482 A CHIEF'S DINNER. 



some bread-fruit, at the same time breaking one of the fishes 

 into the salt water. He then took up the bits of fish in his 

 fingers, in such a manner as to. get with it as much salt water 

 as possible, and very frequently he took a mouthful of the 

 salt water, either out of the cocoa-nut or in his hand. Some- 

 times, also, he drank the juice of a cocoa-nut. When he had 

 done his bread-fruit and fish, he began his plantains or apples, 

 after which he ate some more bread-fruit, beaten into a sort 

 of paste, and generally flavoured with banana or some other 

 fruit. For a knife he used either a shell or a piece of split 

 bamboo, and in conclusion he again washed his hands and 

 mouth. They were quite unacquainted with forks, and Cap- 

 tain Wallis* tells us that, during his visit, one of the natives 

 who " tried to feed himself with that instrument, could not 

 guide it, but by the mere force of habit his hand came to his 

 mouth and the victuals at the end of the fork went away to 

 his ear." Nor did they use plates. Poulaho, Chief of the 

 Friendly Islands, dining one day on board the ship, was so 

 much struck by the pewter plates that Captain Cook gave 

 him one. He did not, however, intend to employ it in the 

 usual manner, but said that " whenever he should have occa- 

 sion to visit any of the other islands, he would leave this plate 

 behind him at Tongataboo, as a sort of representative in his 

 absence."f 



Captain Cook was much surprised to find that a people 

 who were so sociable, and who enjoyed so much the society 

 of women, never made their meals together. Even brothers 

 and sisters had each their own basket, and when they wished' 

 to eat would go out, " sit down upon the ground, at two or 

 three yards' distance from each other, and, turning their faces 

 different ways, take their repast without interchanging a single 

 word." They ate alone, they said, " because it was right," but 

 why it was right they were unable to explain. We must, 



* Voyage round the World, p. 482. t Third Voyage, vol. i. p. 326. 



