TAHITI'S NATURAL BREAD SUPPLYThe Tahitians have no corn or grain of any kind out of which to make bread. They found in the forests excellent substitutes for bread, and more healthful for that climate, in the form of breadfruit, wild plantain and tubers rich in starch. This is the kind of bread they have been eating for centuries, and which they prefer to our bread to-day. When the island was densely populated and the demand on nature's resources exceeded the supply, the natives had to plant trees, roots and tubers in vacant spaces in the forest, high up on the mountainsides, where they grew luxuriantly without any or little care, and by these trifling efforts on the part of man the food-supply kept pace with the increase of the population. Trees and plants distributed in this manner found a permanent home in the new places provided for them, and have since multiplied, and thus increased greatly the annual yield. Evidences of dissemination of bread and fruit-yielding trees and plants by the intervention of man are apparent to-day throughout the island by the presence of cocoa-palms, breadfruit and other fruit trees, and plantains, in localities where nature could not plant them, in places formerly inhabited but abandoned long ago when the population became so rapidly decimated by the virulent diseases introduced into the island by the Europeans. To-day the fruit and fruit-supply is so abundant that it is within easy reach of every family and can be had without money and without labor. We will consider here a few of the most important substitutes for bread on which the Tahitians largely subsist:FRUIT VENDERTAHITIAN FRUIT VENDERBreadfruit.—Breadfruit is the most important article of food of the Tahitians. It is the fruit of the breadfruit treeArfocarpus incisiva(Linné), a tree of the natural order,Artocarpaceæ, a native of the islands of the Pacific Ocean and of the Indian Archipelago. This fruit is one of the most important gifts of nature to the inhabitants of the tropics, serving as the principal part of their food, the inner tough bark of the tree furnishing a good material for native cloth, while the trunk of the tree is used as a material for canoes. The exudation issuing from cuts made into the stem, a resinous substance, is in use for closing the seams of canoes. Several varieties of breadfruit trees are to be found in Tahiti, differing in the structure of their leaves and in the size and time of ripening of the fruit, so that ripe breadfruit is obtainable more or less abundantly throughout the year. The foliage of this tree is the greenest of all green, and it is this deep green which distinguished this tree at once from its neighbors. The male flowers are in catkins, with a two-leaved perianth and one stamen; the female flowers are nude. The leaves are large, pinnatifid, frequently twelve to eighteen inches long, smooth and glossy on their upper surface. The much branched tree attains a height of twenty to fifty feet. The fruit is asorosis, a compound or aggregate the size of a child's head, round or slightly oblong, light green, fleshy and tuberculated on the surface. The rind is thick, and marked with small square or lozenge-shaped divisions, each having a small elevation in the middle. The fruit hangs by a short, thick stalk from the small branches, singly or in clusters of two or three together. It contains a white, somewhat fibrous pulp, which when ripe becomes juicy and yellow, but has then a rotten taste. The fruit is gathered for use before it is ripe, and the pulp is then white and mealy, of the consistence of fresh bread. The fruit is prepared in many ways for food, roasted on hot coals, boiled or baked, or converted by the experienced native cook into complicated dainty dishes. The common practice in Tahiti is to cut each fruit into three or four pieces and take out the core; then to place heated stones in the bottom of a hole dug in the ground; to cover them with green leaves, and upon this place a layer of the fruit, then stones, leaves and fruit alternately, till the hole is nearly filled, when leaves and earth to the depth of several inches are spread over all. In half an hour the breadfruit is ready; the outsides are, in general, nicely browned, and the inner part presents a white or yellowish cellular substance. Breadfruit prepared in this manner and by other methods of cooking is very palatable, as I can speak from my own experience, slightly astringent and highly nutritious, a most excellent dietetic article for the tropics. The tree is very prolific, producing two and sometimes three crops a year. When once this tree has gained a firm foothold in a soil it cherishes, and in a climate it enjoys, it exhibits a tenacity to reproduce itself to an extent often beyond desirable limits. Of this Captain Cook writes:I have inquired very carefully into their manner of cultivating the breadfruit tree; but was always answered that they never plant it. The breadfruit tree plants itself, as it springs from the roots of the old ones, so that the natives are often under the necessity of preventing its progress to make room for trees of other sorts to afford some variety in their food.The timber is soft and light, of a rich yellow color, and assumes when exposed to the air the appearance of mahogany.Manioc.