Ethnography of Mioronosia. 45 



support a whole fciinily. There are, of course, a number of edible 

 plants in the torrid zones. Limiting ourselves to the islands under 

 Japanese occupation, we may count the coconut, bread-fruit, pine- 

 apple, papaya, banana, pandanus, taro, yam, sweet potato, and 

 citrus fruits. The principal articles of food are the bread-fruit, 

 coconut, taro and yam, to which must also be added fish and 

 shell -fish caught in the near seas. 



On every island the bread-fruit tree {Artocarpus incisa) (PI. A^, 

 fig. 1) and coconut palm {Cocos nucifera) are of luxuriant growth, 

 affording important articles of food. But there are not a few 

 islands which are ill-suited to the cultivation of the taro [Alocasia 

 macrorrhiza) (PL V, fig. 2) and yam (Diosoorca) plants, so these 

 vegetables cannot become universal as food. 



I. Food. 



1. Cooking and Culinary Utensils. — The preparation of two or 

 tln-ee of the most important articles of food and some of the culinary 

 utensils usually employed among the natives will be noted below. 



A. Cooking. — The bread-fruit is either roasted or baked. In 

 the former case, hrc is first kindled in a hole dug in the groimd. 

 Then a number of stones are thrown into the hole ; and wdien 

 these stones get red-hot, the bread-fruit wrapped up in leaves is 

 put among them. The fruit roasted in this way has a hght flavour, 

 tasting something like sweet potatoes. 



Baking necessitates rather complicated processes. In order to 

 built an earth oven in which the bread-fruit is baked, a hole 1.50 m. 

 in diameter and 30 to 50 cm. hi depth is dug in the ground ; 

 the bottom is paved with stones, on which branches of the man- 

 grove and otlier trees are placed as fuel. While this fuel is burn- 

 ing, more stones are thrown into the hole. And when the fire is 



