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 



vol. v. I 13 



