Other vegetable foods are eaten raw, or are cooked with water and salt,
with perhaps the addition of a little meat broth or a sour[sic].
[Transcriber's note: "sour" should read "soup."]
Small birds and fish are cooked without other treatment than a hasty
cleaning; but the flesh of larger fowls, deer, and pig is generally cut
into small cubes and cooked with condiments in a jar or small Chinese
caldron. Birds are sometimes prepared by placing them on a spit,
covering them with green banana leaves, and suspending them above the
fire until roasted. This primitive paper bag cooking yields a most
excellent dish.
Grasshoppers are relished, and are secured in the following manner: A
clear grass spot is selected and several deep holes are dug in one end.
Back of them, and leading toward them, is a high tight fence made in a
V. By beating the grass with boughs as they walk toward the trap, the
people drive the grasshoppers before them until they are finally forced
into the pit, from which they are collected by the bushel.
I was told that meat was sometimes salted, dried, and stored away for
future use. The climate seems to be absolutely opposed to such
foresight, and the one time that I saw the process being used, the odors
were such that I beat a hasty retreat and chose to accept, without
proof, the verdict of the natives, that venison thus prepared was
excellent.
Of almost as much importance as food is the use of the betel or areca
nut,[14] which is chewed almost constantly by young and old of both
sexes. The nut is divided into quarters and a piece of _buyo_ leaf[15]
is wrapped about each bit. To this is added a little lime and a pinch of
tobacco, and it is ready for the mouth. The resultant deep red saliva is
distributed indiscriminately on the floor, walls, and furniture where it
leaves a permanent stain. To hold the materials necessary for this
practice brass betel nut boxes, secured from the Moro or of their own
manufacture, as well as plaited grass boxes and pouches are constantly
carried (Plates XVIIa and XLI). The brass boxes generally have three
compartments; the first for nuts, the second for leaves and tobacco, and
the third for lime. Lime is also carried in small bamboo tubes (Fig.
14), in the decoration of which a great deal of time is consumed. The
open end is fitted with a rattan sifter so that the powder is
distributed evenly on the nut and leaf.
[14] _Catechu L_.
[15] _Piper betel L_.