FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   372   373   374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396  
397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   >>   >|  
also bread-fruit and plantains. Then the whole was covered with green leaves, on which were laid the remainder of the hot stones; over them were leaves; then any sort of rubbish they could lay their hands on; finishing the operation by well covering the whole with earth. While the victuals were baking, a table was spread with green leaves on the floor, at one end of a large boat-house. At the close of two hours and ten minutes, the oven was opened, and all the victuals taken out. Those of the natives who dined with us, sat down by themselves, at one end of the table, and we at the other. The hog was placed before us, and the fat and blood before them, on which they chiefly dined, and said it was _Mamity_, very good victuals; and we not only said, but thought, the same of the pork. The hog weighed about fifty pounds. Some parts about the ribs I thought rather overdone, but the more fleshy parts were excellent; and the skin, which by the way of our dressing can hardly be eaten, had, by this method, a taste and flavour superior to any thing I ever met with of the kind. I have now only to add, that during the whole of the various operations, they exhibited a cleanliness well worthy of imitation. I have been the more particular in this account, because I do not remember that any of us had seen the whole process before; nor is it well described in the narrative of my former voyage. While dinner was preparing, I took a view of this _Whenooa_ of Oedidee. It was a small, but a pleasant spot; and the houses were so disposed as to form a very pretty village, which is very rarely the case at these isles, Soon after we had dined, we set out for the ship, with the other pig, and a few races of plantains, which proved to be the sum total of our great expectations. In our return to the ship, we put ashore at a place where, in the corner of a house, we saw four wooden images, each two feet long, standing on a shelf, having a piece of cloth round their middle, and a kind of turban on their heads, in which were stuck long feathers of cocks. A person in the house told us they were _Eatua no te Toutou_, gods of the servants or slaves. I doubt if this be sufficient to conclude that they pay them divine worship, and that the servants or slaves are not allowed the same gods as men of more elevated rank; I never heard that Tupia made any such distinction, or that they worshipped any visible thing whatever. Besides, these were the first wooden
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   372   373   374   375   376   377   378   379   380   381   382   383   384   385   386   387   388   389   390   391   392   393   394   395   396  
397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

victuals

 

leaves

 
thought
 

wooden

 
slaves
 

servants

 

plantains

 

worshipped

 

visible

 

expectations


proved

 
distinction
 

pleasant

 

Oedidee

 
Whenooa
 
houses
 
village
 

rarely

 

pretty

 
disposed

Besides
 

preparing

 

middle

 

turban

 
person
 
Toutou
 

feathers

 

standing

 

sufficient

 

elevated


corner
 

ashore

 

allowed

 

divine

 

conclude

 

worship

 

images

 

return

 

minutes

 
opened

chiefly

 
Mamity
 
natives
 

spread

 

remainder

 
stones
 

covered

 
operation
 

covering

 
baking