to pull the rope, and noose him tight. Matters being thus adjusted, the expected enemy made his appearance, and

ran towards the old man, who took his station behind the noose, and, the moment the animal put his jaws through it, he sprang back, and gave the appointed signal; instantly the cord was drawn tight, and their prey was caught with his head and one paw through the noose; they soon secured the rope, and, running up, beat him about the head, and pierced him wherever they could, till, at length, after much hard work, they killed him. When their toil was over, the first thing they thought of (for these people have a strange genius), was, to try if he was good to eat: they accordingly cut him up, and, selecting those parts which they thought the tenderest, they baked a sufficient quantity, and, finding it very good, made a hearty meal. Cow Mooala saw the bones of this animal, from the description of which, as well as what he had heard concerning the living animal, Mr. Mariner supposes that it must have been a crocodile that, by some accident, had made its way from the East Indies: and, as it was the first animal of the kind the natives had ever seen, or ever heard of, we need not wonder that they supposed it to be a supernatural lizard, sent by the gods from Bolotoo, as a punishment for their offences.

Pau is decidedly the largest of the Fiji

islands, and much larger than Vavaoo: but Cow Mooala gave an exaggerated account of its size, describing it to be so large, that many of the people in its interior had never seen the sea, owing to their distance from it; and that the people living on the mountains, and who constantly resided there to avoid the frequent wars and disturbances on the plains below, very seldom came down ; and when they did, and saw fish for the first time, would not believe but what they were hotooas, (gods,) and wondered very much to see people eat them. The mountains on the western side, called Tacownove, are the highest. On the base of one of these mountains are two hot springs, situated near together, at which a neighbouring garrison generally boil their yams and plantains, by putting them into a vessel with holes in the side, and suffering the boiling water to pass through it.

The natives of the Fiji islands are much more curly headed than those of the Tonga islands; and all of them, both men and women, powder their hair with the ashes of the bread-fruit leaf, or with powdered lime, prepared from the coral, or else with soot collected from the smoke of the tooi-tooi. The pulverized lime is only worn now and

then with a view to stiffen their hair, which it does remarkably well. In using either of these substances, they plentifully diffuse it through water, in which they dip their heads; and when the hair is dry they dip again, repeating this operation three or four times: the hair becoming now replete with the powder, when quite dry they work it up with great care and attention, occupying three or four hours in frizzing it out with a sort of comb, to a considerable distance from the head, resembling an immense wig, from four to nine inches thick, being raised equally from the head, at the top, back, and sides. Like the Tonga people, they generally go bareheaded; but to preserve this fine head-dress from being injured by the dews of the night, they usually cover it with about a square yard of white gnatoo, beaten out very fine, so as to appear the more light and elegant; and this is quite sufficient to keep off the moisture: they tie it on with remarkable neatness.

At the Fiji islands the boys and girls go quite naked, the girls till they are about ten years old, the boys till they are about fourteen after which periods the girls wear the usual dress of the women, which consists merely in a sort of circular apron, about a

foot or fourteen inches broad, worn quite round the waist: when they grow old, it is increased to about a foot and a half in breadth. At the age of fourteen the boy begins to wear the mahi, or usual dress of the men, which has been accurately described by Captain Cook, as seen by him at the Sandwich islands, where they use the same, though at the Fiji islands it is of much greater length, being wrapped round the body many times: one end of it passes between the legs, so as to represent, when adjusted, what in surgery is called a T bandage*.

Children are married by their parents (or rather betrothed to each other) when they are three or four years old. This circumstance gives rise to the complaint usually made by the natives of Tonga who visit Fiji, that they can find no woman but who is under the protection of a jealous husband. This Cow Mooala sadly complained of; and it leads us to the inference, that the women there are very faithful to their husbands. A man may have

* At these islands they perform circumcision at fourteen years of age, after the Judaic method, i. e. by drawing forward the præputium, and cutting off a section. At the Tonga islands they only make a longitudinal incision of the upper part of the præputium.