TO THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. 119 



Pandanus. The floor of this cottage was covered with //-leaves arrang- 

 ed tastefully in circles, which was to serve as our table-cloth. Near us 

 the native cooks were as busy as bees, preparing our repast. Every 

 thing was cooked in the native style, in pits dug in the ground, into 

 which heated stones had been placed. The viands consisted of fait pigs 

 and fat dogs, turkies, chickens, ham and fish, with vegetables of various 

 kinds, taro, sweet-potatoes, yams, bread-fruit, Slc. Each pig and dog 

 had a large hot stone sewed up within him, around which had been 

 wrapped a quantity of /i-leaves, which were eaten as greens, and were 

 excellent. The whole of the cookery was in fact very superior, and 

 would have delighted the most fastidious epicure in Christendom. We 

 had also various liquors ; Champagne, Sherry, Madeira and Mountain- 

 Dew, and were waited upon by men and boys, with chaplets of green 

 bound around their heads, and their persons profusely ornamented with 

 the " ferns and heather of their native vallies." 



When the meats were removed, wine usurped the board ; toasts were 

 drunk, and songs were sung, and all was hUarity and cheerfulness. 



I have spoken of the dog forming one of the dainty dishes of our 

 lu au dinner. The very idea of eating a dog will, no doubt, shock the 

 delicate nerves of many of your readers, but I can assure them, that, when 

 properly prepared, it is delicious food. The animals, which the Island- 

 ers select for the table, are confined, like swine, in pens for some months 

 before they are slaughtered, during which time their sole food consists 

 of poe. They eat this greedily, and in a short time become exccssibly 

 fat. They are then tender and juicy, and to my taste, very superior to 

 a roasted pig. I should however prefer having them decapitated before 

 they are served up, which would take from them at least a portion of 

 their canine appearance. This the natives never do. They scorch or 

 scald the hair off the animal, and cook it in the skin like a young pig. 

 The dog is never bled, but their manner of killing it is barbarous in the 

 highest degree. This is effected by tying a strong cord tightly around 

 the muzzle of the poor animal, which suffocates it, and it dies in strong 

 convulsions. A few days after my arrival in Oahu, while strolling alone 

 through the town in the neighborhood of the King's palace, I saw a 

 large fat dog lying on the ground in convulsions, with a cord drawn 

 tightly around his nose. Supposing that some cruel boys had been guil- 

 ty«of this barbarous wantonness, and perceiving that the poor animal had 

 no chance of surviving if the cord were loosened, as an act of mercy I 

 seized a large stone lying near, and crushed its skull. In an instant a 

 dozen natives of both sexes were down upon me, vociferating furi- 

 ously all together, and seemed very well disposed to make a hostile at- 



