356 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
Although the general or district ovens of opio were 
in their tendency less injurious than the public stills^, 
often erected in the different districts^ they were usually 
attended with debauchery and excess, highly injurious 
to the health, and debasing to the morals of the people, 
who generally relinquished their ordinary employment, 
and devoted their nights and days to mere animal exis¬ 
tence, of the lowest kind—rioting, feasting, and sleep¬ 
ing, until the opio was consumed. Within the last 
ten years, very few ovens of opio have been prepared, 
those have been comparatively small, and they are now 
almost entirely discontinued. 
Another mode of preserving the bread-fruit is by sub¬ 
mitting it to a slight degree of fermentation, and reducing 
it to a soft substance, which they call mahi. When the 
fruit is ripe, a large quantity is gathered, the rind 
scraped off, the core taken out, and the whole thrown in 
a heap. In this state it remains until it has under¬ 
gone the process of fermentation, when it is beaten into 
a kind of paste. A hole is now dug in the ground, 
the bottom and sides of which are lined with green ti 
leaves; the mahi is put into the pit, covered over with 
ti leaves, and then with earth or large stones. In this 
state it might be preserved several months ; and, although 
rather sour and indigestible, it is generally esteemed by 
the natives as a good article of food during the scarce 
season. Previous to its being eaten, it is rolled up in 
small portions, enclosed in bread-fruit leaves, and baked 
in the native ovens. 
The tree on which the bread-fruit grows, besides pro¬ 
ducing three, and in some cases four crops in a year, of 
so excellent an article of food, furnishes a valuable 
gum, or resin, which exudes from the bark, when punc- 
