The highest honour, therefore, that can be shown to any guest, is to present him with a pig, sometimes full grown, sometimes an interesting suckling, but in any case roasted whole, which is accomplished by filling him with red-hot stones, and baking him in a hole in the ground, lined with more hot stones and green leaves. Wrapped in this leafy covering, he is next placed on a carved wooden tray, and borne triumphantly to the house where the stranger is lodging, and there deposited, with all the other good things aforesaid, on the mats near the furthest door, which naturally suffer a good deal in consequence. The feast is then formally presented, and as formally accepted, with set speeches and measured hand-clapping. The pig is then cut up, and the feast duly apportioned among all present, this distribution being also made strictly according to rule; for in Fiji rigid etiquette rules every action of life, and the most trifling mistake in such matters would cause as great dissatisfaction as a breach in the order of precedence at a European ceremonial. To apportion the pig’s head to any save the principal person present would inevitably result in that person leaving the house in high dudgeon; and as chiefs of various villages may have arrived simultaneously to visit the new-comer, it is sometimes an embarrassing question how to satisfy the dignity of all. Happily in our case the feasts are generally divided by Johnny, the head boatman, who, being himself a chief of this district, is well informed on all such matters. We are amusingly reminded of his nobility by hearing the clapping of hands, with which an admiring circle invariably proclaim the close of his meals. To-day, in honour of Christmas, this oft-recurring pig festival has been thrice repeated, and you can fancy how saturated with grease are the unfortunate mats near the door! I have induced the owner of the wooden tray which did duty both on this day and on Christmas Eve, to sell it to me, and shall take it away as an interesting memorial of the strangest Christmas dinner which has yet fallen to my share.