42 
O T A H E I T E. 
Salt water is the ufual fauce to their food : thofe who live 
near the fea have it furniflied as it is wanted, others at a 
diftance keep it in large bamboos. The kernels of the 
cocoa-nut furnith them with another fauce; thefe, made 
into a pafte fomething of the confidence of butter, are 
beat up with fait water, which has a very ftrong flavour; 
but, though at firft it feemed very naufeous, yet, when the 
tafte became familiar, it was much relifhed. 
Their general drink is water, or the milk of the cocoa- 
nut. They fhowed in general an averfion to ftrong li¬ 
quors; and, whenever any one of them happened to drink 
fo freely with any of the (hip's company as to be intoxi¬ 
cated, he refolutely refufed to tafte any thing that was 
likely to produce the fame effecil again ; but they have a 
plant which they call ava-ava, from the root of which they 
procure a liquor which has an inebriating quality. Their 
manner of preparing this ftrong drink is as fimple as it is 
difgufting to an European. Several of the people take 
fome of the root, and chew it till it is foft and pulpy; 
they then fpit it out into a platter or other vefiel, every 
one into the fame : into this general receptacle water is 
poured, according to the quantity prepared. The juice 
thus diluted is (trained through fome fibrous (tuff like 
fine (havings, after which it is fit for drinking, and it is 
always prepared for prefent ufe: if has a pepperifh tafte ; 
drinks fiat, and rather infipid ; and, tho’ it will intoxicate, 
yet Capt. Cook faw but one inftance where it had that 
effect, as the natives generally drink it with great mode¬ 
ration, and but little at a time. Sometimes they chew 
this root as Europeans do tobacco, and fometimes they 
will eat it wholly. 
They eat alone, or at lead only in company with a gueft 
that happens to call in; and the men and women never 
fit down together to a meal: the (hade of a fpreading tree 
ferves them for a parlour ; broad leaves fpread in great 
abundance ferve for a table-cloth ; and, if a perfon of 
rank, he is attended by a number of fervants, who feat 
themfelves round him: before he begins his meal, he 
wadies his mouth and hands very clean, and repeats this 
feveral times whilft he is eating. The quantity of food 
which thefe people eat at a meal is prodigious. Captain 
Cook fays, he has feen one man devour two or three fifties 
as big as a perch; three bread-fruits, each bigger than 
two fifts; fourteen or fifteen plantains, or bananas, each 
fix or feven inches long and four or five round ; and near 
a quart of the pounded bread-fruit. Men of rank are 
conftantly fed by their women ; and one of the chiefs 
who dined on-board the (hips in 1769, fhowed fuch reluc¬ 
tance to feed himfelf, that one of the fervants was obliged 
to feed him, to prevent his returning without his meal. 
I11 one of the excurfions which the gentlemen of the (hips 
made into the country in 1773, they arrived at a neat 
lioufe, where a very fat man, who feemed to be a chief of 
the diftridl, was lolling on his wooden pillow; before 
him two fervants were preparing his defert, by beating 
up with w'ater fome bread-fruit and bananas in a large 
w ooden bowl, and mixing with it a quantity of fermented 
four pafte called mahie. While this was doing, a woman, 
who fat down near him, crammed down his throat by 
handfuls the remains of a large baked fifli, and feveral 
bread-fruits, which iie fwallowed with a voracious appe¬ 
tite : his countenance was the piflure of phlegmatic in- 
lenfibility, and feemed to teftify that all his thoughts cen¬ 
tered in the gratification of his appetite. He fcarcely 
deigned to look at theftrangers; and a few monofyllables 
wdiich he uttered, were extorted from him to remind 
his feeders of their duty, when, by gazing at them, they 
grew lefs attentive to him. 
