BANANAS AS FOOD 109 



of bread and butter. They eat very pleasant so, and I 

 have made many a good meal in this manner. Sometimes 

 our English take six or seven ripe plantains, and, mashing 

 them together, make them into a lump, and boil them 

 instead of a bag-pudding, which they call a buff-jacket, 

 and this is a very good way for a change. This fruit makes 

 also very good tarts ; and the green plantains, sliced thin 

 and dried in the sun and grated, will make a sort of flour 

 which is very good to make puddings. A ripe plantain, 

 sliced and dried in the sun, may be preserved a great while, 

 and then eats like figs, very sweet and pleasant. The 

 Darien Indians preserve them a long time by drying them 

 over the fire, mashing them first and moulding them into 

 lumps. The Moskito Indians will take a ripe plantain and 

 roast it ; then take a pint and a half of water in a calabash, 

 and squeeze the plantain in pieces with their hand, mixing 

 with the water ; then they drink it all off together ; this 

 they call ' mishlaw,' and it is pleasant and sweet and 

 nourishing, somewhat like ' lambs' wool ' (as it is called), 

 made with apples and ale ; and on this fruit alone many 

 thousands of Indian families in the West Indies have their 

 whole subsistence." 



Dr. William Wright, in his " Account of the Medicinal 

 Plants growing in Jamaica," * wrote as follows, more than 

 120 years ago, of the plantain and banana : " Plantains 

 are cut when full grown, but before they are ripe. The 

 green skin is pulled off, and the heart is roasted in a clear 

 fire for a few minutes, and frequently turned ; it is then 

 scraped, and served up as bread. Boiled plantains are not 

 so palatable. Ripe plantains, sliced and fried, resemble 

 pancakes. The banana is never eaten green ; but when 

 ripe it is very agreeable, either eaten raw or fried in slices 

 as fritters. Plantains and bananas are eaten by all ranks 

 of people in Jamaica ; and but for the plantains the island 

 would scarcely be habitable, as no species of provision 

 could supply their place. Even flour, or bread itself, 

 would be less agreeable, and less able to support the 

 * London Med. Journ., vol. viii. 1787, p. 272. 



