Their food is generally dressed by baking, in the 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.[207]