—Manioc is another important article of food in Tahiti and likewise serves as an excellent substitute for baker's bread. It is the large, fleshy root ofManihot utilissima, a large, half-shrubby plant of the natural orderEuphorhiaceæ, a native of tropical America, and much cultivated in Tahiti as an article of food. In this island the plant has run wild in some of the ravines formerly inhabited. The plant grows in a bushy form, with stems usually six to eight feet high, but sometimes much higher. The stems are brittle, white, and have a very large pith; the branches are crooked. The leaves are near the ends of the branches, large, deeply seven-parted, smooth and deep green. The roots are very large, turnip-like, sometimes weighing thirty pounds, from three to eight growing in a cluster, usually from twelve to twenty-four inches in length. They contain an acrid, milky juice in common with other parts of the plant, so poisonous as to cause death in a few minutes; but as the toxic effect is owing to the presence of hydrocyanic acid, which is quickly removed by heat, the juice, inspissated by boiling, forms the excellent sauce calledcasareep; and fermented with molasses it yields an intoxicating beverage calledonycou; whilst the root, grated, dried on hot metal plates and roughly powdered, becomes an article of food. It is made into thin plates which are formed into cakes, not by mixing with water, but by the action of heat, softening and agglutinating the particles of starch. The powdered root prepared in this manner is an easily digestible and nutritious article of farinaceous food. The root is largely made use of in the manufacture of starch and is exported from Tahiti for this purpose to a considerable extent. The starch made from this root is also known as Brazilian arrowroot, and from it tapioca is made. Manioc is propagated by cuttings of the stem, and is of rapid growth, attaining maturity in six months.Sweet Cassava.—Sweet cassava is the root ofManihot Aipi, a woody plant indigenous to tropical South America, growing in great abundance in the dense forest of the mountain valleys of Tahiti. The plant grows to a height of several feet and has large long leaves growing from the foot of the stem. The root is reddish and nontoxic; it can therefore be used as a culinary esculent, without any further preparation than boiling, while its starch can also be converted into tapioca. TheAipihas tough, woody fibres, extending along the axis of the tubers, while generally the roots of the manioc (bitter cassava) are free from this central woody substance.ArrowrootorArru Root.—The commercial arrowroot is prepared from different starch-yielding roots, but the bulb of theMaranta marantaceæproduces more starch and of a better quality than any of the others. It is a native of the West Indies and South America, and is cultivated quite extensively in Tahiti. Many little patches of this plant may be seen along the road from Papeete to Papara, where the lowland soil is well adapted for its cultivation. The starch-producing plant which is cultivated most extensively in Tahiti and other South Sea Islands is theTacca pinnatifolia. This perennial plant will even thrive well in the sandy soil near the shore. The stalk, with terminal spreading pinnatifid leaves, is from two to three feet high and the root is a tuber about the size of a small potato. The tacca starch is much valued in medicine, and is particularly used in the treatment of inflammatory affections of the gastro-intestinal canal.Taro or Tara.—Taro is another very important food-product of Tahiti, as well as other islands of the Pacific, notably the Hawaiian Islands. It is the root ofColocasia macrorhiza, a plant of the natural orderAraceæ, of the same genus withcocoa. The plant thrives best in low, marshy places. In all of the South Sea Islands it is very extensively cultivated for its roots, which constitute in these islands a staple article of food, excellent substitutes for potatoes and bread. The roots are very large, from twelve to sixteen inches in length, and as much in circumference. They are washed in cold water to take away their acridity, which is such as to cause excoriation of the mouth and palate. The roots are cooked in the same way as the breadfruit, the rind being first scraped off. Another very common way of eating taro is in the form ofpoi. This method of preparing the root was known to the Tahitians when Captain Cook visited the island. He comparedpoiwith "sour pudding." It requires some skill to makepoi. The root, finely grated, is allowed to ferment over night. It tastes sour and is a refreshing, delicate and nutritious dish, when served ice-cold. The plant has no stalk; the petioled heart-shaped leaves spring from the root. The flower is in the form of a spathe. The boiled leaves can be used as a substitute for spinach.Wild Plantain.