his house, and a large quantity of leaves, either of the bread-fruit or
banana, is neatly spread before him upon the ground as a table-cloth; a
basket is then set by him that contains his provision, which, if fish or
flesh, is ready dressed, and wrapped up in leaves, and two cocoa-nut
shells, one full of salt water, and the other of fresh: His attendants,
which are not few, seat themselves round him, and when all is ready, he
begins by washing his hands and his mouth thoroughly with the fresh
water, and this he repeats almost continually throughout the whole meal;
he then takes part of his provision out of the basket, which generally
consists of a small fish or two, two or three breadfruits, fourteen or
fifteen ripe bananas, or six or seven apples: He first takes half a
bread-fruit, peels off the rind, and takes out the core with his nails;
of this he puts as much into his mouth as it can hold, and while he
chews it, takes the fish out of the leaves, and breaks one of them into
the salt water, placing the other, and what remains of the bread-fruit,
upon the leaves that have been spread before him. When this is done, he
takes up a small piece of the fish that has been broken into the salt
water, with all the fingers of one hand, and sucks it into his mouth, so
as to get with it as much of the salt water as possible: In the same
manner he takes the rest by different morsels, and between each, at
least very frequently, takes a small sup of the salt water, either out
of the cocoa-nut shell or the palm of his hand: In the mean time one of
his attendants has prepared a young cocoa-nut, by peeling off the outer
rind with his teeth, an operation which to an European appears very
surprising; but it depends so much upon sleight, that many or us were
able to do it before we left the island, and some that could scarcely
crack a filbert: The master, when he chuses to drink, takes the
cocoa-nut thus prepared, and boring a hole through the shell with his
finger, or breaking it with a stone, he sucks out the liquor. When he
has eaten his bread-fruit and fish, he begins with his plantains, one of