Tahitians. It is the fruit of the breadfruit tree _Arfocarpus incisiva_
(Linné), a tree of the natural order, _Artocarpaceæ_, a native of the
islands of the Pacific Ocean and of the Indian Archipelago. This fruit
is one of the most important gifts of nature to the inhabitants of the
tropics, serving as the principal part of their food, the inner tough
bark of the tree furnishing a good material for native cloth, while the
trunk of the tree is used as a material for canoes. The exudation
issuing from cuts made into the stem, a resinous substance, is in use
for closing the seams of canoes. Several varieties of breadfruit trees
are to be found in Tahiti, differing in the structure of their leaves
and in the size and time of ripening of the fruit, so that ripe
breadfruit is obtainable more or less abundantly throughout the year.
The foliage of this tree is the greenest of all green, and it is this
deep green which distinguished this tree at once from its neighbors. The
male flowers are in catkins, with a two-leaved perianth and one stamen;
the female flowers are nude. The leaves are large, pinnatifid,
frequently twelve to eighteen inches long, smooth and glossy on their
upper surface. The much branched tree attains a height of twenty to
fifty feet. The fruit is a _sorosis_, a compound or aggregate the size of
a child's head, round or slightly oblong, light green, fleshy and
tuberculated on the surface. The rind is thick, and marked with small
square or lozenge-shaped divisions, each having a small elevation in the
middle. The fruit hangs by a short, thick stalk from the small branches,
singly or in clusters of two or three together. It contains a white,
somewhat fibrous pulp, which when ripe becomes juicy and yellow, but has
then a rotten taste. The fruit is gathered for use before it is ripe,
and the pulp is then white and mealy, of the consistence of fresh bread.
The fruit is prepared in many ways for food, roasted on hot coals,
boiled or baked, or converted by the experienced native cook into
complicated dainty dishes. The common practice in Tahiti is to cut each
fruit into three or four pieces and take out the core; then to place
heated stones in the bottom of a hole dug in the ground; to cover them
with green leaves, and upon this place a layer of the fruit, then
stones, leaves and fruit alternately, till the hole is nearly filled,
when leaves and earth to the depth of several inches are spread over
all. In half an hour the breadfruit is ready; the outsides are, in
general, nicely browned, and the inner part presents a white or
yellowish cellular substance. Breadfruit prepared in this manner and by
other methods of cooking is very palatable, as I can speak from my own
experience, slightly astringent and highly nutritious, a most excellent
dietetic article for the tropics. The tree is very prolific, producing
two and sometimes three crops a year. When once this tree has gained a
firm foothold in a soil it cherishes, and in a climate it enjoys, it
exhibits a tenacity to reproduce itself to an extent often beyond
desirable limits. Of this Captain Cook writes:
I have inquired very carefully into their manner of cultivating the
breadfruit tree; but was always answered that they never plant it. The
breadfruit tree plants itself, as it springs from the roots of the old
ones, so that the natives are often under the necessity of preventing
its progress to make room for trees of other sorts to afford some
variety in their food.
The timber is soft and light, of a rich yellow color, and assumes when
exposed to the air the appearance of mahogany.
