man. The bulb, or root, is first baked and then ground to a
paste with water. When thus prepared, it is set aside until it begins to
ferment; then it is ready to be eaten. A great dish or pot of poi is
placed on a mat and the family gather around, one after another dipping
it out with their hands. To foreigners poi has a most unpleasant,
disagreeable taste. When made into cakes and baked, however, it is much
relished by foreigners.

Kava is the national drink. It is made from the roots of a shrub
belonging to the pepper family. The root is ground between stones and
then soaked in water. After a while it is pounded and rubbed until all
the milky juice is squeezed out of it. When "extra-fine" kava is wanted,
young girls chew the root until it has become pulpy. After standing a
day or two it is strained and is then ready to be drunk. It is a cooling
and refreshing drink, but if taken too freely is apt to tangle one's
legs uncomfortably.

On account of its delightful climate and beautiful scenery, Samoa is
one of the most attractive places in the world in which to live. Back in
the mountains, a few miles from Apia, Robert Louis Stevenson spent the
last few years of his life, and his body is buried on the top of the
mountain near by. Stevenson was greatly beloved by the natives, and
after his death he was mourned by them as one of their very best
friends.

Of all the islands in the South Pacific Ocean, the Fiji group is the
most important. All told there are more than two hundred islands, but
scarcely one-third of them are inhabited, or even habitable. Two of them
are large. One, Viti Levu, is about the size of Connecticut; the other,
Vanua Levu, is about two-thirds the size of that State. The famous Dutch
sailor Abel Janszoon Tasman, whose name is remembered in Tasmania, saw
the larger islands in 1643. About one hundred and thirty years later
Captain Cook called at Viti Levu and found himself in the midst of a
great cannibal feast. In 1840, Captain Charles Wilkes, in charge of a
United States expedition, explored them; shortly afterward they became a
possession of Great Britain.

The larger islands are great domes of lava built up by volcanic
eruptions; many of the smaller ones are coral formations, and all are
fringed with coral reefs. Dense forests of tropical vegetation cover the
larger islands. Cocoanut and other palms are everywhere to be found. A
species of pine, much like the kauri pine of New Zealand, grows on