ting, netting, etc., is done upon the thumbs, without the aid of needles, in a manner which cannot be described.

PAGE 40. Just as to a big umbrella.

Umbrellas are known to have been in common use in these islands, from the earliest times. They are, invariably, constructed of sheet tin.

PAGE 48. Putting on her glasses, slowly.

The Feejee women, of all ages, are proverbially nearsighted. In the other islands of the Pacific, the phrase, "as blind as a Feejee," is often heard. The date of the invention of Spectacles is unknown.

PAGE 43. To the very ear-tips blushing.

This expression is remarkable-not because of its poetic merit only-but from the fact, that it has been adopted by two poets of our own. In Keats' Endymion, we find, "those ears,

"Whose tips are glowing hot."

and in the "Life Drama," by the "modern Shakspeare," as Alexander Smith has been aptly designated by several of the prominent English reviews, occurs the line

"Hot to the ear-tips, with great thumps

of heart,"

PAGE 76. Worst of ills that flesh is heir to.

The striking parallelism between this line, and the oft quoted passage from Hamlet's Soliloquy :

"The thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,"

may excite some surprise. In the poem, it will be seen that it appears as a quotation-not from the English bard, as some might suppose-but from Tremen-jus, a Feejee poet who flourished about the year 13. We give the Passage in which it occurs, put into the mouth of a warchief, while vainly endeavoring to devour an old enemy, captured in battle.

"Thou tough soul! eating of whom be toil!
Juiceless, thin, of bone compact, and sinew,
Whereto pertain'th flavor, deathful strong;

Not for food adapt, save of swiny herd,
Boar-marshalled, tiger thunder-begotten,
Or solar wolf! Famished were I,

Youthfuller, such as not, then less heeded;

Thus being, cannot I meat introduct

Of mould o'er-tasteful, all pervasive, rank,

Of ills flesh be th' heir to, worst much, may be!"

It must be borne in mind, however, that the poem in question was written in ruder times.

At the period of the translator's residence in Chaw-aman-up, the practice of cannibalism had been, for many years, abandoned, and in other islands of the group, the minds of the people were so far enlightened, that human flesh was indulged in only on Sundays.

PAGE 76. Whom he taught the Bath and Blanket.

The period of the introduction of the Water treatment into this island, cannot be definitely fixed, but it is supposed to vary little from the date of the Downfall of the Roman Empire.

Milkanwatha, the hero of the Legend and the founder of the System, now ranks among the highest of the Feejee divinities. His name is held religiously sacred, and he is always addressed, as the "god of the psycho-pompous function."

Much additional information concerning him, may be found in the translator's forthcoming work, "The Cyclopædia of Feejee Literature."

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