_Manioc_.—Manioc is another important article of food in Tahiti and
likewise serves as an excellent substitute for baker's bread. It is the
large, fleshy root of _Manihot utilissima_, a large, half-shrubby plant of
the natural order _Euphorhiaceæ_, a native of tropical America, and much
cultivated in Tahiti as an article of food. In this island the plant has
run wild in some of the ravines formerly inhabited. The plant grows in a
bushy form, with stems usually six to eight feet high, but sometimes
much higher. The stems are brittle, white, and have a very large pith;
the branches are crooked. The leaves are near the ends of the branches,
large, deeply seven-parted, smooth and deep green. The roots are very
large, turnip-like, sometimes weighing thirty pounds, from three to
eight growing in a cluster, usually from twelve to twenty-four inches in
length. They contain an acrid, milky juice in common with other parts of
the plant, so poisonous as to cause death in a few minutes; but as the
toxic effect is owing to the presence of hydrocyanic acid, which is
quickly removed by heat, the juice, inspissated by boiling, forms the
excellent sauce called _casareep_; and fermented with molasses it yields
an intoxicating beverage called _onycou_; whilst the root, grated, dried
on hot metal plates and roughly powdered, becomes an article of food. It
is made into thin plates which are formed into cakes, not by mixing with
water, but by the action of heat, softening and agglutinating the
particles of starch. The powdered root prepared in this manner is an
easily digestible and nutritious article of farinaceous food. The root
is largely made use of in the manufacture of starch and is exported from
Tahiti for this purpose to a considerable extent. The starch made from
this root is also known as Brazilian arrowroot, and from it tapioca is
made. Manioc is propagated by cuttings of the stem, and is of rapid
growth, attaining maturity in six months.
_Sweet Cassava_.—Sweet cassava is the root of _Manihot Aipi_, a woody plant
indigenous to tropical South America, growing in great abundance in the
dense forest of the mountain valleys of Tahiti. The plant grows to a
height of several feet and has large long leaves growing from the foot
of the stem. The root is reddish and nontoxic; it can therefore be used
as a culinary esculent, without any further preparation than boiling,
while its starch can also be converted into tapioca. The _Aipi_ has tough,
woody fibres, extending along the axis of the tubers, while generally
the roots of the manioc (bitter cassava) are free from this central
woody substance.
_Arrowroot_ or _Arru Root_.—The commercial arrowroot is prepared from
different starch-yielding roots, but the bulb of the _Maranta marantaceæ_
produces more starch and of a better quality than any of the others. It
is a native of the West Indies and South America, and is cultivated
quite extensively in Tahiti. Many little patches of this plant may be
seen along the road from Papeete to Papara, where the lowland soil is
well adapted for its cultivation. The starch-producing plant which is
cultivated most extensively in Tahiti and other South Sea Islands is the
_Tacca pinnatifolia_. This perennial plant will even thrive well in the
sandy soil near the shore. The stalk, with terminal spreading pinnatifid
leaves, is from two to three feet high and the root is a tuber about the
size of a small potato. The tacca starch is much valued in medicine, and
is particularly used in the treatment of inflammatory affections of the
gastro-intestinal canal.
_Taro or Tara_.—Taro is another very important food-product of Tahiti, as
well as other islands of the Pacific, notably the Hawaiian Islands. It
is the root of _Colocasia macrorhiza_, a plant of the natural order
_Araceæ_, of the same genus with _cocoa_. The plant thrives best in low,
marshy places. In all of the South Sea Islands it is very extensively
cultivated for its roots, which constitute in these islands a staple
article of food, excellent substitutes for potatoes and bread. The roots
are very large, from twelve to sixteen inches in length, and as much in
circumference. They are washed in cold water to take away their
acridity, which is such as to cause excoriation of the mouth and palate.
The roots are cooked in the same way as the breadfruit, the rind being
first scraped off. Another very common way of eating taro is in the form
of _poi_. This method of preparing the root was known to the Tahitians
when Captain Cook visited the island. He compared _poi_ with "sour
pudding." It requires some skill to make _poi_. The root, finely grated,
is allowed to ferment over night. It tastes sour and is a refreshing,
delicate and nutritious dish, when served ice-cold. The plant has no
stalk; the petioled heart-shaped leaves spring from the root. The flower
is in the form of a spathe. The boiled leaves can be used as a
substitute for spinach.
_Wild Plantain_.—The wild plantain furnishes its liberal share of
food-supply for the Tahitians. It is a tree-like, perennial herb (_Musa
paradisiaca_) with immense leaves and large clusters of the fruits. In
its appearance it resembles very closely the banana, but differs from it
as the hands and fingers of the bunches of fruit are turned in the
opposite direction. The fruit is long and somewhat cylindrical, slightly
curved, and, when ripe, soft, fleshy and covered with a thick but tender
yellowish skin. This plant is indigenous to Tahiti and is found in
abundance in the forests. The fruit is cooked or baked and is keenly
relished by the natives.
All of the articles of food I have referred to above are easily
digested, palatable and nutritious, and for the Tahiti climate more
healthful than bread and potatoes, on which the masses of people living
in colder climates subsist to a large extent. I attribute the
comparative immunity of the South Sea Islanders from attacks of
appendicitis principally to their diet, which is laxative, easily
digested and not liable to cause fermentation in the gastro-intestinal
canal. Appendicitis does occur in these islands, but this disease is
extremely rare as compared with the frequency with which it is met in
Europe, and more especially in the United States. The Americans are the
most injudicious and reckless eaters in the world, which goes far in
explaining the prevalence of gastric and intestinal disorders among our
people.
THE COCOANUT, THE MEAT OF THE TAHITIANS
It is fortunate that the inhabitants of the tropics have no special
liking for a meat diet, as the free indulgence in meat could not fail in
resulting detrimentally to the health of the inhabitants. The
continuously high temperature begets indolence, and indolence tends to
diminish secretion and excretion, conditions incompatible with a
habitual consumption of meat. Nature has established fixed rules
concerning the manner of living in the tropics. She deprives man of the
appetite for meat and other equally heavy articles of food, and supplies
him with nourishment adapted for the climate. It is under such climatic
conditions that we are made to realize that
The more we deny ourselves, the more the gods supply our wants.
HORATIUS.
and
We can not use the mind aright when the body is filled with excess of
food.
CICERO.
For the preservation of health in the tropics, it is necessary that the
food should be laxative, cooling, easy of digestion and nutritious. Fish
and fruit of various kinds meet these requirements. From observations
and experience, the ignorant natives have made a wise selection of what
is best for them to eat, and know what to avoid. High living brings its
dire results in temperate and cold climates, but any one indulging in it
in the tropics will curtail his life, as it can not fail to be
productive, in a short time, of organic changes of a degenerative type
in important internal organs, which soon begin to menace life and never
fail in diminishing the vital resistance against acute diseases. Luxury
in the tropics in the way of eating and drinking is a dangerous
experiment, and it is well to remember, especially when living in a hot
climate, that
By degrees man passes to the enjoyments of a vicious life, porticoes,
baths and elegant banquets; this by the ignorant was called a
civilized mode of living, though in reality it was only a form of
luxury.
TACTICUS.
No such mistakes are made by the natives of Tahiti as long as they
remain true to their ancient manner of living. With few exceptions,
indeed, they lack the means of imitating the foreigners in living a life
of luxury. Any native who departs too far from the simple, natural life
of his ancestors will pay dearly for the doubtful pleasures of a life of
luxury. The average native, fortunately, has no such inclinations; he is
satisfied to live the simple, natural life his forefathers led, and he
follows the scriptural advice.
And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. I. Timothy
vi:8.
Nature has provided for the South Sea Islanders something better than
beef and mutton in the form of meat—fish and cocoanut. Fish are very
abundant all around the coast of Tahiti, and the lagoons, where the
fishing is mostly done, are as quiet as inland lakes. More than two
hundred varieties of fish have been found in these waters. But the real
and best meat for the Tahitians is the cocoanut. The meat of this
wonderful nut contains a large per cent, of oil, which supplies the
system with all the fatty material it requires, and for the tropic
climate this bland, nutritious vegetable oil is far superior to any
animal fats. We will give here the Cocoa-palm the liberal space it so
well deserves:
THE COCOA-PALM
Through groves of palm
Sigh gales of balm,
Fire-flies on the air are wheeling;
While through the gloom
Comes soft perfume,
The distant beds of flowers revealing.
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
The cocoa-palm is the queen of the forests of the South Sea Islands. The
tall, slender, branchless, silvery stem and fronded crown of this
graceful tree distinguish it at once from all its neighbors and indicate
the nobility of its race. The great clusters of golden fruit of giant
size, partially obscured by the drooping leaves and clinging to the end
of the stem, supply the natives with the necessities of life. The
cocoa-palm is the greatest benefactor of the inhabitants of the tropics.
It is meat, drink and cloth to us.
RABELAIS.
Fruits of palm-tree, pleasantest to thirst
And hunger both.
MILTON.
This noble tree grows and fructifies where hard manual labor is
incompatible with the climate, in islands and countries where the
natives have to rely largely on the bounteous resources of nature for
food and protection. The burning shores of India and the islands of the
South Pacific are the natural homes of the cocoa-palm. It has a special
predilection for the sandy beach of Tahiti and the innumerable atoll
islands near to and far from this gem of the South Seas. The giant nuts
often drop directly into the sea and are carried away by waves and
currents from their native soil to strange islands, where they are cast
upon the sandy shore, to sprout and prosper for the benefit of other
native or visiting tribes. By this manner of dissemination, all of these
islands have become encircled by a lofty colonnade of this queen of the
tropics.
Beautiful isles! beneath the sunset skies
Tall silver shafted palm-trees rise between
Tall orange trees that shade
The living colonnade:
Alas! how sad, how sickening is the scene
That were ye at my side would be a paradise.
MARIA BROOKS.
The cocoa-palm (_Cocos nucifera_), is a native of the Indian coasts and
the South Sea Islands. It belongs to a genus of palms having pinnate
leaves or fronds, and male and female flowers on the same tree, the
latter at the base of each spadix. It is seldom found at any
considerable distance from the seacoast, except where it has been
introduced by man, and generally thrives best near the very edge of the
sea. In Tahiti isolated cocoa-palms are found on the lofty hilltops,
projecting, with their proud crowns of pale green leaves, far above the
level of the sea of the dense forest and impenetrable jungles. This
transplantation from shore to the sides and summits of the foot-hills
had its beginning before the discovery of the island, when the
overpopulation made it necessary to provide for a more abundant
food-supply. There it has prospered and multiplied since without the
further aid of man, yielding its rich harvests of fruit with unfailing
regularity. The frightful reduction in the number of inhabitants since
the white man set his foot on the island has made this additional
food-supply superfluous, as the palms within easier reach in the
lowlands along the shore more than meet the present demands.
The cocoa-palm is a proud but virtuous tree. Its dense cluster of
delicate roots does not encroach upon the territory of other trees, but
claims only a very modest circular patch of soil from which to abstract
the nourishment for the unselfish, philanthropic tree. The base of the
stem is wide and usually inclined, but a few feet from the ground
becomes straight and cylindrical, with nearly the same diameter from
base to crown. The curve of the stem is caused by the effects of the
prevailing winds on the yielding, slender stem of the youthful tree, but
with increasing growth and strength, it rises column-like into the air,
balancing its fruit-laden massive crown in uncompromising opposition to
the invisible aerial force. It is only in localities exposed to the full
power of strong and persistent trade-winds that the full-grown trees
lean in the same direction in obedience to the unrelenting common
deforming cause. The full-grown tree is, on an average, two feet in
diameter, and from sixty to one hundred feet high, with many rings
marking the places of former leaves, and having, at its summit, a crown
of from sixteen to twenty leaves, which generally droop, and are from
twelve to twenty feet in length. These giant leaves furnish an excellent
material for thatched roofs, and in case of need, a few leaves, properly
placed, will make a comfortable, waterproof tent. The fruit grows in
short racemes, which bear, in favorable situations, from five to fifteen
nuts; and ten or twelve of these racemes, in different stages of
fructification, may be seen at once on a tree, about eighty or one
hundred nuts being its ordinary annual product. For the purpose of
answering the requirements of primitive man, the Creator has ordained
that this tree shall yield a continuous harvest from one end of the year
to the other. Flowers and fruit in all stages of ripening grace the
crown at all times of the year. The young cocoanut contains the
delicious, cooling milk, and the soft pulp, a nourishing article of
food. The mature nut is an excellent substitute for meat, as the kernel
contains more than seventy per cent, of a fixed, bland, nutritious oil.
The tree bears fruit in from seven to eight years from the time of
planting, and its lifetime is from seventy to eighty years. Its greatest
ambition during youth is to reach the clouds and equal its oldest
neighbors in height. Young trees, with a stem less than four inches in
diameter, rival their veteran neighbors in height, devoting their future
growth to the increase in the dimension and strength of the stem, and
their vital vigor to the bearing of its perennial, unfailing yield of
fruit for the benefit of man and beast. The stem, when young, contains a
central part which is sweet and edible, but when old, this is a mass of
hard fibre. The terminal bud (palm cabbage) is esteemed a delicacy when
boiled or stewed or raw in the form of a vegetable salad. The sweet sap
(toddy) of the cocoa-palm, as of some other palms, is an esteemed
beverage in tropic countries, either in its natural state, or after
fermentation, which takes place in a few hours; and, from the fermented
sap (palm wine), a strong alcoholic liquor (_arrack_), is obtained by
distillation. The root of the cocoa-palm possesses narcotic properties.
Every part of this wonderful tree is utilized by the untutored
inhabitants of the tropics. The dried leaves are much used for the
thatch, and for many other purposes, as the making of mats, screens,
baskets, etc., by plaiting the leaflets. The strong midribs of the
leaves supply the natives with oars. The wood of the lower part of the
trunk is very hard, and takes a beautiful polish. The fibrous centre of
old stems is made into salad. By far the most important fibrous part of
the cocoa-palm is the coir, the fibre of the husk of the imperfectly
ripened nut. The sun-dried husk of the ripe nut is used for fuel, and
also, when cut across, for polishing furniture, scrubbing floors, etc.
The shell of the nut is made into cups, goblets, ladles, etc., and these
household articles are often finely polished and elaborately ornamented
by carving. This, the most generous of all trees, from the time of its
birth until it yields to the ravages of time, serves man in hundreds of
different ways, furnishing him with food and drink, clothing,
building-material, fuel, medicine, most exquisite delicacies, wine,
spirits and many articles of comfort and even of luxury. What other tree
but the cocoa-palm could have been in the mind of Milton when he wrote:
In heav'n the trees
Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines
Yield nectar.
The cocoa-palm is a peaceful, modest, virtuous tree. It prefers its own
kin, but is charitable to its neighbors, irrespective of race. It towers
far above the sea of less favored trees, which find in its shade
protection against the burning rays of the tropic sun and the fury of
the trade-winds. Proudly it stands guard at the shores of the coral-girt
islands of the South Pacific, waving its lofty, fruit-laden crown,
responding alike to the cool, refreshing land breezes and the humid
trade-winds in the balmy air of the tropics. Peaceful and lovely is a
forest of palms, where
Leaves live only to enjoy love, and throughout the forest every tree
is luxuriating in affectionate embrace; palm, as it nods to palm,
joins in mutual love; the poplar sighs for the poplar; plane whispers
to plane, and alder to alder.
CLAUDIANUS.
The sight of a forest of cocoa-palms from a distance is imposing, a walk
through it full of enchantment. Nowhere does this noble tree appear to
better advantage than in Tahiti. This, the most favored of all islands,
is engirdled by an almost unbroken belt of palm-forest, stretching from
the very verge of the ocean to the base of the foot-hills, with the
towering, tree-clad mountains for a background; a forest planted by the
invisible hand of Nature, a forest cared for by Nature, a forest which
produces nearly all of the necessities of life for the natives from day
to day, and year to year, with unfailing regularity. Enter this forest
and the eye feasts on a scene which neither the pen of the most skilled
naturalist nor the brush of the ablest landscape artist can reproduce
with anything that would do justice to nature's inexhaustible resources
and artistic designs. Such a scene must be gazed upon to be appreciated.
