STAPLE FOOD. 301 
ripen, and in the heathen districts offerings of them are 
made to the priests. In March and April the principal 
crop comes in, and is stored in sheds thatched with 
cocoa-nut leaves. As the season advances the contents 
of these sheds require at least a monthly overhauling ; 
the roots exhibiting any kind of decay have to be re- 
moved to prevent their contaminating the healthy ones. 
Yams are eaten baked, boiled, or steamed, and the na- 
tives can consume great quantities of them. Whole 
cargoes have occasionally been taken with profit to 
New South Wales and New Zealand, and whaling and 
trading vessels never touch at the group without laying 
in a good supply. 
There is another esculent root, the Kawai (Dioscorea 
aculeata, Linn.), also planted on artificial hillocks, though 
not so high as those of the yam. The stem of this 
creeper is round, and full of prickles, but it is not ac- 
commodated with reeds as that of the last-mentioned 
species. It ripens about June; on the 27th of that 
month all the leaves were dead. According to the na- 
tives it never flowers nor fruits, and I looked in vain 
over many a field in hopes of being able to disprove 
the statement. It is propagated by planting the small 
tubers or roots, which, like the old ones, are oblong, 
of a brownish colour outside, and a pure white within. 
When cooked, the skin peels off like the bark of the 
birch-tree, as Wilkes expresses it. The root is very 
farinaceous, and when well cooked looks like a fine 
mealy potato, though of superior whiteness. ‘The taste 
recalls to mind that of the Aracacha of South America ; 
there is aslight degree of sweetness about it which 
