56 
VI DOE, 
elegant abilities of an experienced English house¬ 
keeper. On the cloth was nothing but a plate, a 
knife and fork, a wine glass, and a bottle of claret, 
for each guest, except that in the middle stood a 
large and handsome glass-castor of sugar, with 
a magnificent silver top. The natives are not in 
the habit of drinking malt liquor or water, nor 
is it customary to eat salt with their meals. The 
dishes are brought in singly: our first was a large 
turenne of soup, which is a favorite addition to 
the dinners of the richer people, and is made of 
sago, claret, and raisins, boiled so as to become 
almost a mucilage. We were helped to two soup- 
plates full of this, which we ate without knowing 
if any thing more was to come. No sooner, 
however, was the soup removed, than two large 
salmon, boiled and cut in slices, were brought 
on, and, with them, melted butter, looking like 
oil, mixed with vinegar and pepper: this, like¬ 
wise, was very good, and, when we had with 
some difficulty cleared our plates, we hoped we 
had finished our dinners. Not so, for there was 
then introduced a turenne full of the eggs of the 
Cree, or great tern, boiled hard, of which a dozen 
were put upon each of our plates; and, for sauce, 
we had a large basin of cream, mixed with sugar, 
in which were four spoons, so that we all ate 
out of the same bowl, placed in the middle of 
the table. We petitioned hard to be excused 
