266 



COOK S FIRST VOYAGE 



SEPT* 



both the syrup and sugar, gula. The syrup is pre- 

 pared by boiling the liquor down in pots of earthen 

 ware, till it is sufficiently inspissated; it is not unlike 

 treacle in appearance, but is somewhat thicker, and 

 has a much more agreeable taste : the sugar is of a 

 reddish-brown, perhaps the same with the Jugata 

 sugar upon the continent of India, and it was more 

 agreeable to our palates than any cane sugar, unre- 

 fined, that we had ever tasted. We were at first 

 afraid that the syrup, of which some of our people 

 eat very great quantities, would have brought on 

 fluxes, but its aperient quality was so very slight, 

 that what effect it produced was rather salutary than 

 hurtful. I have already observed, that it is given 

 with the husks of rice to the hogs, and that they 

 grow enormously fat without taking any other food : 

 we were told also, that this syrup is used to fatten 

 their dogs and their fowls, and that the inhabitants 

 themselves have subsisted upon this alone for several 

 months, when other crops have failed, and animal 

 food has been scarce. The leaves of this tree are 

 also put to various uses, they thatch houses, and 

 make baskets, cups, umbrellas, and tobacco pipes. 

 The fruit is least esteemed, and as the blossoms are 

 wounded for the tuac or toddy, there is not much of 

 it : it is about as big as a large turnip, and covered, 

 like the cocoa-nut, with a fibrous coat, under which 

 are three kernels, that must be eaten before they 

 are ripe, for afterwards they become so hard that 

 they cannot be chewed ; in their eatable state they 

 taste not unlike a green cocoa-nut, and, like them, 

 probably they yield a nutriment that is watery and 

 unsubstantial. 



The common method of dressing food here is by 

 boiling, and as fire-wood is very scarce, and the in- 

 habitants have no other fuel, they make use of a 

 contrivance to save it, that is not wholly unknown 

 in Europe, but is seldom practised except in camps. 

 They dig a hollow under ground, in a horizontal 



