NOTES ON TAHITI 
oF. ry 
& a 
arrison W. Smith 
Photo by 
A PRIVATE GARDEN IN PAPEETE, SHOWING PINEAPPLE AND YOUNG COCOANUT TREES 
AND THE SAMOAN BANANA: THE RED-SKIN BANANA IS ONE 
OF THE FINEST FLAVORED VARIETIES 
were in time to see the last of the festal 
preparations made by the natives for our 
entertainment—the removal of the suck- 
ing pig from the oven. The oven was 
a hole dug in the ground and lined with 
large stones, which had been previously 
heated in a fire. Banana leaves had been 
placed over the hot stones; then the pig 
had been laid in whole and completely 
buried, first with the banana leaves and 
finally with a layer of earth. Here it 
had remained for an hour or more, and 
certainly when it was exhumed it was 
perfectly cooked; and, served up with 
plantains, it made a most palatable dish. 
We were given several other native 
dishes, of which the most choice perhaps 
was the famous “cocoanut salad.” ‘This 
salad is made of the heart of the green 
top of a cocoanut tree ; and, as each salad 
involves the destruction of a tree, it is 
only prepared on a special occasion. 
After a few days’ stay at Papeete, we 
were invited to pay a visit to the village 
of Tautira, which is reputed to be the 
most picturesque spot in Tahiti. We 
gladly accepted the invitation and got 
under way early one morning. Steam- 
ing close to the land, we had a fine view 
of the wild, rugged coast and of the high, 
jagged peaks, with their cloud-covered 
summits. Many waterfalls, looking in 
the distance like threads of silver, were 
falling sheer down the precipitous wall 
of rock which forms the coast in this 
part of Tahiti. Now and again valleys 
