278 MYSTIC ISLES 



tubes, three inches in diameter, and four or five feet 

 long, tied at the opening with a pandanus-leaf for a 

 seal. It is delicious on raw fish. I have seen a native 

 take his fish by the tail and devour it as one would a 

 banana; but the Tahitians cut up the fish, and, after 

 soaking it in lime-juice, eat it with the taiaro. It is as 

 tasty as Blue Points and tabasco. 



There are two other epicurean sauces, one made of 

 the omotu, the soft cocoanut, which is split, the meat 

 dug out and put in the hue, the calabash, mixed with a 

 little salt water, lime-juice, and the juice of the rea, the 

 saffron, and allowed to ferment. This is the mitikue, 

 a piquant and fetid, puante sauce that seasons all 

 Tahitian meals. The calabash is left in the sun, and 

 when the sauce dries up, water is poured on the dry in- 

 gredients, a perpetual saucebox. 



In the arrangement of vegetables our own hucksters 

 could learn. Every piece is scraped and cleansed. 

 String beans are tied together in bundles like cigars or 

 asparagus, and lettuce of several varieties, romaine and 

 endive, parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, and even pota- 

 toes, sweet and white, are shown in immaculate condi- 

 tion. The tomatoes do not rival ours, but Tahiti being 

 seventeen degrees below the equator, one cannot expect 

 such tropical regions to produce temperate-zone plants 

 to perfection. That they are provided at all is due to 

 the Chinese, those patient, acute Cantonese and Amoy- 

 ans. The Tahitian has no competence in intensive cul- 

 tivation or the will to toil. Were it not for the Chinese, 

 white residents in many countries would have to forego 

 vegetables. It is so in Mexico and Hawaii and the 



