THE PELEW ISLANDS, 
3°5 
were three feet or upwards in length, but narrow and 
green *; Captain Wilson was going to tafte a bit of 
the root raw, but they would not fuffer him, f gnifying that 
it was not good, by fpitting, as if they had fomething un- 
plealant in their mouth. This fweetmeat did not keep fo 
well as the other two forts, growing foon four.-—They had alfo 
a method of fcraping the kernel of the cocoa-nut into a pulp, 
which when mixed with fome of their fweet drink, and the 
juice of the four orange, had the appearance of curds and 
whey. 
Their mode of preferving filh, when there was a plenty, fo 
that it would keep a day or two, has been fully explained in 
page 190. Some of the other forts of fifh they boiled in falt- 
water, and eat without any kind of fauce ; they alfo boiled 
the fea cray-fifh ; but the fmaller fort of fhell-fifh, and the 
Kima Cockle , they ufually eat raw, fqueezing only a little 
orange or lemon-juice over it; and the grey mullet (though 
they fometimes boiled it) yet was more commonly eaten 
raw : as foon as caught, they cleaned and crimped it, then 
laid it about an hour in the fun to harden, by which time it 
was fully drefl to their tafle. 
They had no fait, nor did they make ufe of fauce or fea- 
foning in any thing they eat. Their drink was as limple as 
their diet: at their meals, the milk of the cocoa-nut was their 
* Ie was probably the Tacta pinnaufida of Linnaeus. 
R r 
ufual 
