“Ni solia mai kivei keimami edai dai na keimani kakana ni vei siga; mo ni vaka le cale cava mai na neimamii vala vala ca me vaka keimami sa vaka le cale cava na nodra ko ira e rai vala vala ei kivei keimami; ni kakua ni laivi keimami e nai vaka caba caba; mo ni vaka bulai keimami mai na ca. Amene.” CHAPTER XII. QUITE ALONE IN A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE—RETURN TO REWA—BASALTIC PILLARS—REWA POTTERY—BAU—NEW YEAR’S EVE—KING THAKOMBAU AS AN ELDER OF THE WESLEYAN CHURCH—PRE-CHRISTIAN TIMES. NAKAMEROUSI, _Monday, Dec. 27_. DEAREST NELL,—I must begin a letter to you to-night, for the strangeness of the situation exceeds any I have yet happened on. I have left the Langhams at Nirukuruku, and am here quite by myself, very much at home in a Fijian hut, and surrounded by natives, most of whom were, till within the last two years, uncompromising cannibals, and who, moreover, have never before beheld the face of a white woman! The way it came about was this. When we were going up the river in hot haste, and with no time to loiter by the way, the village of Nakamerousi had attracted my especial admiration. It is perched on a steep bank, and looks right along a broad reach of the river to a beautiful mountain-range. Being anxious to secure a sketch from that point, it was agreed that I should take advantage of the return thither of Reuben, the native teacher, who, with the help of Joshua, one of the boatmen, accordingly paddled me down in a small canoe. Great was the astonishment of the villagers, and still greater that of Reuben’s exceedingly fat wife, in whose house I am spending the night. We made great friends, though I could hardly utter a word of Fijian, and probably few of those around me had ever heard a word of English. As seen from outside, this house promised well, but on entering I perceived that the first effort of civilisation had not improved the ordinary home. For the teachers have been encouraged to show the advantages of a separate sleeping-room, by having a third of the house screened off with a reed partition, but so little do they appreciate the innovation that they generally convert the inner room into a store-room for yams or lumber. So it is in this case. However, the kind fat old lady resigned the post of honour for my benefit, and here I have hung up my plaid-curtain and mosquito-net, thereby greatly interesting a crowd of spectators, who had previously watched the wonderful process of consuming chocolate and biscuits. One kind woman has brought water in a bamboo, and therewith filled my big brass basin (the old companion of my happy tent life in the Himalayas).