FIRST VOYAGE 43 



tree. Their clothes serve them at night for covering, and 

 there are no divisions or apartments. The master and his 

 wife repose in the middle ; then the married people ; next 

 to these the unmarried females, and at a small distance the 

 men who are unmarried. 



The houses of the chiefs, however, differ in some degree ; 

 there are some very small, and so built as to be carried 

 in canoes ; all sides of them are inclosed with the leaves 

 of the cocoa-nut ; the air, nevertheless, penetrates ; in these 

 the chief and his wife alone sleep. There are also houses 

 which are general receptacles for the inhabitants of a 

 district. These are much larger. 



If a chief kills a hog, which is but seldom, he divides it 

 equally among his vassals ; dogs and fowls, however, are 

 more common. 



When the bread-fruit is not in season, they are supplied 

 by cocoa-nuts, bananas, plantains, etc. 



Their cookery is confined to baking, and their drink is 

 generally water, or the milk of the cocoa-nut, though there 

 were instances in which some of them drank so freely of 

 the English liquors, as to become intoxicated ; this, how- 

 ever, seemed to proceed more from ignorance than design, 

 as they were never known to repeat a debauch of this kind 

 a second time. They were told, indeed, that the chiefs 

 sometimes became inebriated by drinking the juice of a 

 plant called Ava, but of this they saw no instance during 

 the time they remained on the island. 



The chiefs generally eat alone, unless when visited by a 

 stranger, who is sometimes permitted to become a second 

 in their mess ; leaves of trees serve as a table-cloth ; and 

 their attendants, who are numerous, having placed a basket 

 before the chiefs, containing their provisions, and a cocoa- 

 nut shell of fresh and salt water, seat themselves round 

 them. They then begin by washing their mouth and hands, 

 after which they eat a mouthful of bread-fruit and fish, 

 dipped in salt water alternately, till the whole is consumed, 

 taking a sup of salt water likewise between almost every 

 morsel. The bread-fruit and fish being all eaten, they next 

 have either plantains or apples, which they never eat with 

 out being pared. During this time a soft paste is prepared 

 from the bread-fruit, which they sup out of a cocoa-nut 

 shell ; this finishes the meal, and the hands and mouths are 

 again washed, as at the beginning. They devour vast 

 quantities of food at a meal. 



It is not a little surprising, that the inhabitants of this 

 island, who seemed exceedingly sensible of the pleasures of 

 society, should have an universal aversion to the least inter- 

 course with each other at their meals ; and so rigid are they 