—The wild plantain furnishes its liberal share of food-supply for the Tahitians. It is a tree-like, perennial herb (Musa paradisiaca) with immense leaves and large clusters of the fruits. In its appearance it resembles very closely the banana, but differs from it as the hands and fingers of the bunches of fruit are turned in the opposite direction. The fruit is long and somewhat cylindrical, slightly curved, and, when ripe, soft, fleshy and covered with a thick but tender yellowish skin. This plant is indigenous to Tahiti and is found in abundance in the forests. The fruit is cooked or baked and is keenly relished by the natives.All of the articles of food I have referred to above are easily digested, palatable and nutritious, and for the Tahiti climate more healthful than bread and potatoes, on which the masses of people living in colder climates subsist to a large extent. I attribute the comparative immunity of the South Sea Islanders from attacks of appendicitis principally to their diet, which is laxative, easily digested and not liable to cause fermentation in the gastro-intestinal canal. Appendicitis does occur in these islands, but this disease is extremely rare as compared with the frequency with which it is met in Europe, and more especially in the United States. The Americans are the most injudicious and reckless eaters in the world, which goes far in explaining the prevalence of gastric and intestinal disorders among our people.PREPARING BREADFRUITPREPARING BREADFRUIT
TAHITI'S NATURAL BREAD SUPPLYThe Tahitians have no corn or grain of any kind out of which to make bread. They found in the forests excellent substitutes for bread, and more healthful for that climate, in the form of breadfruit, wild plantain and tubers rich in starch. This is the kind of bread they have been eating for centuries, and which they prefer to our bread to-day. When the island was densely populated and the demand on nature's resources exceeded the supply, the natives had to plant trees, roots and tubers in vacant spaces in the forest, high up on the mountainsides, where they grew luxuriantly without any or little care, and by these trifling efforts on the part of man the food-supply kept pace with the increase of the population. Trees and plants distributed in this manner found a permanent home in the new places provided for them, and have since multiplied, and thus increased greatly the annual yield. Evidences of dissemination of bread and fruit-yielding trees and plants by the intervention of man are apparent to-day throughout the island by the presence of cocoa-palms, breadfruit and other fruit trees, and plantains, in localities where nature could not plant them, in places formerly inhabited but abandoned long ago when the population became so rapidly decimated by the virulent diseases introduced into the island by the Europeans. To-day the fruit and fruit-supply is so abundant that it is within easy reach of every family and can be had without money and without labor. We will consider here a few of the most important substitutes for bread on which the Tahitians largely subsist:FRUIT VENDERTAHITIAN FRUIT VENDERBreadfruit.—Breadfruit is the most important article of food of the Tahitians. It is the fruit of the breadfruit treeArfocarpus incisiva(Linné), a tree of the natural order,Artocarpaceæ, a native of the islands of the Pacific Ocean and of the Indian Archipelago. This fruit is one of the most important gifts of nature to the inhabitants of the tropics, serving as the principal part of their food, the inner tough bark of the tree furnishing a good material for native cloth, while the trunk of the tree is used as a material for canoes. The exudation issuing from cuts made into the stem, a resinous substance, is in use for closing the seams of canoes. Several varieties of breadfruit trees are to be found in Tahiti, differing in the structure of their leaves and in the size and time of ripening of the fruit, so that ripe breadfruit is obtainable more or less abundantly throughout the year. The foliage of this tree is the greenest of all green, and it is this deep green which distinguished this tree at once from its neighbors. The male flowers are in catkins, with a two-leaved perianth and one stamen; the female flowers are nude. The leaves are large, pinnatifid, frequently twelve to eighteen inches long, smooth and glossy on their upper surface. The much branched tree attains a height of twenty to fifty feet. The fruit is asorosis, a compound or aggregate the size of a child's head, round or slightly oblong, light green, fleshy and tuberculated on the surface. The rind is thick, and marked with small square or lozenge-shaped divisions, each having a small elevation in the middle. The fruit hangs by a short, thick stalk from the small branches, singly or in clusters of two or three together. It contains a white, somewhat fibrous pulp, which when ripe becomes juicy and yellow, but has then a rotten taste. The fruit is gathered for use before it is ripe, and the pulp is then white and mealy, of the consistence of fresh bread. The fruit is prepared