Hawaii — page 45: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

36 CLIMATE AND NATURAL FEATURES. _ a and variety of fruit trees and plants, which grow in trop- ical luxuriance. They supply all the wants of the natives, -and render agriculture almost needless. . The bread fruit is entitled to a place in the first rank, being the principal article of food of the natives. It is cooked in various ways but is generally roasted or baked. This tree produces three or four crops a year. There are fifty different varieties. The cocoa palm flour- ishes alike in the most fertile valleys, on the wildest rocky beach, and on the mountain sides. The yam, though an excellent food, is not used much, but it is often seen on some of the islands where the land is rich, and on some of the cultivated terraces. The taro has a broad and beautiful silver green leai and grows in soil which is covered with water. The root may be eaten at the age of one year, but it attains its per- fection at the age of two or three years. Both the leaf and root have an exceedingly pungent flavor, but in cooking this is dissipated, and the root forms a very palatable food. After having been baked and well beaten on a board with a stone pestle, it is made into paste with ‘water, and then allowed to ferment for a few days, when it is fit to eat. This is called pot. From the root of the sugar cane is made a filthy liquor called awa. This is distilled by very rude means under a license, though it is often prepared clandestinely. A hol- | low log receives the root, which has been softened by soaking, a bamboo reed passing thence through the trough of water and a calabach to receive the condensed vapor. Some years ago, the most shameful and demoral- “y EOmIcbooks.com —