THE KINGSMILL ISLANDERS. 
97 
into the form of sheets, about three feet long by eighteen inches wide, 
and a quarter of an inch thick; these sheets are again laid on mats in 
the sun to dry, and at night are rolled up, and put away in an oven to 
bake. This process is repeated for two days, by which time the 
plates become as hard and unyielding as a board, and are of a reddish 
brown colour. Those plates called kabul are put away in the loft of 
their houses, but are every few days brought.out into the sun to insure 
their being kept dry. At the close of the season, they are reduced to 
a powder, not unlike fine sawdust. This is put up in rolls, from eight 
to ten feet long, and six to twelve inches in diameter, bound with 
leaves of the pandanus, and made so smooth and round that they look 
like pillars of brown stone: in this state the preparation is called 
karapapa, and will keep for years. This is the principal dependence 
of the natives in seasons of scarcity, and these rolls of karapapa are 
used as a circulating medium, in which wages and tributes to the 
chiefs are paid. 
They make a kind of broth with karapapa and kamoimoi (molasses), 
which the natives drink in great quantities. 
Tuea is another kind of kabul, but made of a better variety of pan¬ 
danus: this is beaten out into thin sheets, resembling dark brown paper, 
or like our cloth, which is also rolled up and put away; before being 
eaten, it is soaked for several hours in the milk of the cocoa-nut, and 
is esteemed a dainty. The kabul is generally chewed, and softens in 
the mouth, the pulp being dissolved, while the large mass of woody 
fibre remains: it has a sweetish tasle. 
The bread-fruit is generally roasted on hot stones, but not covered 
with earth, as at the other islands. After it is cooked, it is crushed 
between the folds of a mat. It is the same variety that is found at 
the Samoan Islands, which strengthens the opinion that part of these 
natives came from that quarter. 
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 
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VOL. V. 