in many ways for food, roasted on hot coals, boiled or baked, or converted by the experienced native cook into complicated dainty dishes. The common practice in Tahiti is to cut each fruit into three or four pieces and take out the core; then to place heated stones in the bottom of a hole dug in the ground; to cover them with green leaves, and upon this place a layer of the fruit, then stones, leaves and fruit alternately, till the hole is nearly filled, when leaves and earth to the depth of several inches are spread over all. In half an hour the breadfruit is ready; the outsides are, in general, nicely browned, and the inner part presents a white or yellowish cellular substance. Breadfruit prepared in this manner and by other methods of cooking is very palatable, as I can speak from my own experience, slightly astringent and highly nutritious, a most excellent dietetic article for the tropics. The tree is very prolific, producing two and sometimes three crops a year. When once this tree has gained a firm foothold in a soil it cherishes, and in a climate it enjoys, it exhibits a tenacity to reproduce itself to an extent often beyond desirable limits. Of this Captain Cook writes:I have inquired very carefully into their manner of cultivating the breadfruit tree; but was always answered that they never plant it. The breadfruit tree plants itself, as it springs from the roots of the old ones, so that the natives are often under the necessity of preventing its progress to make room for trees of other sorts to afford some variety in their food.The timber is soft and light, of a rich yellow color, and assumes when exposed to the air the appearance of mahogany.Manioc.—Manioc is another important article of food in Tahiti and likewise serves as an excellent substitute for baker's bread. It is the large, fleshy root ofManihot utilissima, a large, half-shrubby plant of the natural orderEuphorhiaceæ, a native of tropical America, and much cultivated in Tahiti as an article of food. In this island the plant has run wild in some of the ravines formerly inhabited. The plant grows in a bushy form, with stems usually six to eight feet high, but sometimes much higher. The stems are brittle, white, and have a very large pith; the branches are crooked. The leaves are near the ends of the branches, large, deeply seven-parted, smooth and deep green. The roots are very large, turnip-like, sometimes weighing thirty pounds, from three to eight growing in a cluster, usually from twelve to twenty-four inches in length. They contain an acrid, milky juice in common with other parts of the plant, so poisonous as to cause death in a few minutes; but as the toxic effect is owing to the presence of hydrocyanic acid, which is quickly removed by heat, the juice, inspissated by boiling, forms the excellent sauce calledcasareep; and fermented with molasses it yields an intoxicating beverage calledonycou; whilst the root, grated, dried on hot metal plates and roughly powdered, becomes an article of food. It is made into thin plates which are formed into cakes, not by mixing with water, but by the action of heat, softening and agglutinating the particles of starch. The powdered root prepared in this manner is an easily digestible and nutritious article of farinaceous food. The root is largely made use of in the manufacture of starch and is exported from Tahiti for this purpose to a considerable extent. The starch made from this root is also known as Brazilian arrowroot, and from it tapioca is made. Manioc is propagated by cuttings of the stem, and is of rapid growth, attaining maturity in six months.Sweet Cassava.—Sweet cassava is the root ofManihot Aipi, a woody plant indigenous to tropical South America, growing in great abundance in the dense forest of the mountain valleys of Tahiti. The plant grows to a height of several feet and has large long leaves growing from the foot of the stem. The root is reddish and nontoxic; it can therefore be used as a culinary esculent, without any further preparation than boiling, while its starch can also be converted into tapioca. TheAipihas tough, woody fibres, extending along the axis of the tubers, while generally the roots of the manioc (bitter cassava) are free from this central woody substance.ArrowrootorArru Root.—The commercial arrowroot is prepared from different starch-yielding roots, but the bulb of theMaranta marantaceæproduces more starch and of a better quality than any of the others. It is a native of the West Indies and South America, and is cultivated quite extensively in Tahiti. Many little patches of this plant may be seen along the road from Papeete to Papara, where the lowland soil is well adapted for its cultivation. The starch-producing plant which is cultivated most extensively in Tahiti and other South Sea Islands is theTacca pinnatifolia. This perennial plant will even thrive well in the sandy soil near the shore. The stalk, with terminal spreading pinnatifid leaves, is from two to three feet high and the root is a tuber about the size of a small potato. The tacca starch is much valued in medicine, and is particularly used in the treatment of inflammatory affections of the gastro-intestinal canal.Taro or Tara.