156 COOKING HOUSEHOLD ARRANGEMENTS. 
dwellings ; and there are no fireplaces in 
any of the houses. Baked, not roasted, meats 
are the substantial luxuries of the table at 
Pitcairn. Their ovens, like those at Otaheite, 
described by Captain Cook, are formed with 
stones in the ground. Captain Beechey 
says, that an oven is made in the ground, 
sufficiently large to contain a good-sized 
pig, and is lined throughout with stones 
nearly equal in size. These, having been 
made as hot as possible, are covered with 
some broad leaves, generally of the ti-plant, 
and on them is placed the meat. If it 
be a pig, its inside is lined with heated 
stones, as well as the oven. Such vegetables 
as are to accompany the meal are then placed 
round the meat that is to be dressed. The 
whole is covered with leaves of the ti-plant, 
and buried beneath a heap of earth, straw, 
or rushes and boughs, which by a little use 
become matted into one mass. In about an 
hour and a quarter, the meat is sufficiently 
cooked. 
There is much wisdom in the arrange- 
ment, regarding the absence of fireplaces 
from their wooden cottages. They are also 
