TheHijloryof 



B O OK II 



Gridiron, about two foot high, under which they kindle Co 

 fmall a fire, that fometimes it requires a whole day to make 

 ready their fifti as they would have it : Some of the French 

 affirm, that have eaten fome of their drefiing , they have lik'd 

 it very well: It is obfervable generally in all their meat, that 

 they drefi all with a very gentle fire. 



They commonly eat fitting on low ftools 5 and every one hath 

 his little table by himfelf, which they call Matoutou^ as tacitns 

 affirms, that it was praftHed among the ancient Germans ^ and as 

 it is reported at this day to be done in Japan : Sometimes alfo 

 they eat their meat on the ground, kneeling round one by 

 another : For Table-cloths, they have no linnen, as we have, 

 nor skins, as the Canadians 5 nor Mats as the Maldwefes, nor 

 Carpets as the Turks and fome other Nations, but fair and large 

 Banana-leaves newly gathered, which are very fit for Table- 

 eloths,beingfo large as we have reprefented elfewhere.-the feme 

 ferve alfo for Napkins, and they wipe their hands therewith : 

 They are alwaies very careful to wafti their hands before meals: 

 And when they are about the dreffingof any meat, they never 

 touch any thing that is to be eaten, ere they make their han<3s 

 clean .• In fine, in all their ordinary Repairs, their fobriety and 

 cleanlinefs is fo obfervable as can hardly be imagined among 

 Savages. 



We have faid elfewhere that their ordinary bread is a thin 

 Cake which they call Cajfava 9 made of the Manioc-root : Other 

 Writers have fet down the manner how it is made , yet that our 

 Hiftory may not be thought imperfect, we {hall here give a de- 

 fcription of the compofition thereof : The root, though it be 

 fometimes about thebignefs of a mans thigh, is eafily got out 

 of the ground : AlToon as it is taken out it is (craped with a 

 knife to take off a little hard skin which covers it, and then it 

 is fcraped or filed with with a tVafp or flat File of Iron or Cop- 

 per, of a good bignefs $ and they prefs the meal which comes 

 from it in a linnen bag, or in a long kind of pokes, which they 

 call in thelflands,^^*/, neatly woven of tVufties or Latanier 

 leaves by the Caribbians, that the juice may be fqueezed out 

 of it : The Savages before they knew the ufe of thofe Rafps, 

 made ufe inftead thereof, of certain hard and (harp ftones 

 which are to be found on thefea-fhore : They are fomewhat 

 like our Pumice-ftones : When the moifture of the Manioc is 

 got out, the meal is fifted through a coarfe cloth, and without 

 mixing it with any liquor, it is put upon an Iron Plate,or Plank, 

 and fometimes on a broad ftone, under which there is fire 3 

 when it is baked on one fide, they turn it on the other ; and 

 when it is fully baked, itisexpofed to the "Sun to make it har- 

 der, that it may keep the better : It is commonly made no 

 thicker than a mans little finger, and fometimes thinner, ac- 

 cording to the fancy of the Inhabitants : It will keep many 



months. 



