V 



f 



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480 



m B MAR K S 



O N 



T H S 



A R T S 

 AND 



:BCIEN€ES 



rby inheritance. Their gluttonous Chiefs and Arees it is true, 



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■ themfelves with immoderate quantities of food, but it caufes no 

 other inconveniencies than to make them fat and unwieldy, 

 finefl: fiilies, and other marine produdions, as cray-fifh, £hells, 

 , iea-ega-s. cuttle-fiih„, and one kiad of blubber^ ferve them inftead 



of ibod -y and though many of the latter are not eaten by us, they 



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feem not however, to caufe any difeafes j efpecially as the common 



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fort of people cannot have them in great abundance. As to animal 

 food from hogs, dogs, and fowls, I am certain that their meat is 

 but fparingly eaten; however, whenever they kill one of the two 

 firft animals, the chiefs indulge themfelves in devouring the blood, 

 the fat, the entrails, and fo much of the meat, as few Europeans 

 would be capable of eating at one meal -, but as thefe indulgencies 

 are not very frequent-, and their flomachs prove ilrong and powerful 

 digeilers, they are feldom, if ever lick of a furfeit. Their common 

 drink is frefh water, and in fome few cafes even, fea- water, neither 



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of which will prove hurtful. But the chiefs and principle people 



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in thefe ifles, ufe themfelves to drink a liquor prepared by chewing 



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the root of a kind of cultivated pepper, f Piper methyjlicum) which 

 they put into a wooden bowl and infufe with common or coco-nut- 

 water, and afterwards ftrain through coco-nut-core ^ which i^ 

 then whitiih, infipid, or partaking fomewhat of the tafle of a weak 



infufion of pepper. This potion when taken in quantities, makes 



2 



them 



