After endeavouring to explain many interesting things, the chief took his guests to his private house, which was a well-built roomy place, after the style of an ordinary farm-barn, with low walls and a deep slanting roof. The inside was perfectly destitute of furniture, and the only place on which to sit was the floor, or a low shelf, which the old man probably used for a bed when he wanted one. Close to the house, and sheltered from the burning sun, was a very fine kai-kai dish, which the chief showed them with much pride.
COOKING THE MEAL, BRITISH NEW GUINEA
It was on a small platform raised some four feet {111} from the ground, and underneath it there were signs of a recent fire. In size the trough was considerably larger than an ordinary coffin and somewhat like one in shape, though at each end there was a piece of carved wood. This one, the chief explained, was not used for cooking human beings, but for mixing and cooking food on feast days.
When explaining this fact, Mr. Hardy says, though I can only take his word for it, as I was not there, that the chief looked at him with a hungry eye and murmured to Dr. Willey, “He go in nicee, make good kai-kai.”
But to return to native diet: sago, taro, sweet potato, sugar-cane, bananas, and a very poor kind of bread fruit, constitute their chief vegetable food; fish and occasionally a pig are their only other eatables. The cooking of these articles is generally done in rough bowls or in a European iron pot. When anything special is going to be eaten it is broiled in an earth oven. Betel-nut chewing, however, seems almost to satisfy these natives, for their meals are most erratic, and they often only take a small piece of fish with them when they are going out for a whole day’s tramp or work.
The method of chewing betel-nut is rather interesting. The nut is about the size of a walnut. {112} This they place in their mouth with a green leaf and chew it. When it is well under way they dip a small stick into their lime gourds and add a modicum of lime or ground coral to it. The effect of this mixture is, so some say, equal to a glass of good grog, but, though it acts as a strong stimulant, the natives do not seem to suffer any ill effects from it. Chewing is in no way restricted to the males, both women and young girls favour the practice, and relish the betel-nut as a great dainty.
CHAPTER XI
Some clever ways of catching fish—How the bonito is landed—Native nets—Pig-hunting—The sly opossum and the crocodile.
Lazy as the Solomon islanders are they are excellent sportsmen, and be it man-hunting, pig-hunting, or fishing, it is all the same, they go in for it with a fine relish. Cunning and dexterity play an important part in their methods, and make up for their want of up-to-date appliances.