—Taro is another very important food-product of Tahiti, as well as other islands of the Pacific, notably the Hawaiian Islands. It is the root ofColocasia macrorhiza, a plant of the natural orderAraceæ, of the same genus withcocoa. The plant thrives best in low, marshy places. In all of the South Sea Islands it is very extensively cultivated for its roots, which constitute in these islands a staple article of food, excellent substitutes for potatoes and bread. The roots are very large, from twelve to sixteen inches in length, and as much in circumference. They are washed in cold water to take away their acridity, which is such as to cause excoriation of the mouth and palate. The roots are cooked in the same way as the breadfruit, the rind being first scraped off. Another very common way of eating taro is in the form ofpoi. This method of preparing the root was known to the Tahitians when Captain Cook visited the island. He comparedpoiwith "sour pudding." It requires some skill to makepoi. The root, finely grated, is allowed to ferment over night. It tastes sour and is a refreshing, delicate and nutritious dish, when served ice-cold. The plant has no stalk; the petioled heart-shaped leaves spring from the root. The flower is in the form of a spathe. The boiled leaves can be used as a substitute for spinach.Wild Plantain.—The wild plantain furnishes its liberal share of food-supply for the Tahitians. It is a tree-like, perennial herb (Musa paradisiaca) with immense leaves and large clusters of the fruits. In its appearance it resembles very closely the banana, but differs from it as the hands and fingers of the bunches of fruit are turned in the opposite direction. The fruit is long and somewhat cylindrical, slightly curved, and, when ripe, soft, fleshy and covered with a thick but tender yellowish skin. This plant is indigenous to Tahiti and is found in abundance in the forests. The fruit is cooked or baked and is keenly relished by the natives.All of the articles of food I have referred to above are easily digested, palatable and nutritious, and for the Tahiti climate more healthful than bread and potatoes, on which the masses of people living in colder climates subsist to a large extent. I attribute the comparative immunity of the South Sea Islanders from attacks of appendicitis principally to their diet, which is laxative, easily digested and not liable to cause fermentation in the gastro-intestinal canal. Appendicitis does occur in these islands, but this disease is extremely rare as compared with the frequency with which it is met in Europe, and more especially in the United States. The Americans are the most injudicious and reckless eaters in the world, which goes far in explaining the prevalence of gastric and intestinal disorders among our people.PREPARING BREADFRUITPREPARING BREADFRUIT
The Tahitians have no corn or grain of any kind out of which to make bread. They found in the forests excellent substitutes for bread, and more healthful for that climate, in the form of breadfruit, wild plantain and tubers rich in starch. This is the kind of bread they have been eating for centuries, and which they prefer to our bread to-day. When the island was densely populated and the demand on nature's resources exceeded the supply, the natives had to plant trees, roots and tubers in vacant spaces in the forest, high up on the mountainsides, where they grew luxuriantly without any or little care, and by these trifling efforts on the part of man the food-supply kept pace with the increase of the population. Trees and plants distributed in this manner found a permanent home in the new places provided for them, and have since multiplied, and thus increased greatly the annual yield. Evidences of dissemination of bread and fruit-yielding trees and plants by the intervention of man are apparent to-day throughout the island by the presence of cocoa-palms, breadfruit and other fruit trees, and plantains, in localities where nature could not plant them, in places formerly inhabited but abandoned long ago when the population became so rapidly decimated by the virulent diseases introduced into the island by the Europeans. To-day the fruit and fruit-supply is so abundant that it is within easy reach of every family and can be had without money and without labor. We will consider here a few of the most important substitutes for bread on which the Tahitians largely subsist:
FRUIT VENDERTAHITIAN FRUIT VENDER
TAHITIAN FRUIT VENDER
