e same manner as at
Otaheite; and they have the art of making, from different kinds of
fruit, several dishes, which most of us esteemed very good. I never saw
them make use of any kind of sauce, nor drink any thing at their meals
but water, or the juice of the cocoa-nut; for the _kava_ is only their
morning draught. I cannot say that they are cleanly, either in their
cookery, or manner of eating. The generality of them will lay their
victuals upon the first leaf they meet with, however dirty it may be;
but when food is served up to the chiefs, it is commonly laid upon green
plantain leaves. When the king made a meal, he was, for the most part,
attended upon by three or four persons. One cut large pieces of the
joint, or of the fish; another divided it into mouthfuls; and others
stood by with cocoa-nuts, and whatever else he might want. I never saw a
large company sit down to what we should call a sociable meal, by eating
from the same dish. The food, be what it will, is always divided into
portions, each to serve a certain number; these portions are again
subdivided; so that one seldom sees above two or three persons eating
together. The women are not excluded from eating with the men; but there
are certain ranks or orders amongst them, that can neither eat nor drink
together. This distinction begins with the king; but where it ends, I
cannot say.

They seem to have no set time for meals; though it should be observed,
that, during our stay amongst them, their domestic economy was much
disturbed by their constant attention to us. As far as we could remark,
those of the superior rank only drink _kava_ in the forenoon, and the
others eat, perhaps, a bit of yam; but we commonly saw all of them eat
something in the afternoon. It is probable that the practice of making a
meal in the night is pretty common, and their rest being thus
interrupted, they frequently sleep in the day. They go to bed as soon as
it is dark, and rise with the dawn in the morning.[181]

[Footnote 181: Cantova says of his islanders, "Ils prennent leur repos
des que le soleil est couche, et ils se levent avec l'aurore."--_Lettres
Edifiantes et Curieuses_, tom. xv. p. 314.--D.]

They are very fond of associating together; so that it is common to find
several houses empty and the owners of them convened in some other one,
or, rather, upon a convenient spot in the neighbourhood, where they
recreate themselves by conversing and other amusements. Their priva