350 FEEJEE GROUP. 
taro, &c. In the mountain districts the ivi is much used as an article 
of food. This is found in great plenty in the more elevated regions. 
It is about the size of an apple, and when cooked resembles a Spanish 
chestnut. On the coast they have abundance of fish, some of which 
are of fine kinds, and differ in species from any we had before seen. 
They likewise have fine crabs, which are caught among the tiri or 
mangrove bushes. The higher classes occasionally indulge in fowls 
and pigs, a luxury the common people cannot afford. 
They make at least twenty different kinds of pudding, each of which 
has its appropriate name, though all are included under the generic 
term of oakalolo. ‘That most frequently met with is called saku-saku, 
and is made of taro or yams, chiefly of the former. The taro is first 
roasted, and plunged while hot into cold water; this takes off all the 
hard outer surface, and leaves the mealy interior free. The latter is 
pounded into paste with cocoa-nut milk, and wrapped in a banana-leaf 
to be cooked. When thoroughly done, this dish resembles a sweetened 
pudding of coarse Indian meal. 
Their feasts are attended with much ceremony and form, and evince 
a degree of politeness and good breeding that was unexpected, and 
cannot but surprise all who witness it. These ceremonies and atten- 
tions to minute punctilios are more evident in their turtle-feasts than 
on other occasions. These may be given either by the king or by 
high chiefs. Those given by the king are held in the mbure, on which 
occasion it is spread with new mats, and the perpetual fire, which is 
usually only smouldering, is excited to a blaze. The king stretches 
himself out near the fire at full length, the guests are seated in rows 
opposite to him, and the dishes are placed between him and them. As 
they are extremely punctilious in relation to rank, there are rarely on 
such occasions more than about fifteen guests. Among these are 
always the councillor of state, a priest, and a distinguished visiter or 
two. The rest are matanivanua (landholders). The other guests, 
and particularly the strangers, are received by the priest, who does the 
honours of the mbure, and makes them a speech of welcome, which is 
closed by a clapping of hands from the rest of the company. 
Each person is seated according to his rank, and to the king a 
separate dish is assigned, while the rest help themselves with their 
fingers out of the same basket. The feast is composed of several 
courses of the different parts of the turtle, with taro, yams, &c.; and 
after each course, a cocoa-nut shell containing water is handed round 
to rinse the hands. 
The first course is composed of the inferior parts of the turtle; the 
second of taro, yams, mandrai, and bananas together with the water, 
