372 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the natives are made with cocoa-nut shells, usually of 
the omoto, which is of a yellow colour. It is scraped 
very thin, and is often slightly transparent. Their 
ava cups were generally black, highly polished, and 
sometimes ingeniously carved with a variety of devices, 
but the Tahitians did not excel in carving. The fibres 
of the husk are separated from the pulp by soaking them 
in water, and are used in making various kinds of cinet 
and cordage, especially a valuable coiar rope. 
It is impossible to contemplate either the bread-fruit 
or cocoa-nut tree, in their gigantic and spontaneous 
growth, their majestic appearance, the value and abun¬ 
dance of their fruit, and the varied purposes to which 
they are subservient, without admiring the wisdom and 
benevolence of the Creator, and his distinguishing 
kindness towards the inhabitants of these interesting 
islands. 
More rich and sweet to the taste, though far less 
serviceable as an article of food, is the maia^ plantain 
and banana, musa paradisaica, and musa sapientum. 
These are also indigenous, although generally culti¬ 
vated in the native gardens. They are a rich nutritive 
fruit, common within the tropics, and so generally 
known as to need no particular description here. There 
are not, perhaps, fewer than thirty varieties cultivated 
by the natives, besides nearly twenty kinds, very large 
and serviceable, that grow wild in the mountains. The 
orea, or maiden plantain, with the other varieties, 
comes to the highest perfection in the South Sea 
Islands, and is a delicious fruit. The stalk, or tree, 
on which these fruits grow, is seldom above eight 
or twelve feet high; the leaves are fine broad spe¬ 
cimens of the luxuriance of tropical vegetation, being 
