39® 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777 ' the lower people eat rats. The two firft vegetable articles, 
l " 1 - , _j with bread-fruit, are, what may be called, the balls of 
their food, at different times of the year, with fifh and 
fheU-fifh; for hogs, fowls, and turtle, feem only to be 
occalional dainties, referved for their Chiefs. The inter¬ 
vals between the feafons of thefe vegetable produdlions 
mull be, fometimes, conliderable, as they prepare a fort of 
artificial bread from plantains, which they put under ground 
before ripe, and fuffer them to remain till they ferment, 
when they are taken out, and made up into fmall balls; 
but fo four and indifferent, that they often laid our bread 
was preferable, though fomewhat mufty. 
Their food is, generally, drelfed by baking, in the fame 
manner as at Otaheite ; and they have the art of making, 
from different kinds of fruit, feveral diflies, which moff 
of us elfeemed very good. I never faw them make ufe 
of any kind of fauce; nor drink any thing at their meals 
but water, or the juice of the cocoa-nut; for the kava 
is only their morning draught. I cannot fay, that they 
are cleanly either in their cookery, or manner of eating. 
The generality of them will lay their victuals upon the 
firft leaf they meet with, however dirty it may be; but 
when food is ferved up to the Chiefs, it is, commonly, 
laid upon green plantain leaves. When the king made a 
meal, he was, for the moft part, attended upon by three 
or four pferfons. One cut large pieces of the joint, or of 
the fifh; another divided it into mouthfuls; and others 
flood by with cocoa-nuts, and whatever elfe he might 
want. I never faw a large company fit down to what we 
fhould call a fociable meal, by eating from the fame difh. 
The food, be what it will, is always divided into portions, 
.each to ferve a certain number; thefe portions are again 
fubdivided, 
