s without underwood, and paths led in all directions through it from
one house to another. Only those travellers who have experienced the
intense overpowering heat of tropical countries can form a just
conception of the enjoyableness of a ramble through the shady groves of
Tahiti.

The food eaten by the natives was chiefly vegetable. They had tame
hogs, dogs, and poultry, but these were not plentiful, and the visit of
Cook's ship soon diminished the numbers of animals very considerably.
When a chief killed a hog it was divided almost equally amongst his
dependants, and as these were numerous, the share of each individual at
a feast was not large. Dogs and fowls fell to the lot of the lower
classes. Cook says that he could not commend the flavour of their
fowls, but he and his crew unanimously agreed that a South-Sea dog was
little inferior to English lamb! He conjectured that their excellence
was owing to the fact that they were fed exclusively upon vegetables.

Like everything else in Tahiti, the art of cooking was somewhat
peculiar. The preparation of a dog for dinner is thus described:--

"The dog, which was very fat, we consigned over to Tupia, who undertook
to perform the double office of butcher and cook. He killed him by
holding his hands close over his mouth and nose, an operation which
continued above a quarter of an hour. While this was going on, a hole
was made in the ground about a foot deep, in which a fire was kindled,
and some small stones were placed in layers alternately with the wood to
get heated. The dog was then singed by holding him over the fire, and
by scraping him with a shell the hair came off as clean as if he had
been scalded in hot water. He was then cut up with the same instrument,
and his entrails being taken out, were sent to the sea, where, being
carefully washed, they were put into cocoa-nut shells with what blood
came from the body.

"When the hole was sufficiently heated, the fire was removed, and some
of the stones,--which were not so hot as to discolour anything that
touched them,--being placed in the bottom, were covered with green
leaves. The dog and the entrails were then placed upon the leaves,
other leaves were placed above them, the whole was covered up with the
remainder of the hot stones, and the mouth of the hole was closed with
mould. In somewhat less than four hours it was again opened and the dog
taken out excellently baked. Nearly all the fish and flesh