Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/179

 entered it one day, and found it to contain but one large room. The floor was partially covered with mats and tapa. In the center, at one end of the room, was a large pit, lined with stones, where they built their fires and  did their cooking. It was inclosed by seven posts, about six feet high. The roof was covered with the leaves of the pandanus. Earthen jars, holding from one to eight gallons, oval at the bottom, and with a small opening at  the top, together with a lot of junk-bottles and drinking- vessels were hanging from the posts and the roof. These utensils were made at the pottery by the women. Nearly all the labor, both indoors and out, was performed by  the women. They were kept in subjection and in a state of great degradation, and were often tied up and flogged. They were the abject slaves of their lords and masters, who, if not at war with some neighboring tribe, might be  found in their huts or in some shady nook asleep or telling stories. Of the latter amusement they were very fond, especially if the stories were false. It might be truly said that the one who could tell the biggest lie was held in  the highest esteem by them.

Nearly all their food was cooked in the jars of which we have previously spoken. A very little water is put in the jar with the food to be cooked; the mouth is then  stuffed with green plantain leaves, and the jar placed on  the fire. Some of these jars were held sacred, and nothing but human flesh was cooked in them. These were kept in the mabure, or spirit houses. These cannibals considered the fleshy parts of the arms and legs the most  palatable portions of the human body.

Another method of cooking human bodies was this: