Solanum viride : Différence entre versions

[175] For it appears that human flesh is extremely difficult to digest, and that even the strongest and most healthy men suffer from confined bowels for two or three days after a cannibal feast. Probably, in order to assist the process of digestion, "bokola", as dead men's flesh is technically termed, is [176] always eaten with an addition of vegetables, which it may be ethnologically important to notice; since, thanks to a powerful movement amongst the natives, the influence of commerce, Christian teaching, and the presence of a British Consul, Fijian cannibalism survives only in a few localities, and is daily becoming more and more a matter of history.

There are principally three kinds which, in Fijian estimation, ought to accompany bokola, the leaves of the Malawaci (Trophis anthropophagorum, Seem.), the Tudano (Omalanthus pedicellatus, Bth.), and the Boro-dina (Solanum anthropophagorum, Seem.). The two former are middle-sized trees, growing wild in many parts of the group ; but the Boro-dina is cultivated, and there are generally several large bushes of it near every Bure-ni-sa (or strangers' house), where the bodies of those slain in battle are always taken. The Boro dina is a bushy shrub, seldom higher than six feet, with a dark, glossy foliage, and berries of the shape, size, and colour of tomatoes. This fruit has a faint aromatic smell, and is occasionally prepared like tomato sauce. The leaves of these three plants are wrapped around the bokola, as those of the taro are around pork, and baked with it on heated stones. Salt is not forgotten.

Besides these three plants, some kinds of yams and taro are deemed fit accompaniments of a dish of bokola. The yams are hung up in the Bure-ni-sa for a certain time, having previously been covered with turmeric, to preserve them, it would seem, from rapid decay : our own sailors effecting the same end by whitewashing the yams when taking them on board.