EDIBLE WILD FRUITS. 87 



tains are boiled in their skins, and are to the European palate when 

 thus cooked most insipid. The sago, which is a common article of 

 food in this part of the group, is not sufficientl}^ dried during- its 

 preparation and it soon turns sour ; but this is no objection with 

 the native who devours it with the same eagerness whether it is 

 I'ancid or sweet. It is usually only half-cooked in a little packet of 

 leaves ; but when required for keeping, it is well baked, and in the 

 form of cakes is a favourite food with children. The Solomon 

 Islander, however, has not the forethought of the inhabitants of the 

 j\JaIay Ai'chipelago in laying by a store of sago for future use. 

 When a sago palm is felled, there is usually no lack of friends to 

 assist the owner in consuming the sago. The native of Bougainville 

 Straits serves up the cooked vegetables in trays made of plaited 

 palm leaves or of the sheathing base of the branch of the " kisu " 

 palm. A pleasantly flavoured dish is made of mashed taro,^ covered 

 with cocoa-nut scrapings ; and in such mixed dishes the kanary-nut 

 (" ka-i ") often occurs. 



Although the native of Bougainville Straits to a great extent 

 subsists on the produce of his plantations, there are a great number 

 of edible wild fruits and vegetables which he also employs as food, 

 and which in times of scarcity would supply him with ample sus- 

 tenance. I have already referred to the kanary-nut, the fruit of 

 the Canarium, as forming a staple article in his diet. The nuts of 

 the " saori " (Terminalia catcqypa) have a small edible kernel which 

 has an almond-like flavour and is much appreciated by the natives. 

 It is the " country almond " of India and, as Mr. Home tells us, it 

 is extensively eaten in Fiji where the tree is known as the Fijian 

 almond tree.^ In Tanna in the New Hebrides, as we learn from 

 Mr. Forster, it is also eaten.^ The fruit of the common littoral tree 

 Ochrosia parviflora (" pokosola ") contains an edible flat kernel. 

 The three common littoral species of Pandanus also furnish susten- 

 ance in times of dearth ; the seeds of the drupes of the " sararang " 

 and the " pota " contain small edible kernels, and the p"lpy base of 

 the "darashi" is also eaten. The pulpy kernels of the fruit of Nipa 

 fruticans are occasionally eaten as in the ]\Ialay Archipelago ; but 

 the natives of Bougainville Straits do not seem to be acquainted 

 with the alcoholic liquor which this palm yields to the inhabitants 



■" The taro and other vegetables are often pounded in a mortar made from the hollowed 

 trunk of a small tree and pointed at its lower end so that it can be implanted in the ground. 

 - " A Year in Fiji." London, 1881 : (p. 88). 

 •* " Observations made during a Voyage round the "World." London, 177S. 



