Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/197

1769 and bread-fruit, by which I learnt that with my stomach at least it agreed as well as if dressed, and, if anything, was still easier of digestion, however contrary this may appear to the common opinion of the people at home.

Drink they have none except water and cocoanut juice, nor do they seem to have any method of intoxication among them. Some there were who drank pretty freely of our liquors, and in a few instances became very drunk, but seemed far from pleased with their intoxication, the individuals afterwards shunning a repetition of it, instead of greedily desiring it, as most Indians are said to do.

Their tables, or at least their apparatus for eating, are set out with great neatness, though the small quantity of their furniture will not admit of much elegance. I will describe the manner in which that of their principal people is served. They commonly eat alone, unless some stranger makes a second in their mess. The man usually sits under the shade of the nearest tree, or on the shady side of the house. A large quantity of leaves, either of bread-fruit or banana, are neatly spread before him, and serve instead of a table-cloth. A basket containing his provisions is then set by him, and two cocoanut-shells, one full of fresh, the other of salt, water. He begins by washing his hands and mouth thoroughly with the fresh water, a process which he repeats almost continually throughout the whole meal. Suppose that his provisions consist (as they often did) of two or three bread-fruits, one or two small fish about as big as an English perch, fourteen or fifteen ripe bananas or half as many apples. He takes half a bread-fruit, peels off the rind, and picks out the core with his nails; he then crams his mouth as full with it as it can possibly hold, and while he chews that, unwraps the fish from the leaves in which they have remained tied up since they were dressed, and breaks one of them into the salt water. The rest, as well as the remains of the bread-fruit, lie before him upon the leaves. He generally gives a fish, or part of one, to some one of his dependents, many of whom sit round him, and then takes up a very small piece of that which he has