Breadfruit.—Breadfruit is the most important article of food of the Tahitians. It is the fruit of the breadfruit treeArfocarpus incisiva(Linné), a tree of the natural order,Artocarpaceæ, a native of the islands of the Pacific Ocean and of the Indian Archipelago. This fruit is one of the most important gifts of nature to the inhabitants of the tropics, serving as the principal part of their food, the inner tough bark of the tree furnishing a good material for native cloth, while the trunk of the tree is used as a material for canoes. The exudation issuing from cuts made into the stem, a resinous substance, is in use for closing the seams of canoes. Several varieties of breadfruit trees are to be found in Tahiti, differing in the structure of their leaves and in the size and time of ripening of the fruit, so that ripe breadfruit is obtainable more or less abundantly throughout the year. The foliage of this tree is the greenest of all green, and it is this deep green which distinguished this tree at once from its neighbors. The male flowers are in catkins, with a two-leaved perianth and one stamen; the female flowers are nude. The leaves are large, pinnatifid, frequently twelve to eighteen inches long, smooth and glossy on their upper surface. The much branched tree attains a height of twenty to fifty feet. The fruit is asorosis, a compound or aggregate the size of a child's head, round or slightly oblong, light green, fleshy and tuberculated on the surface. The rind is thick, and marked with small square or lozenge-shaped divisions, each having a small elevation in the middle. The fruit hangs by a short, thick stalk from the small branches, singly or in clusters of two or three together. It contains a white, somewhat fibrous pulp, which when ripe becomes juicy and yellow, but has then a rotten taste. The fruit is gathered for use before it is ripe, and the pulp is then white and mealy, of the consistence of fresh bread. The fruit is prepared in many ways for food, roasted on hot coals, boiled or baked, or converted by the experienced native cook into complicated dainty dishes. The common practice in Tahiti is to cut each fruit into three or four pieces and take out the core; then to place heated stones in the bottom of a hole dug in the ground; to cover them with green leaves, and upon this place a layer of the fruit, then stones, leaves and fruit alternately, till the hole is nearly filled, when leaves and earth to the depth of several inches are spread over all. In half an hour the breadfruit is ready; the outsides are, in general, nicely browned, and the inner part presents a white or yellowish cellular substance. Breadfruit prepared in this manner and by other methods of cooking is very palatable, as I can speak from my own experience, slightly astringent and highly nutritious, a most excellent dietetic article for the tropics. The tree is very prolific, producing two and sometimes three crops a year. When once this tree has gained a firm foothold in a soil it cherishes, and in a climate it enjoys, it exhibits a tenacity to reproduce itself to an extent often beyond desirable limits. Of this Captain Cook writes:
I have inquired very carefully into their manner of cultivating the breadfruit tree; but was always answered that they never plant it. The breadfruit tree plants itself, as it springs from the roots of the old ones, so that the natives are often under the necessity of preventing its progress to make room for trees of other sorts to afford some variety in their food.
The timber is soft and light, of a rich yellow color, and assumes when exposed to the air the appearance of mahogany.
Manioc.—Manioc is another important article of food in Tahiti and likewise serves as an excellent substitute for baker's bread. It is the large, fleshy root ofManihot utilissima, a large, half-shrubby plant of the natural orderEuphorhiaceæ, a native of tropical America, and much cultivated in Tahiti as an article of food. In this island the plant has run wild in some of the ravines formerly inhabited. The plant grows in a bushy form, with stems usually six to eight feet high, but sometimes much higher. The stems are brittle, white, and have a very large pith; the branches are crooked. The leaves are near the ends of the branches, large, deeply seven-parted, smooth and deep green. The roots are very large, turnip-like, sometimes weighing thirty pounds, from three to eight growing in a cluster, usually from twelve to twenty-four inches in length. They contain an acrid, milky juice in common with other parts of the plant, so poisonous as to cause death in a few minutes; but as the toxic effect is owing to the presence of hydrocyanic acid, which is quickly removed by heat, the juice, inspissated by boiling, forms the excellent sauce calledcasareep; and fermented with molasses it yields an intoxicating beverage calledonycou; whilst the root, grated, dried on hot metal plates and roughly powdered, becomes an article of food. It is made into thin plates which are formed into cakes, not by mixing with water, but by the action of heat, softening and agglutinating the particles of starch. The powdered root prepared in this manner is an easily digestible and nutritious article of farinaceous food. The root is largely made use of in the manufacture of starch and is exported from Tahiti for this purpose to a considerable extent. The starch made from this root is also known as Brazilian arrowroot, and from it tapioca is made. Manioc is propagated by cuttings of the stem, and is of rapid growth, attaining maturity in six months.
