Though no one pretends to like the taste of yangona, its after-effects are said to be so pleasantly stimulating that a considerable number of white men drink it habitually, and even insist on having it prepared by chewing, which is a custom imported from Tonga, and one which has never been adopted in the interior of Fiji, where the old manner of grating the root is preferred. It certainly sounds less nasty, but _connoisseurs_ declare with one voice that grated yangona is not comparable to that which has been chewed![14] The gentlemen all say that, sometimes when they have had a very long day of hard walking, they are thankful to the native who brings them this, the only stimulant which he has to offer, and that its effect is like sal-volatile. Confirmed drinkers acquire a craving for it. Its action is peculiar, inasmuch as drunkenness from this cause does not affect the brain, but paralyses the muscles, so that a man lies helpless on the ground, perfectly aware of all that is going on. This is a condition not unknown to the British sailor in Fiji. This was the first time we had witnessed the scene, so of course we were exceedingly interested. Afterwards I had a long walk through the bush with Sir Arthur, Mr Maudslay, and Mr Le Hunte, Lady Gordon and Mrs Havelock preferring to rest. We had a grand scramble through rich vegetation, and we rested awhile in a quiet old graveyard partly overgrown with tall grasses, the graves all edged with the black stems of the tree-fern; and on many there is a low, red-leafed plant; on others, the tall red dracæna, with which the Fijians love to adorn the resting-place of their dead, as cypress or willow mark God’s acre in Old England. From this calm spot we overlooked the blue Pacific, dotted with many isles, chief of which is the clear-cut mountain outline of Viti Levu, the great isle, which I hope to visit ere long. How beautiful they all looked in the golden sunset light, as we rowed and sailed back to Nasova!