Between the colonnade of symmetrical silvery stems and crowns of
feathery fronds, inlaid with the ponderous golden fruit, the eye catches
glimpses of the blue, placid ocean, the foam-crested breakers, of the
still more beautifully blue dome of the sky, the deep green carpet of
the unbroken tropic forest thrown over the mountainsides, or the naked,
rugged, brown peaks basking in the sunlight, and on all sides flowers of
various hues and most delicate tints. Surely,
Who can paint
Like Nature? Can imagination boast.
Amid its gay creation, hues like hers,
Or can it mix them with that matchless skill.
And lose them in each other, as appears
In every bud that blows?
THOMSON.
Add to the pleasures flashed upon the mind by the ravished eye, the
perfumed, soothing air of the tropics, the sweet sounds of the aeolian
harp as the gentle breeze strikes its well-timed chords in the fronded
crowns of the palms overhead, the bubbling of the ripples of the near-by
ocean as they kiss the sandy rim of the island shore, and the clashes of
the breakers as they strike with unerring regularity the coral reef, the
outer wall of the calm lagoon, and your soul will be in a mood to join
the poet in singing the praises of nature:
O Nature!
Enrich me with knowledge of thy works:
Snatch me to heaven!
THOMSON.
Queen of the tropic isles, guardian of their sun-kissed strands, friend
of their dusky, simple children of Nature! Continue in the future as you
have done in the past, to dispense your work of generosity and unselfish
charity, to sustain and protect the life of man and beast in a climate
you love and revere, a climate adverse for man to earn his daily bread
by the sweat of his brow! I have seen your charms in your favorite
island-abode and studied with interest your innumerable deeds of
generosity, your full storehouse for the urgent needs of man and your
safe refuge for the inhabitants of the air. Had Whittier visited the
island Paradise, your native home, he would have written in the positive
in the first stanza, when he framed that beautiful verse:
I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I can not drift
Beyond His love and care!
There is no other country and no other island in the world that has such
a variety of indigenous fruit trees as Tahiti. Add to these trees that
have furnished the natives with an abundance of fruit for centuries, the
fruit trees that have been introduced since the island was discovered,
and many of which flourish now in a wild state in the forests, and it
will give some idea concerning the wealth of fruit to be found in the
forests of Tahiti. Most of the inland habitations away from the coast
have been abandoned long ago, and in all these places, in the valleys
and high up on the mountainsides, many kinds of exogenous fruit trees,
planted by former generations, have gained a permanent foothold. Here
they multiply, blossom, ripen their fruit, and all the islanders have to
do is to gather the annual crop. Here delicious little thin-skinned
oranges grow, and the finest lemons and limes can be had for the
gathering. The poor find here
Fruits of all kinds in coat
Rough or smooth rind, or bearded husk or shell,
She gathers tribute large, and on the board
Heaps with unsparing hand.
MILTON.
Nothing reminds one more of Tahiti being the forbidden Garden of Eden,
than the abundance of fruit that grows in the forests without the
intervention of man. Some kind of fruit can be found during all seasons
of the year, and
Small store will serve, where store
All seasons, ripe for use, hangs on the stalk.
MILTON.
It is here not as in most countries where
The poor inhabitant beholds in vain
The redd'ning orange and the swelling grain.
ADDISON.
as the poorest of the poor have access to Nature's orchard and can fill
their palm-leaf baskets with the choicest fruits. The Tahitian
He feeds on fruits, which of their own accord
The willing ground and laden tree afford.
DRYDEN.