Chap, xviii.] FOOD OF THE NATIVES. 



401 



The use of kaava and of tobacco is entirely unknown to the 

 natives. 



The principal vegetable foods of the islanders are cocoanuts 

 and sago. The sago is prepared into a farine, and preserved 

 in hard cylindrical blocks about a foot in height, and six or 

 eight inches in diameter. Specimens of the preparation have 

 been placed in the Kew Museum. 



Taro {Caladium esciikfttiim) is also eaten. It is cultivated 

 in small enclosures adjoining the houses, but to a very small 

 extent, and there are no large clearings or cultivation of any 

 kind to leave a mark on the general features of the vegetation 

 of the islands as at Humboldt Bay, or Api, or Fiji. Plantains 

 are grown sparingly round the houses. A Bread-fruit tree also 

 grows about the villages. Several wild fruits, a Hog Plum 

 {Spondias), a small Fig, and the fertile fronds of a Fern are 

 eaten by the natives, and they have a Sugar-cane of better 

 quality than that used at Humboldt Bay. Young cocoanut 

 trees are planted about the houses, and carefully protected 

 from injury by means of neatly- woven cylindrical fences. 

 They are also planted with care on the uninhabited islands. 



The natives have no Yams {Dioscorea), nor Sweet Potatoes. 



The flesh of pigs is roasted by the natives, and served for 

 eating, placed on a quantity of the prepared sago in large 

 wooden bowls, which are often elaborately carved. The 

 Opossum of the islands {Cuscus) is also roasted, and is carried 

 about cold, roasted whole with head, tail and legs intact, 

 ready to be torn with the teeth and eaten at any moment. 

 I saw no boiling being done, but the earthenware pots made 

 by the natives were evidently used for that purpose. 



There are wells on the inhabited islands ; they are at some 

 little distance from the houses. They are shallow holes dug 

 in the coral ground. They are kept covered in with sheets 

 of bark, and at each, cocoanut-shell cups are hung up for 

 drinking. 



The houses of the natives are built on the ground,* and 

 always close to the shore. They are all of an elongate beehive 

 shape, occupying an oval area of ground. On Wild Island 

 they are built of a continuous wall and thatch of grass and 

 cocoanut leaves or similar material. They thus look like long 

 haycocks somewhat. 



In Dentrecasteaux Island many of the houses have their 

 walls built up neatly of wood cut into billets and piled as fire- 

 wood is in Europe. The roofs are similar to those in Wild 



* Jacobs, I.e., p. 182, describes, as seen by him, "several large 

 villages built on piles over the water," on the east coast of the Main 

 Island. 



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