s of Pandanus, almonds, the fruit of the _malage_
(described later on), and others, both cultivated and wild. The
sugar-cane is specially eaten by them when working in the gardens. [49]

Their animal food consists of wild pig and, on occasions, village pig,
a small form of cassowary, kangaroo, a small kind of wallaby, kangaroo
rat, "iguana," an animal called _gaivale_ (I could not find out what
this is), various wild birds, fish, eels, mice, a large species of
snake and other things.

Their staple drink is water, but when travelling they cut down a
species of bamboo, and drink the watery fluid which it contains. After
boiling any food in bamboo stems they drink the water which has been
used for the purpose, and which has become a sort of thin flavoured
soup.

Betel-chewing is apparently not indulged in by these people as
extensively as it is done in Mekeo and on the coast; but they like it
well enough, and for a month or so before a big feast, during which
period they are under a strict taboo restriction as to food, they
indulge in it largely. The betel used by them is not the cultivated
form used in Mekeo and on the coast, but a wild species, only about
half the size of the other; and the lime used is not, as in Mekeo
and on the coast, made by grinding down sea-shells, but is obtained
from the mountain stone, which is ground down to a powder. The gourds
(Plate 51, Figs. 6 and 7) in which the lime is carried are similar to
those used in Mekeo, except that usually they are not ornamented, or,
if they are so, the ornamentation is only done in simple straight-lined
geometric patterns. The spatulae are sometimes very simply and rudely
decorated. The people spit out the betel after chewing, instead of
swallowing it, as is the custom in Mekeo.

Cooking and Eating and Their Utensils.

They have no cooking utensils, other than the simple pieces of bamboo
stem, which they use for boiling.

Their usual methods of cooking are roasting and boiling.

Roasting is usually effected by making a fire, letting it die
down into red-hot ashes, and then putting the food without wrap or
covering into the ashes, turning it from time to time. They also
roast by holding the food on sticks in the flame of the burning fire,
turning it occasionally. Stone cooking is adopted for pig and other
meats. They make a big fire, on the top of which they spread the
stones; when the stones are hot enough, they remove some of them,
place the meat wi