709
In place of plank floors the bare earth is strewn
with dried bulrushes and grass to the depth of
several inches, and as this litter is rarely
renewed, the result is obvious. Occasionally a
bunk may be found knocked up at one end of the
single apartment of which the house consists, or,
as in the more pretentious houses, a square
bedstead may be seen, built of planed, unpainted
wood, with a wild attempt at scroll carving about
the head and foot boards. Chairs and tables are
unknown luxuries.
The same house is often occupied by several
families, or by several generations of the same
family, but as the individuals composing these are
never very numerous there is no overcrowding.
A few of the more ordinary cooking utensils may
occasionally be seen, but as a rule the natives,
as is generally the case among the inhabitants of
the South Sea Islands, prepare their food in stone
ovens in the following manner: A circular
excavation is made in the earth outside of the
dwelling, several feet in diameter and a foot or
two in depth, which
is then neatly lined with a porous stone of some sort.
Other stones are loosely laid in, and a quantity of
dry wood or brush of any kind, with
more stones, piled on. The wood is then set on fire, and,
when the stones have become sufficiently heated,
the loose ones are taken out, and the brands
and cinders removed, leaving the lining of heated
stones intact. Over these is then spread a layer
of banana, breadfruit, or other large leaves to
keep the food from contact with ashes. The food,
taro, yams, sweet potatoes, fowl, short, or "long
pig," or whatever else there may be, previously
prepared for cooking, is then placed on the layer
of leaves, piece by piece, until all are in
position, when the mound of food is carefully
covered over with several thicknesses of large
green leaves to prevent any dirt from falling in
among the edibles. The heated stones, previously
removed, are then placed in position all over the
mass and finally a thick layer of fine, dry earth,
ashes, and cinders is piled over all, these being
for the purpose of retaining the heat. In from
two to three or four hours the baking is finished,
and, barring the "long pig," perhaps, a more
healthful and toothsome method of preparing and
cooking food, when superintended by an expert
native Samoan chef, for example, could not, in
the estimation of the writer, who has had
opportunities for judging, be devised. The
thought suggests itself here that the "clambakes"
of our Atlantic States are a feeble imitation
of this style of cooking among the islanders.
As wood or solid fuel of any kind is a most rare
commodity on Rapa Nui the natives are compelled
to use brush, twigs, and trash cast up on their
island by the sea, anything, in fact, of an
inflammable nature which they can pick up. They
even economize the dried droppings of the cattle,
as the Arab does those of his camel, for this
purpose, and I saw great basketfuls of these
carefully stowed away in their houses for future
use.
They have no fixed time for eating, and while
their menu, as may be
709