348 MODE OF COOKING AND EATING. [1840. 



serted, and the clay beaten or moulded about it with a mallet. 

 If the vessel is to have but a small opening, it is first made in 

 two or more pieces, whicii are afterwards joined together with 

 great skill. Figures are traced upon them, if required, with 

 the fibres of a cocoa-nut leaf. The pots are now baked be- 

 fore an open fire, and finished oft' by glazing, or varnishing 

 them, with the resin of the Feejee pine, mixed with a de- 

 coction of the mangrove bark. 



In serving up their food, the natives are certainly very neat, 

 as everything is nicely wrapped up in fresh banana leaves. 

 There is as much regularity in the courses, at the tables of 

 the chiefs, as in the fashionable hotels of Europe and America ; 

 and when a new dish is to be brought on, the mats and other 

 appendages previously used, are first removed. They usu- 

 ally eat with their fingers. Their principal meal is at the 

 close of the day, or in the evening. The common people are, 

 of course, obliged to work most of the time ; but the aristoc- 

 racy spend the greater part of the day at their toilets, and in 

 visiting. 



Ava-drinking is a national vice. The ava is prepared in 

 the familiar mode common throughout Polynesia ; their bowls 

 are sometimes over three feet in diameter. Partaking of this 

 beverage is quite a ceremony in the houses of the chiefs, and 

 it is always brought to an end by a shout and a general 

 clapping of the hands on the thighs. 



Dancing is esteemed a great accomplishment, and there are 

 regular dancing masters and mistresses employed to perfect the 

 young men and maidens in this art. Terpsichore would be 

 shamed, however, could she witness the manner in which her 

 votaries display themselves in these islands. Their motions are 

 mere writhings and contortions of the body, accompanieu with 

 monotonous chants, clapping of the hands, and beating of the 

 hollow drum. Other amusements are resorted to among 

 them to pass away the time agreeably; the young women 

 have a kind of game, like forfeits ; and the young men prac- 

 tice archery and throwing the spear. Hunting and fishing 

 are favorite pastimes. The former is now often done with 



