436 
TAHITI 
CHAP. 
the banana for a thatch, the Tahitians in a few minutes built 
us an excellent house ; and with withered leaves made a soft 
bed. 
They then proceeded to make a fire, and cook our evening 
meal. A light was procured by rubbing a blunt-pointed stick 
in a groove made in another, as if with intention of deepening 
it, until by the friction the dust became ignited. A peculiarly 
white and very light wood (the Hibiscus tiliaceus) is alone used 
for this purpose : it is the same which serves for poles to carry 
any burden, and for the floating outriggers to their canoes. 
The fire was produced in a few seconds : but to a person who 
does not understand the art, it requires, as I found, the greatest 
exertion ; but at last, to my great pride, I succeeded in igniting 
the dust. The Gaucho in the Pampas uses a different method : 
taking an elastic stick about eighteen inches long, he presses 
one end on his breast, and the other pointed end into a hole 
in a piece of wood, and then rapidly turns the curved part like 
a carpenter’s centre-bit. The Tahitians having made a small 
fire of sticks, placed a score of stones, of about the size of 
cricket-balls, on the burning wood. In about ten minutes the 
sticks were consumed, and the stones hot. They had previously 
folded up in small parcels of leaves, pieces of beef, fish, ripe 
and unripe bananas, and the tops of the wild arum. These 
green parcels were laid in a layer between two layers of the 
hot stones, and the whole then covered up with earth, so that 
no smoke or steam could escape. In about a quarter of an 
hour the whole was most deliciously cooked. The choice 
green parcels were now laid on a cloth of banana leaves, and 
with a cocoa-nut shell we drank the cool water of the running 
stream ; and thus we enjoyed our rustic meal. 
I could not look on the surrounding plants without 
admiration. On every side were forests of bananas ; the fruit 
of which, though serving for food in various ways, lay in heaps 
decaying on the ground. In front of us there was an extensive 
brake of wild sugar-cane ; and the stream was shaded by the 
dark green knotted stem of the Ava,—so famous in former 
days for its powerful intoxicating effects. I chewed a piece, 
and found that it had an acrid and unpleasant taste, which 
would have induced any one at once to have pronounced it 
poisonous. Thanks to the missionaries, this plant now thrives 
