no TAHITI. [chap. XVIII. 



on the burning wood. .In about ten minutes the sticks were 

 consumed, and the stones hot. They liad previously folded up 

 in small parcels of leaves, pieces of beef, fish, ripe and unripe 

 bananas, and the tops of the wild arum. These green parcels 

 were laid in a layer between two layers of the hot stones, and 

 the whole then covered up with earth, so that no smoke or steam 

 could escape. In about a quarter of an hour, the whole was 

 most deliciously cooked. The choice green parcels were now 

 laid on a cloth of banana leaves, and with a cocoa-nut shell we 

 drank the cool water of the running stream ; and thus we enjoved 

 our rustic meal. 



I could not look on the surrounding plants without admira- 

 tion. On every side were forests of banana ; the fruit of whicii, 

 though serving for food in various ways, lay in heaps decaying 

 on the ground. In front of us there was an extensive brake of 

 wild sugar cane ; and the stream was shaded by the dark green 

 knotted stem of the Ava, — so famous in former days for its 

 powerful intoxicating effects. I chewed a piece, and found that 

 it had an acrid and unpleasant taste, which would have induced 

 any one at once to have pronounced it poisonous. • Thanks to 

 the missionaries, this plant now thrives only in these deep ra- 

 vines, innocuous to every one. Close by I saw the wild arum, 

 the roots of which, when well baked, are good to eat, and the 

 young leaves better than spinach. There was the wild yam, and 

 a liliaceous plant called Ti, which grows in abundance, and has a 

 soft brown root, in shape and size like a huge log of wood : this 

 served us for dessert, for it is as sweet as treacle, and with a 

 pleasant taste. There were, moreover, several other wild fruits, 

 and useful vegetables. The little stream, besides its cool water, 

 produced eels and cray-fish. I did indeed admire this scene, 

 v»^hen I compared it with an uncultivated one in the temperate 

 zones. I felt the force of the remark, that man, at least savage 

 man, with his reasoning powers only partly developed, is the 

 child of the tropics. 



As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneath the gloomy 

 shade of the bananas up the course of the stream. My walk was 

 soon brought to a close, by coming to a waterfall between two 

 and three hundred feet hin^h ; and a^-ain above this there was 

 another. I mention all these waterfalls in this one brook, to 



