meats. They make a big fire, on the top of which they spread the
stones; when the stones are hot enough, they remove some of them,
place the meat without wrap or covering on the others, then place the
removed stones on the meat, and finally pile on these stones a big
covering of leaves to keep in the heat. Stone cooking in the gardens
is done in a slightly different way; there they dig in the ground a
round hole about 1 foot deep and from 1 1/2 to 2 feet in diameter, and
in this hole they make their fire, on which they pile their stones;
and the rest of the process is the same as before. This hole-making
process is never adopted in the village. The only reason for it which
was suggested was that the method was quicker, and that in the gardens
they are in a hurry. Of course, holes of this sort dug in the open
village enclosure would be a source of danger, especially at night.

Boiling is done in pieces of bamboo about 4 inches in diameter
and about 15 or 18 inches long. They fill these with water, put the
food into them, and then place or hold the bamboo stems in a slanting
position in the flames. This method is specially used for cooking sweet
potatoes, but it is their only method of boiling anything. Water, which
they keep stored and carry in bamboo receptacles and hollow pumpkins,
is boiled in bamboo stems in the same way. The bamboo storage vessels
are generally from 2 to 5 feet long, the intersecting nodes, other
than that at one end, having been removed. The pumpkins (Plate 52,
Figs. 2 and 3) are similar to those used by the Roro coast people and
in Mekeo, except that the usual form, instead of being rather short
and broad with a narrow opening, is longer and narrower, some of them
being, say, 3 feet long, and often very curved and crooked in shape.

Their only eating utensils are wooden dishes and small pieces of wood,
or sometimes of cassowary or kangaroo bone, which are used as forks,