Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/198

140 broken into the salt water in the ends of all the fingers in one hand, and sucks it into his mouth to get as much salt water as possible, every now and then taking a small sup of it, either out of the palm of his hand or out of the cocoanut-shell.

In the meanwhile one of the attendants has prepared a young cocoanut by peeling off the outer rind with his teeth, an operation which at first appears very surprising to Europeans, but depends so much upon a knack, that before we left the island, many of us were ourselves able to do it, even myself, who can scarce crack a nut. When he chooses to drink, the master takes this from him, and, boring a hole through the shell with his finger, or breaking the nut with a stone, drinks or sucks out the water. When he has eaten his bread-fruit and fish, he begins with his plantains, one of which makes no more than a mouthful, if they are as big as black puddings. If he has apples a shell is necessary to peel them; one is picked off the ground, where there are always plenty, and tossed to him; with this he scrapes or cuts off the skin, rather awkwardly, as he wastes almost half the apple in doing it. If he has any tough kind of meat instead of fish, he must have a knife, for which purpose a piece of bamboo is tossed to him, of which he in a moment makes one, by splitting it transversely with his nail. With this he can cut tough meat or tendons at least as readily as we can with a common knife. All this time one of his people has been employed in beating bread-fruit with a stone pestle and a block of wood; by much beating and sprinkling with water, it is reduced to the consistence of soft paste; he then takes a vessel like a butcher’s tray, and in it lays his paste, mixing it with either bananas, sour paste, or making it up alone, according to the taste of his master; to this he adds water, pouring it on by degrees, and squeezing it often through his hand till it comes to the consistence of a thick custard. A large cocoanut-shell full of this he then sets before his master, who sups it down as we should a custard, if we had not a spoon to eat it with. His dinner is then finished by