Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/101

 INDUSTEIAL PEODTJCE, ETC. Y5 bring the mass into a proper state of fermentation. Banana bread is the best, and, when fit for use, is very like hard milk curds ; but the sour, fetid smell of the pits is most offensive to a European. After the fruit is put in, the pit is covered, by turning down over each other the projecting leaves used for lining the sides, and thus keeping out the rain. Large stones are then placed on the top to press all down. When ready for use, a quanity is taken out, mashed, and mixed with either scraped cocoa-nut, papuan apple, or ripe banana, and then folded in leaves in small balls or rolls, when it is either boiled or baked. The unpleasant odour is greatly dissipated by cooking ; but the taste remains slightly, though not unpleasantly sour. Opinions differ as to the amount of nutriment contained in this food. It is certainly very useful to the natives, though many of them suffer from its too constant use. The inhabitants of rocky and unproductive islands receive effect- ual aid, in the form of baskets of native bread, from such as have an over abundant vegetable supply. Destructive gales sometimes sweep over the cultivated grounds, cutting off the ripening fruits, which, however, in their green state are fit for bread-making; and thus in another way the madrai, which disgusts strangers, serves to keep off famine, otherwise inevitable. Beside the supplies which are reared under the care of the native agriculture, the Fijian has an exhaustless store of food in the unculti- vated districts of the larger islands, where, among the wildest and most prolific luxuriance, he may gather refreshing fruits, or dig valuable esculents. Here he finds a large spontaneous supply of arrow-root, which, with cultivation and improvement in its manufacture, he will soon be able to send in large quantities to the home market, so as to compete successfully with the best West Indian samples. The bulou is a wild root, very like an old potato, and weighing from one to eight pounds. The yaha is a creeper, with a root very like liquorice, and used in the same way. The tirroot and turmeric grow wild, together with two sorts of yams, in abundance. The fruit and bulbous roots of the kaili — a sort of climber — are used in times of scarcity. Two kinds of tomato (solamim) are found, and eaten by the natives, boiled with yams, etc. The leaves of the bels are used as greens. , The nutmeg grows here unnoticed and unprized. Among other resources open to the Fijian, without any trouble but that of gathering, may be mentioned the hgolago and the vutu, — two kinds of nuts. Concernino- the latter, which tastes like our English earth-nut, the natives believe that if the young leaves are split, the husk of the nut will be tender. There are also gathered in plenty the wi, or Brazilian plum, [S2:)ondias 6