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wlucli I have mentioned as descending by a chain of waterfalls.
Here we bivonaclced for the night. On each side of
the ravine there were great beds of the Feye, or mountain-
banana, covered with ripe fruit. Many of these plants were
from twenty to twenty-five feet high, and from three to
four in circumference. By the aid of strips of bark for
twine, the stems of bamboos for rafters, and the large leaf
of the banana for a thatch, the Tahitians in a few minutes
built an excellent house; and with the withered leaves
made a soft bed.
They then proceeded to make a fire, and cook our evening
meal. A light was procured by rubbing a blunt-pointed
stick in a groove made in another (as if with the intention
of deepening it), until by friction the dust became ignited.
A peculiarly white and very light wood (the Hibiscus
tUiaceus) is alone used for this purpose; it is the same
which serves for poles to carry any burden, and for the
floating outrigger to steady the canoe. The fire was produced
in a few seconds: hut, to a person who does not
understand the art, it requires the greatest exertion; as I
found, before at last, to my great pride, I succeeded in
igniting the dust. The Gaucho in the Pampas uses a
different method; taking an elastic stick about eighteen
inches long, he presses one end on his breast, and the other
(which is pointed) in a hole in a piece of wood, and then
rapidly turns the cmwed part, like a carpenter’s centre-bit.
The Tahitians having made a small fire of sticks, placed a
score of stones, of about the size of cricket-balls, on the
burning wood. In about ten minutes’ time the sticks were
consumed and the stones hot. They had previously folded
up in small parcels of leaves, pieces of beef, fish, ripe and
unripe bananas, and the tops of the wild arum. These green
parcels were laid in a layer between two layers of the
hot stones, and the whole then covered up with earth, so
that no smoke or steam could escape. In about a quarter
of an hour, the whole was most deliciously cooked. The
choice green parcels were now laid on a cloth of bananaleaves,
and with a cocoa-nut shell we drank the cool water
of the running stream; and thus we enjoyed our rustic
meal.
I could not look on the surrounding plants without admiration.
On every side were forests of banana; the frmt of
which, though serving for food in various ways, lay in heaps
decaying on the ground. In front of us there was an
extensive brake of wild sugar-cane; and the stream was
shaded by the dark green knotted stem of the Ava,—so
famous in former days for its powerful intoxicating effects.
1 chewed a piece, and found that it had an acrid and
unpleasant taste, which would have induced any one at
once to have pronounced it poisonous. Thanks be to the
missionaries, this plant now thrives only in these deep
ravines, innocuous to every one. Close by I saw the wild
arum, the roots of which, when well baked, are good to
eat, and the young leaves better than spinach. There was
the wild yam, and a liliaceous plant called Ti, which grows
in abundance, and has a soft brown root, in shape and size
like a huge log of wood. This served us for dessert, for it is
as sweet as treacle, and with a pleasant taste. There were,
moreover, several other wild fruits, and useful vegetables.
The little stream, besides its cool water, produced eels and
cray-fish. I did indeed admire this scene, when I compared
it with an uncultivated one in the temperate zones. I felt
the force of the observation, that man, at least savage man,
with his reasoning powers only partly developed, is the
child of the tropics.
As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneath the
gloomy shade of the bananas up the course of the stream.
My walk was soon brought to a close, by coming to a waterfall
between two and three hundred feet high; and again
above this there was another. I mention all these waterfalls
in this one brook, to give a general idea of the inclination of
the land. In the little recess where the water fell, it did not
appear that a breath of wind had ever entered. The leaves
of the banana, damp with spray, possessed an unbroken edge.