42 
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 frequently relin¬ 
quished their ordinary employment, and devoted 
their nights and days to mere animal existence, of 
the lowest kind—rioting, feasting, and sleeping, 
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 submitting 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 undergone 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 stones. In 
this state it may 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. Previ¬ 
ous 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 
producing two, and in some cases three crops in a 
year, of so excellent an article of food, furnishes a 
valuable gum, or resin, which exudes from the 
