leaves, pieces of beef, fish, ripe and unripe bananas, and the tops of
the wild arum. These green parcels were laid in a layer between two
layers of the hot stones, and the whole then covered up with earth, so
that no smoke or steam could escape. In about a quarter of an hour,
the whole was most deliciously cooked. The choice green parcels were
now laid on a cloth of banana leaves, and with a cocoa-nut shell we
drank the cool water of the running stream; and thus we enjoyed our
rustic meal.
I could not look on the surrounding plants without admiration. On every
side were forests of banana; the fruit of which, though serving for
food in various ways, lay in heaps decaying on the ground. In front of
us there was an extensive brake of wild sugar-cane; and the stream was
shaded by the dark green knotted stem of the Ava,--so famous in former
days for its powerful intoxicating effects. I chewed a piece, and
found that it had an acrid and unpleasant taste, which would have
induced any one at once to have pronounced it poisonous. Thanks to the
missionaries, this plant now thrives only in these deep ravines,
innocuous to every one. Close by I saw the wild arum, the roots of
which, when well baked, are good to eat, and the young leaves better
than spinach. There was the wild yam, and a liliaceous plant called
Ti, which grows in abundance, and has a soft brown root, in shape and
size like a huge log of wood: this served us for dessert, for it is as
sweet as treacle, and with a pleasant taste. There were, moreover,
several other wild fruits, and useful vegetables. The little stream,
besides its cool water, produced eels, and cray-fish. I did indeed
admire this scene, when I compared it with an uncultivated one in the
temperate zones. I felt the force of the remark, that man, at least
savage man, with his reasoning powers only partly developed, is the
child of the tropics.
As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneath the gloomy shade of
the bananas up the course of the stream. My walk was soon brought to a
close, by coming to a waterfall between two and three hundred feet
high; and again above this there was another. I mention all these
waterfalls in this one brook, to give a general idea of the inclination
of the land. In the little recess where the water fell, it did not
appear that a breath of wind had ever blown. The thin edges of the
great leaves of the banana, damp with spray, were unbroken, instead of
being, as is so generally the case, split into a thousand shreds. From
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