Sweet Cassava.—Sweet cassava is the root ofManihot Aipi, a woody plant indigenous to tropical South America, growing in great abundance in the dense forest of the mountain valleys of Tahiti. The plant grows to a height of several feet and has large long leaves growing from the foot of the stem. The root is reddish and nontoxic; it can therefore be used as a culinary esculent, without any further preparation than boiling, while its starch can also be converted into tapioca. TheAipihas tough, woody fibres, extending along the axis of the tubers, while generally the roots of the manioc (bitter cassava) are free from this central woody substance.
ArrowrootorArru Root.—The commercial arrowroot is prepared from different starch-yielding roots, but the bulb of theMaranta marantaceæproduces more starch and of a better quality than any of the others. It is a native of the West Indies and South America, and is cultivated quite extensively in Tahiti. Many little patches of this plant may be seen along the road from Papeete to Papara, where the lowland soil is well adapted for its cultivation. The starch-producing plant which is cultivated most extensively in Tahiti and other South Sea Islands is theTacca pinnatifolia. This perennial plant will even thrive well in the sandy soil near the shore. The stalk, with terminal spreading pinnatifid leaves, is from two to three feet high and the root is a tuber about the size of a small potato. The tacca starch is much valued in medicine, and is particularly used in the treatment of inflammatory affections of the gastro-intestinal canal.
Taro or Tara.—Taro is another very important food-product of Tahiti, as well as other islands of the Pacific, notably the Hawaiian Islands. It is the root ofColocasia macrorhiza, a plant of the natural orderAraceæ, of the same genus withcocoa. The plant thrives best in low, marshy places. In all of the South Sea Islands it is very extensively cultivated for its roots, which constitute in these islands a staple article of food, excellent substitutes for potatoes and bread. The roots are very large, from twelve to sixteen inches in length, and as much in circumference. They are washed in cold water to take away their acridity, which is such as to cause excoriation of the mouth and palate. The roots are cooked in the same way as the breadfruit, the rind being first scraped off. Another very common way of eating taro is in the form ofpoi. This method of preparing the root was known to the Tahitians when Captain Cook visited the island. He comparedpoiwith "sour pudding." It requires some skill to makepoi. The root, finely grated, is allowed to ferment over night. It tastes sour and is a refreshing, delicate and nutritious dish, when served ice-cold. The plant has no stalk; the petioled heart-shaped leaves spring from the root. The flower is in the form of a spathe. The boiled leaves can be used as a substitute for spinach.
Wild Plantain.—The wild plantain furnishes its liberal share of food-supply for the Tahitians. It is a tree-like, perennial herb (Musa paradisiaca) with immense leaves and large clusters of the fruits. In its appearance it resembles very closely the banana, but differs from it as the hands and fingers of the bunches of fruit are turned in the opposite direction. The fruit is long and somewhat cylindrical, slightly curved, and, when ripe, soft, fleshy and covered with a thick but tender yellowish skin. This plant is indigenous to Tahiti and is found in abundance in the forests. The fruit is cooked or baked and is keenly relished by the natives.
All of the articles of food I have referred to above are easily digested, palatable and nutritious, and for the Tahiti climate more healthful than bread and potatoes, on which the masses of people living in colder climates subsist to a large extent. I attribute the comparative immunity of the South Sea Islanders from attacks of appendicitis principally to their diet, which is laxative, easily digested and not liable to cause fermentation in the gastro-intestinal canal. Appendicitis does occur in these islands, but this disease is extremely rare as compared with the frequency with which it is met in Europe, and more especially in the United States. The Americans are the most injudicious and reckless eaters in the world, which goes far in explaining the prevalence of gastric and intestinal disorders among our people.
PREPARING BREADFRUITPREPARING BREADFRUIT
PREPARING BREADFRUIT