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[Page 415]

Manners & Customs of the South Sea Islands

a large quantity of leaves either of Bread fruit or Banana are neatly spread before him which serves instead of a table cloth a basket is then set by him which contains his provisions & two cocoa nut shells one full of fresh water the other of salt water He begins by washing his hands & mouth thoroughly with the fresh water which he repeats almost continualy throughout the whole meal he then takes his part of his provision from the basket Supose (as it often did) it consisted of 2 or 3 bread fruits 1 or 2 small fish about as big as a perch in England 14 or 15 ripe bananas or half as many apples he begins with takes half a breadfruit & peels of the rind & takes out the core with his nails he then cramms his mouth as full with it as it can possibly hold & while he chews that unlapps the fish from the leaves in which they remain tied up since they were dressd & breaks one of them into the salt water the rest as well as the remains of the bread fruit lay before him upon the leaves he generaly gives a fish or part of one to some one of his dependants many of whoom set round him & then takes up 

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