estals to be centrally located in the valley,
for the purpose of keeping alive the indispensable article of fire; so
as to supersede the necessity of such a vast outlay of strength and
good temper, as were usually squandered on these occasions. There might,
however, be special difficulties in carrying this plan into execution.

What a striking evidence does this operation furnish of the wide
difference between the extreme of savage and civilized life. A gentleman
of Typee can bring up a numerous family of children and give them all
a highly respectable cannibal education, with infinitely less toil
and anxiety than he expends in the simple process of striking a light;
whilst a poor European artisan, who through the instrumentality of a
lucifer performs the same operation in one second, is put to his wit's
end to provide for his starving offspring that food which the children
of a Polynesian father, without troubling their parents, pluck from the
branches of every tree around them.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

KINDNESS OF MARHEYO AND THE REST OF THE ISLANDERS--A FULL DESCRIPTION OF
THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE--DIFFERENT MODES OF PREPARING THE FRUIT

ALL the inhabitants of the valley treated me with great kindness; but as
to the household of Marheyo, with whom I was now permanently domiciled,
nothing could surpass their efforts to minister to my comfort. To the
gratification of my palate they paid the most unwearied attention.
They continually invited me to partake of food, and when after eating
heartily I declined the viands they continued to offer me, they seemed
to think that my appetite stood in need of some piquant stimulant to
excite its activity.

In pursuance of this idea, old Marheyo himself would hie him away to
the sea-shore by the break of day, for the purpose of collecting
various species of rare sea-weed; some of which among these people are
considered a great luxury. After a whole day spent in this employment,
he would return about nightfall with several cocoanut shells filled with
different descriptions of kelp. In preparing these for use he manifested
all the ostentation of a professed cook, although the chief mystery of
the affair appeared to consist in pouring water in judicious quantities
upon the slimy contents of his cocoanut shells.

The first time he submitted one of these saline salads to my critical
attention I naturally thought that anything collected at such pains must
possess peculiar merits; but one m