THE KINGS MILL ISLANDERS. 103 



The taro is baked hard, then grated with a shell, and mixed in a 

 trough with kamoimoi, until it is of the consistency of thick paste, 

 which is eaten with a spoon made of a human rib. They sometimes 

 grate this taro to a powder, and dry it in the sun until it becomes 

 like bread-dust. This powder is made up in short thick rolls, and 

 covered with pandanus-leaves, in which state it will keep for months. 

 They call it kabuibui. Before being eaten, it is soaked in water, and 

 then baked in a small basket. 



Manam is another preparation, of baked taro and cocoa-nut. These 

 materials are grated fine, mixed together, and then made into balls 

 as large as thirty-two pound shot. It is eaten with kamoimoi ; and 

 when the whole is not consumed on the day it is made, it is baked, 

 to preserve it from spoiling. 



The karaca, or toddy, is procured from the spathe of the cocoa- 

 nut tree, which is usually about four feet long, and two inches in 

 diameter. From this spathe the fruit is produced ; but in order to 

 procure their favourite toddy, it is necessary to prevent nature from 

 taking her course in bringing forth the fruit : they bind the spathe 

 up tightly with sennit; the end is then sliced off, and a cocoanut- 

 shell hung to the projecting part of the spathe, to catch the sap as 

 it exudes. One tree will yield from two to six pints of karaca. 

 When first obtained from the tree, it is like the young cocoanut- 

 milk, and quite limpid ; but after it stands for a few hours, it fer- 

 ments and becomes acid. When the spathe ceases to drop, another 

 piece is cut off, and every time it ceases to flow, it is treated in the 

 same way, until the spathe is entirely gone. Another spathe is found 

 soon after above this, which is suffered to grow, and when large 

 enough is treated in the same manner. 



The karaca is either drunk fresh from the tree, or made into 

 kamoimoi, (the kind of molasses before spoken of,) by boiling it 

 down in cocoanut-shells, set upon hot stones. It strongly resembles 

 our molasses, both in look and taste. When this is mixed with water 

 it is called karave, and is the usual drink at their feasts, when it is 

 set out in large wooden bowls, from which it is dipped by cups, made 

 of cocoanut-shells or of human skulls. 



These islanders have no kind of intoxicating drink. The food and 

 cooking of Makin are similar, although the names are somewhat 

 different: they use kaka for karapapa ; tagara for manam. Their 

 mode of cooking differs from that of other islanders. A small round 

 shallow hole is made, about two feet in diameter, and six inches deep, 



