33(3 FRUIT AND TIMBER TREES. [1840. 



thatch, where it ferments and forms an incrassated mass like 

 cheese, which they call mandrai ; a similar preparation is 

 also made of unripe bananas; both are cooked with cocoa-nut 

 milk, and are exceedingly palatable and nutritious. It is 

 said that mandrai will keep for a number of years, and a 

 supply is always kept on hand for a season of scarcity.* 



Bananas and plantains are very plentiful, but not highly 

 prized, though they are more or less cultivated, and grow 

 with great rapidity ; in a few years after the plants are set 

 out, they form delightful umbrageous groves round the homes 

 of the islanders. Besides the common plantain, the wild 

 species, or fei, is also cultivated. Among the other trees 

 that afford sustenance to the natives are the shaddock, tara- 

 vou, or native plum, Malay apple, and indiva. The bitter 

 orange is indigenous, and both the lemon and sweet orange 

 have been brought here from Tahiti. On the uplands the 

 wild nutmeg is found in considerable abundance, but the 

 kernel does not possess much aromatic flavor. Plantations 

 of the paper mulberry receive a great share of attention, as 

 the bark of the young trees is manufactured into tapa, by 

 scraping it with a conch shell, macerating, and beating it on 

 a log with a grooved mallet. The tapa is afterwards bleached 

 in the sun, and dyed to suit the taste of the person making 

 it. Mats are made of pandanus leaves, bands and sashes of 

 the bark of the hibiscus, and baskets of willow and rattan. 



Building materials are principally obtained from the cocoa, 

 bread-fruit, tree-fern, and palm. Bamboo and hibiscus are 

 also used for the sides of the houses : of the former light rafts 

 for taking fish, torches, and drinking vessels, are also made. 

 When the joints of the bamboo are burned as torches, they 

 are first saturated with cocoa-nut oil, and the twisted leaves 

 of the cocoa are likewise used for candles. The mangrove 

 completely covers the low grounds, if pains are not taken to 



* The taro, and other fruits, are often preserved in the same manner. Tha 

 term viandrai appears to he a general one; for instance, the preserved hread 

 fruit, which is like the main of Tahiti, is called mandrai-uta, the banana mandrai- 

 vunai, the native chestnut mandrai sirisiri, and the taro mandrai y taro. 



