352 FEEJEE GROUP. 



The variety called umbudu, is the largest, sweetest, and most agree- 

 able to the taste ; those known by the names of botta-bot and bucudo, 

 are also excellent. 



The fruit of the latter are oval-shaped and prickly ; when baked 

 or roasted, they are not unlike a good custard-pudding. Nature 

 seems to have been particularly bountiful in her supply of this fruit, 

 for the varieties, in season, follow each other throughout the year. 

 March and April, however, are the months in which it is found in 

 the greatest perfection ; and it may be considered a fortunate circum- 

 stance, that many of the sorts ripen between the seasons of taro and 

 yams. If the bread-fruit is to be preserved, it is prepared by scraping 

 off the rind with a piece of bivalve shell ; a hole is then dug in the 

 ground about three feet deep, of the form of an inverted bell, the 

 sides of which are lined with banana-leaves. This is filled with the 

 fruit to within a few inches of the top, when the whole is thatched 

 with banana-leaves, to preserve it from the rain ; many stones are 

 laid on the top to press it down, and keep the pigs from it. After a 

 while it undergoes fermentation, and subsides into a mass, somewhat 

 of the consistency of new cheese. These pits, when opened, emit a 

 nauseous, fetid, and sour odour, and the colour of the contents is of a 

 greenish yellow. In this state it is called mandrai-uta, or native 

 bread, of which they distinguish several kinds, as mandrai n'dalo, 

 mandrai y taro, mandrai sivisivi of the ivi, mandrai vundi of bananas, 

 &c. It is said that it will keep several years, and is cooked with 

 cocoa-nut milk, in which state it forms an agreeable and I should 

 think nutritious food. To my taste, however, the bread-fruit is better 

 baked when fresh, and I found it superior here to that of any of the 

 other islands we visited. 



There are other uses to which the bread-fruit tree is put : the green 

 leaves are employed to serve their victuals on ; they are also burnt, 

 and form a black ashes, from which the natives draw a lie, which 

 they use in washing their heads to destroy the vermin, which so 

 much infest them. 



The general height of the bread-fruit trees is fifty feet, and some of 

 the leaves are two feet in length. 



The banana is called by the natives vundi. This fruit is in- 

 sipid, but the natives make a very nice pudding by forming a 

 cavity in the fruit, which they fill with finely-grated cocoa-nut, and 

 pour over it the milk; it is then tied up in the leaves and boiled. 

 They have five or six varieties of this fruit. Of the plantain 



