CAPTAIN COOK ’S FIRST VOYAGE. 519

fuperior clafs. At noon both fexes appear almoft naked, wearing only the piece of cloththat is tied round the waift.

The boys and girls go quite naked; the firft till they are feven or eight years old;the latter till they are about five. Their houfes they feldora ufe but to fleep in, orto avoid the rain, as they eat in the open air, under the fhade of a tree. Their clothesferve them at night for covering, and there are no divifions or apartments. The mafterand his wife repofe in the middle, then the married people; next to thefe the unmarriedfemales, and at a finall diftance the men who are unmarried ; and the fervants lleep inthe open air in fair weather. The houfes of the chiefs, however, differ in fome degree ;there are fome very fmall, and fo built as to be carried in canoes : all fides of them areinclofed with the leaves of the cocoa-nut; the air, neverthelefs, penetrates; in thefethe chief and his wife alone fleep. There are alfo houfes which are general receptaclesfor the inhabitants of a diftriift. Thefe are much larger.

When a chief kills a hog, which is but feldom, he divides it equally among hisvaffals ; dogs and fowls are more common.

When the bread fruit is not in feafon, they are fupplied by cocoa-nuts, bananas,plantains, &c.

Their cookery is confined to baking, and their drink is generally water, or the milkof the cocoa-nuts, though there were inftances in which fome of them drank fo freelyof the Englifh liquors, as to become quite intoxicated ; this, however, feemed to proceedmore from ignorance than defign, as they were never known to repeat a debauch ofthis kind a fecond time. They were told, indeed, that the chiefs fometimes becameinebriated by drinking the juice of a plant called Ava, but of this they faw no inftanceduring the time they remained on the ifland.

The chiefs generally eat alone, unlefs when vifited by a flranger, who is fometimespermitted to become a fecond in their mefs ; having nothing to fupply the want of atable, they fit on the ground in the fhade; leaves of trees being fpread before them,'ferve as a table cloth; their attendants, who are numerous, having placed a bafketbefore the chiefs, containing their provifions, and a cocoa-nut fhell of frefh and faitCrater, feat themfelves round them; they then begin by walking their mouth andand hands, after which they eat a mouthful of bread-fruit and fiih, dipt in fait wateralternately, till the whole is confumed, taking a fup of fait water likewife between almoftevery morfel. The bread-fruit and fifh being all eaten, they next have either plantainspr apples, which they never eat without being pared. During this time a foft paftels prepared from the bread-fruit, which they fup out of a cocoa-nut fhell; this finifhesthe meal, and the hands and mouth are again wafhed, as at the beginning.

It is aftonifhing how much food they eat at a meal. Mr. Banks and fome othergentlemen were prefent when one man devoured three fifh the fize of a middling carp,lour bread-fruits as large as a common melon, thirteen or fourteen plantains feven orei ght inches long, and above half as big round, and about a quart of the pafte madeof bread-fruit.

It is not a little furprifing, that the inhabitants of this ifland, who feemed exceedinglyfenfible of the pleafures of fociety, fhould have an univerfal averfion to the leaft inter-oourfe with each other at their meals ; and fo rigid are they in the obfervance of thisUnufual cuftom, that even brothers and fifters have their Separate bafkets to containIheir provifions, and generally fit fome yards diftance when they eat, with their backsturned towards each other, not exchanging a fingle word during the whole time of theirJ" e paft; the middle aged of fuperior rank ufually betake themfelves to fleep after dinner,out what is remarkable, the older people are not fo lazy; mufic, dancing, wreftling,

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