ABSTRACT

T HE day after the trip on the bamboo raft Lewis went across the island again to hunt up more coconuts for

the copra-shed, and Fatumak the Minister of the Woods and Interior turned up to take me down towards Goror in the southern promontory, where he said I should find some interesting relics of the olden time. We started out on a well-paved road bordered by areca palms and crotons (Gotruk) and by neat bamboo fences, behind which lie picturesque native houses. Passing through the settlement we plunged into a maze of narrow lanes running between high embankments crowned thickly with 1It~r or dwarf bamboo, which gives quite a Japanese aspect to the landscape. The whole of the south side of the main island is seamed with a network of these little roads frequently paved with blocks of stone. The path was so narrow that the feathery stalks of the bamboos interlaced overhead in places, but the way was quite clear underfoot. Looking at the abundant ferns and mosses mantling the banks on either side of the path one fancies one's self wandering in one of the deep green lanes of Devon or Somerset. The climbing fern winds her graceful spirals round the stems of healthy young saplings of the forest sprung from the seeds of towering parents which at short intervals droop their shadows athwart our way. We pass bright green clusters of dracrena, with their delicate spikes of lilac bloom, which the Yap folk call Rit or Rick. (Cf. Maori Rito, a bud: anything green and fresh.) The pathway leads uphill behind a wide valley decidedly marshy in character, abounding in jungle and dotted with clumps of

Butral or wild ginger, with its purplish-mauve spikes of bloom, and of Tifif, a species of Canna or Indian-shot, which bears brilliant orange - yellow seeds. The path trends downwards over a little bridge until we reach a paved causeway with a thriving plantation of Lak or water-taro (Colocasia) with its broad arrow-headed leaves, reddish sterns and pale yellow blossoms on our left, which recalls upon a small scale the magnificent lotus-pond in Tokio, the marvel of tourists, and the pride of Japanese landscape gardeners. Here and there a lofty banyan, with its shimmer of small-pointed leaves, looks down upon the rich tropical undergrowth of twining creeper and dense masses of fern, amongst which I discern myoId acquaintance the Nase or Nahe of Southern Polynesia. (Cf. Pelews Ngas-a tree fern). We pass another Lak plantation made by the women of a slave village in the neighbourhood. Deep down it lies in a green hollow extending up the side of the hill in trim and regular beds planted out upon neat little terraces, banked up along the slope in true Japanese fashion. Those who question this may visit the Inland Sea, view the hill-slopes there, and set their doubts at rest. Scattered in the pathway underfoot lie the starry blossoms of the Tenga-uai or Cerbera lactaria, exhaling a sweet but heavy and sickly scent. Leaf, bark, and fruit alike contain a deadly poison, with the qualities of which both Micronesian and Polynesian are perfectly well acquainted. In fact, disappointed lovers on suicide intent frequently use the seeds, which, when swallowed, cause deadly spasms, speedily followed, however, by a merciful stupor.