Presently we reach a village where we discover an interesting native industry, the making of mats from a kind of reed. Here 41 we see girls at work weaving the mats, and in one of the native huts they are making baskets from the same material. The Fijians are clever at this work, and both mats and baskets are important articles in their daily life. They also used to make a peculiar but very artistic pottery, such as we do not find in the islands of Polynesia further east; but this art is no longer practised 42 except in a few places, and for the production of pots for domestic use. Perhaps the most noteworthy native manufacture is that of _tapa_ cloth for their dress. _Tapa_ is made by beating out the fibrous bark of the paper mulberry, and sometimes of certain other trees. The art is known in Polynesia generally, and the Fijians, like many of the other islanders, also print the cloth in various patterns and colours. We continue our march, passing many villages. Here is a corner in one of them; notice the native huts of grass and reeds, very 43 different from the wood and corrugated iron of Suva. Notice, too, the coconut palms growing all around. Here again we have 44 a more elaborately finished house, in the old style; and here is the interior of the home of a chief; it looks somewhat 45 unfurnished to our eyes, though it is cool and airy. At the next village the natives receive us with a solemn presentation of food and _yangona_ in a rather dark hut. Here they are making the _yangona_. Finally we reach Namosi, a picturesque native 46 town perched up in the mountains. The town lies in a kind of pass between steep rocks, the “Gate of Namosi,” as we see in the 47 picture. The inhabitants are summoned together by the beating of the town drum, a hollow log of wood, and receive us sitting on the ground beneath an ancient tree. We have reached the limit of 48 our journey; but short though it is, it has given us some idea of the real Fijian as he is to-day, away from direct European influence. The conditions in the other large island, Vanua Levu, are much the same as in Viti Levu. The island is long and narrow, but with the same irregular mountain structure, the same vegetation and the same contrast of wet and dry on the opposite coasts. We may remember that Ovalau, off the coast of Viti Levu, was much concerned in the past with the politics of the neighbouring mainland; the same was true of Taveuni off Vanua Levu. The dwellers on the rich coastlands of the larger islands led a very uncertain life between the raiders from the sea and the wild tribes of the interior. The sea was always the more important factor in the life of the whole group of islands; it united, while the land more often divided. We have already noted its importance in the relations of Fiji and the Friendly Islands.