On Saturdays following the general and long prevailing custom of the Mission we have a whole holiday, and consequently this morning we had only the shortened form of Mattins such as we use here. Breakfast followed consisting of yam scraped and cooked in leaves, and the particular kind presented for my discussion this morning is called “laqa[¨n]a.” The natives are great cooks and have a very long list of various dishes on their menu. There are three principal modes of cooking food, however, such as yams and taro, (1) Roasted on the embers and the outside skin carefully scraped off as it gets hardened, this is called “tutunu,” (2) scraped on the rough edge of the tree fern, then wrapped in leaves like a large pudding and cooked in the hot stones, this is termed “loko,” (3) roasted on the fire until cooked, then beaten on a large wooden dish until as thin about as biscuit pastry, and cocoanut cream poured over, this is named “lutu.” The first two are the most common preparations, and the first perhaps most generally in use. The different kinds of “loko and lutu” are wonderful, and it would puzzle any one but a skilled native cook, to make any distinct varieties of dishes out of such unpromising materials. Both sexes are good cooks, and no wonder, as from the time they are able properly to run about, until the infirmities of old age creep on they are accustomed to shift for themselves. An English boy would fare very badly if he had to cook his own dinner, and provide for his own wants as early as some of these native children. But education and habit are everything, the latter of course is second nature.