A Voyage round the World: A book for boysKingston, William Henry Giles
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A Voyage round the World: A book for boys
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Voyages around the world -- Juvenile fiction
"There, white men--there, friends--there it was your great sea-chieftain
fell." He repeated, we found, the same words in his own language. The
natives listened to what he said, and then hung their heads ashamed, as
if they had been guilty of the sad deed. We broke off several pieces of
the lava from about the spot, to take to our friends at home, and sent
them on board the schooner. We were to accompany the missionary
overland to Kailua, where the schooner was to meet us. After the
missionary had spoken to the people, we were anxious to proceed on our
journey, and one of the principal natives, who lived a few miles to the
north, insisted that we should remain at his hut for the night; and we,
accordingly, gladly accompanied him. We found the feast preparing
outside the door, in the usual oven. Knowing that Englishmen have an
objection to eat dogs, he had killed a fatted pig. The oven was a
simple affair. A hole was dug in the earth, in which a large fire was
lighted upon some stones, till all the earth around was hot; piggy was
then put in, and the hole was covered up with loose earth; clouds of
steam then issued from the earth, and when no more was perceptible the
meat was declared to be cooked properly. We all sat round on mats in
the primitive fashion, the food being placed before us either in
calabashes or on large leaves. Instead of bread we had the bread-fruit.
It has somewhat the flavour of bread, and answers its purpose, but has
neither the appearance nor consistence of our staff of life. It is
about the size of the shaddock, and, when fresh gathered, the flavour of
the citron; but it is always eaten baked, when it has the solidity of a
roasted chestnut. Besides these luxuries, we had some fish nicely
cooked, which we ate with the thick interior of the cocoa-nut, which may
truly be called the cream, while the juice served to quench our thirst.
We had a number of visitors, who all, both men and women, chatted away
most merrily, especially the women, who kept up a continued peal of
laughter. At night the hut was lighted up with chips of a resinous
wood, called kukia, which were stuck all round on the posts which
supported the roof; and when we expressed a wish to retire to rest, mats
were hung up to partition off our sleeping chambers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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