STAPLE FOOD. 303 



crop. A considerable number of varieties are known,* 

 some better adapted for puddings, some for bread (ma- 

 drai), or simply for boiling or baking. The outer marks 

 of distinction chiefly rest upon the different tinge ob- 

 servable in the leaf, stalks, and ribs of the leaves 

 white, yellowish, purple. When the crop is gathered 

 in, the tops of the tubers are cut off, and at once re- 

 planted. The young leaves may be eaten like spinach ; 

 but, like the root, they require to be w r ell cooked in 

 order to destroy the acridity peculiar to Aroideous plants. 

 The Fijians prefer eating the cooked Taro when cold 

 a taste which few Europeans share with them ; on the 

 contrary, the latter relish them quite hot, and, if pos- 

 sible, roasted. 



Besides the Taro, which is occasionally seen wild on 

 the banks of rivers, there are three other indigenous 

 Aroideous plants, the corms of which are used as arti- 

 cles of food : the Via mila, the Via kana, and the Daiga. 

 The Via mila (Alocasia Indica, Schott), always gro wing- 

 in swamps, is a gigantic species, often twelve feet high ; 

 the trunk or corm of which the edible part is, when 

 fully developed, as large as a man's leg : a single leaf 

 weighing three and a half pounds. The petiole was 

 found to be four feet long, and ten inches in circum- 

 ference at the base ; the blade of the leaf three feet two 

 inches long, two feet six inches broad, and thirteen feet 

 six inches in circumference ! The plant emits a nau- 

 seous smell, amply warning, as well as the various popu- 



* The different kinds of Dalo (Taro) are, Basaga, Bega, Dalo ni Yanua, 

 Karakarawa, Keri, Kurilagi, Mumu, Quiawa, Sikaviloa, Sisiwa, Soki, 

 Toakula, etc. 



