416 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
in the ground for a fire-place^ and^ bringing a bundle 
of dry sticks from the adjacent bushes^ lighted a fire 
between the stones, upon which he placed the tea-kettle. 
While he was employed in dressing our bread-fruit, &c. 
we removed some of the boxes, piled up our luggage 
as compactly as we could, and, when the food was 
prepared, sat down to a pleasant repast of fried fish, 
bread-fruit, and plantains, cocoa-nut milk, and tea. 
As a beverage, we always preferred the latter, although 
the former is exceedingly pleasant. 
The large island of Raiatea lies immediately to 
the west of Fare harbour, and, by the time we had 
finished our meal, the sun was partly hid behind the 
high and broken summits of its mountains. This 
admonished us to prepare our sleeping-place, as 
the twilight is short, and we were not sure of pro¬ 
curing lights for the evening. The natives cut 
down four stout sticks from the neighbouring trees; 
these we fixed in the earthen floor, and fastening sheets 
and native cloth from one to the other, enclosed our 
bed-room ; a couple of chests were carried into it, upon 
which we spread our bed, making up one for the chil¬ 
dren, by the side of our own, on some packages that lay 
on the floor. We procured cocoa-nut oil, and when it 
grew dark, breaking a cocoa-nut in half, took one end, 
and winding a little cotton-wool round the thin stalk 
of the leaflet of the tree, fixed it erect in the kernel of 
the nut. This we filled with the oil, and thus our lamp 
and oil were entirely the production of the cocoa-nut 
tree; the small piece of cotton-wick gathered from the 
garden in Eimeo, being the only article it had not 
supplied. These were the only kind of lamps we had 
for some^ years, and, though rude in appearance. 