That thefe people, w’ho are remarkably fond of fociety, 
and particularly that of their women, fhould exclude its 
pleasures from the table, where, among other nations, 
wdiether civil or favage, they have been principally en¬ 
joyed, is truly inexplicable. How a meal, which every¬ 
where elfe brings families and friends together, comes to 
feparate them here, was a Angularity much inquired about, 
but neyer accounted for. “ They ate alone (they faid), 
becaufe it was right;” but why it was-right to eat alone, 
they never attempted to explain. Such, however, was 
the force of habit in this inftance, as it is in every other, 
that they expreffed the ftrongeft diftike, and even difguft, 
at their vifitants eating in fociety, efpecially with women, 
and of the fame victuals. “ At firft ((ays Cook) we 
thought this ftrange Angularity arofe from fome fuperfti- 
tious opinion; but they conftantly affirmed the contrary. 
We obferved alfo fome caprices in the cuftom, for which 
we could as little account as the cuftom itfeif. We could 
never prevail with any of the women to partake of the 
victuals at our table, when we were dining in company ; 
yet they would go five or fix together into the fervants’ 
apartments, and there eat very heartily of whatever they 
could find : nor were they in the lead difconcerted if we 
came in while they were doing it. When any of us have 
been alone with a woman, (lie has fometimes eaten in our 
company; but then (lie has expreffed great unwilling- 
nefs that it (hould be known, and always extorted the 
ftrongeft promifes of fecrec}'. Among themfelve 5 , even 
two brothers and two fillers have each their feparate baf- 
kets of provifions, and the apparatus of their meal.’ 
When they firft vifited us at our tents, each brought his 
baiket with him; and, when we fat down to table, they 
would go out, fit down upon the ground, at two or three 
yards diftance from each other, and, turning their faces 
different ways, take their repaft without exchanging a 
fingle word. The women not only abftain from eating 
with the men, and of the fame victuals, but even have 
their victuals feparately prepared by boys kept for that 
purpofe, who depofit it in a feparate fhed, and attend 
them with it at their meals. But, though they would not 
eat with us, or with each other, they have often afked us 
to eat with them, when we have vifited thofe with whom 
we were particularly acquainted at their houfes ; and we 
have often, upon fuch oceafions, eaten out of the fame 
bafket, and drank out of the fame cup. The elder women, 
however, always appeared offended at this liberty; and, if 
we happened to touch their victuals, or even the baiket 
that contained it, they would throw it away.” 
After meals, and in the heat of the day, the middle- 
aged people of the better fort generally deep. They 
are indeed extremely indolent; and fleeping and eating 
are almoft all that they do. Thofe that are older, are lefs 
drowfyyand the boys and girls are kept awake by the 
natural activity and fprightlinefs of their age. 
Their amufements are rnufic, dancing, w'reftling, and 
diooting with the bow : they alfo fometimes vie with 
each other in throwing 4 a lance. Their only mufical in- 
ftruments are flutes and drums; the flutes are made of 
a hollow bamboo, about a foot long, and have only two 
(lops, and confequently but four notes. The drum is 
made of a hollow block of wood, of a cylindrical form, 
folid at one end, and covered at the other with (hark’s 
(kin : thefe they beat, not with (ticks, but their hands ; 
and they know how to tune two drums of different notes 
into concord. They have alfo an expedient to bring the 
flutes that play together into unifon, which is to roll up 
a leaf fo as to flip over the end of the fhorteft, like our 
Aiding tubes for telefcopes, which they move up and 
down till the purpofe is anfwered, of which they feem to 
judge by their ear with great nicety. To thefe inftru- 
ments they ling; their longs are often extempore; they 
call every two verfes, or couplet, a fong, palay: they are 
generally, though not always, in rhyme; and, when pro¬ 
nounced by the natives, they might be difcovered to be 
metre. Among other diverfions, there is a dance called 
timorodee, which is performed by young girls, whenever 
eight or ten of them can be collected together, confiding 
of motions and geftures beyond imagination wanton, in 
the praflice of which they are brought up from their ear- 
lieft childhood, accompanied by words, which, if it were 
poffible, would more explicitly convey the fame ideas. 
In thefe dances they keep time with an exadlnefs which is 
fcarcely 
