Islands far away; Fijian pictures with pen and brush . shouldnot have been here to tellthe tale. I cannot imaginehov/ there are so fewaccidents. On enquiry Ilearned that once a childhad been killed, and thata man and a boy had hadtheir heads split open ; butthis was a small list of casu-alties, seeing that coconutpalms wave over every vil-lage, and that the nativeslive out of doors. The men were as inter-ested and excited about mysketches as were the chil-dren, and one of the chiefsput on all his paraphernalia of war for me to paint him, * Coconut is the correct spelling, not cocoannt as usual
Islands far away; Fijian pictures with pen and brush . shouldnot have been here to tellthe tale. I cannot imaginehov/ there are so fewaccidents. On enquiry Ilearned that once a childhad been killed, and thata man and a boy had hadtheir heads split open ; butthis was a small list of casu-alties, seeing that coconutpalms wave over every vil-lage, and that the nativeslive out of doors. The men were as inter-ested and excited about mysketches as were the chil-dren, and one of the chiefsput on all his paraphernalia of war for me to paint him, * Coconut is the correct spelling, not cocoannt as usually adopted. In avery interesting lecture on the subject, Sir EverarJ ini Thurn tells how the nutgot the name of Coco from Vasco de Gama in 1498 or 1499, prol)ably on accountof the face-like marks on it when the outer husk is removed, coco meaninggrimace in Portuguese. A clerical error in an early edition of Johnsons dictionary gave the spelling asCocoa nut, confusing it with the very different tropical product called cocoa,from the Mexican RATU AMARE IN HIS PARAPHER-NALIA OF WAR. 78 Islands Far Away. and they acted a miniature battle for my benefit, in which onefell dead. What surprised and delighted them particularlywas that the sketch came out at once and they could see itcoming ; whereas for a photograph faith was required. Butthe photographs they saw taken generally ended in becomingpost-cards, and in their getting copies, and they expected mine,too, to turn into post-cards. I am sure if any of them shouldgo to Suva they would search very earnestly for them in theshops there. A Fijian loves to see his own likeness; it does not muchmatter whether it be good or bad ; he feasts his eyes on it,with a look of rapture on his face. They delight in all pictures,and they comprehend and understand them wonderfully-, farbetter than our own uneducated classes at home. This makesit very surprising that they themselves never try to draw. Icame upon only one instance of native
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