480 FOOD. FIRE. 



They obtained fire by friction. When the wood was quite 

 dry, the process did not take longer than two minutes, but in 

 wet weather it was very tedious. Having no pottery, they 

 did not boil their food. " It is impossible," says Wallis, " to 

 describe the astonishment they expressed when they saw the 

 gunner, who, while he kept the market, used to dine on shore, 

 dress his pork and poultry by boiling them in a pot ; having, 

 as I have before observed, no vessel that would bear the fire, 

 they had no idea of hot water."* Captain Cook also expressly 

 states that " they had but two ways of applying fire to dress 

 their food, broiling and baking." -f Mr. Tylor, however, has 

 pointed out* that they were acquainted with the use of boiling 

 stones, and that they could not therefore have been entirely 

 ignorant of hot water. In order to bake a hog, they made a 

 small pit in the ground, which they paved with large stones, 

 over which they then lighted a fire. When the stones were 

 hot enough, they took out the embers, raked away the ashes, 

 and covered the stones with green cocoa-nut leaves. The 

 animal which was to be dressed, having been cleaned and 

 prepared, was wrapped up in plantain leaves, and covered 

 with the hot embers, on which again they placed bread-fruit 

 and yams, which also were wrapped up in plantain leaves. 

 Over these they spread the rest of the embers, and some hot 

 stones, finally covering the whole with earth. The meat 

 thus cooked is described as being tender and full of gravy ; 

 in fact, both Wallis and Cook considered that it was " better 

 in every respect than when it is dressed in any other way." 

 For sauce they used salt water, without which no meal was 

 ever eaten, and a kind of thick paste made from the kernels 

 of cocoa-nuts. At their meals they drank either water or 

 cocoa-nut juice. The Sandwich Islanders were very fond of 

 salt meat, and had regular salt-pans on the sea-shore. 



* 1. c. vol. i. p. 484. t Second Voyage, vol. ii. p. 197. 



J Early History of Mankind, p. 266. 

 Cook's Third Voyage, vol. iii. p. 151. 



