METHOD OF COOKING THE TARO. 215 
native cloth, and the men were at work on a new 
canoe. In the same place were several larger 
ones, one upwards of sixty feet long, and between 
two or three feet deep, hollowed out of a single 
tree. The workmen told us they were making a 
pair of that size for Kaikioeva, guardian of the 
young prince Kauikeouli, whose tenants they 
were. 
Near the south end of the house, which was 
quJte open, stood their fire-place, where a man 
was preparing a quantity of arum or taro for the 
oven. The roots were oblong, from six inches to 
a foot in length, and three or four inches in 
diameter. The substance of the root is somewhat 
like that of a potato, but more fibrous ; and to the 
taste, before dressed, is exceedingly pungent and 
acrid. The tender leaves of this plant are some¬ 
times wrapped up in plantain leaves, baked, and 
eaten by the natives; but in general the root only 
is used as an article of food. The oven was a 
hole in the earth, three or four feet in diameter, 
and nearly a foot deep. A number of small stones 
were spread over the bottom, a few dried leaves 
laid on them, and the necessary quantity of 
sticks and firewood piled up, and covered over 
with small stones. The dry leaves were then 
kindled, and while the stones were heating, 
the man scraped off the skin or rind of the taro 
with a shell, and split the roots into two or three 
pieces. When the stones were red hot, they were 
spread out with a stick, the remaining firebrands 
taken away, and when the dust and ashes on the 
stones at the bottom had been brushed off with a 
green bough, the taro, wrapped in leaves, was laid 
on them till the oven was full, when a few more 
leaves were spread on the taro; hot stones were 
i 
