POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
355 
it is very good^ but is a very indifferent substitute for 
English bread. 
To the natives of the South Sea Islands it is the prin¬ 
cipal article of diet;, and may indeed be called their staff 
of life. They are exceedingly fond of it^ and it is 
evidently adapted to their constitutions^ and highly 
nutritive;, as a very perceptible improvement is often 
witnessed in the appearance of many of the people^ a few 
weeks after the bread-fruit season has commenced. 
For the chiefs^ it is usually dressed two or three times 
a day I but the peasantry^ &c. seldom prepare more than 
one oven during the same period | and frequently Uliana^ 
or bake it again^ on the second day. 
During the bread-fruit season^ the inhabitants of a 
district sometimes join^ to prepare a quantity of opio. 
This is generally baked in an immense oven. A large pit, 
twenty or thirty feet in circumference, is dug out ; the 
bottom is filled with large stones, logs of firewood are 
piled upon them, and the whole is covered with other large 
stones. The wood is then kindled, and the heat is often 
so intense, as to reduce the stones to a state of liquefac¬ 
tion. When thoroughly heated, the stones are removed 
to the sides; many hundred ripe bread-fruit are then 
thrown in, just as they have been gathered from the 
trees, and are piled up in the centre of the pit ; a few 
leaves are spread upon them, the remaining hot stones 
built up like an arch over the heap, and the whole 
is covered, a foot or eighteen inches thick, with leaves 
and earth. In this state it remains a day or two | a 
hole is then dug on one side, and the parties to whom 
it belongs take out what they want, till the whole 
is consumed. Bread-fruit baked in this manner, will 
keep good several weeks after the oven is opened. 
