{"id":"01KG8AM8KEGPTS0WDFZE7W5ZZJ","cid":"bafkreifhsxnzpzzact45zu4z5wu6yv5dq6ovzckwr4g22g5xdn7yeqa7uq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5328,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":5271,"text":"The leaves of the bread-fruit are of great size, and their edges are cut\r\nand scolloped as fantastically as those of a lady’s lace collar. As they\r\nannually tend towards decay, they almost rival in brilliant variety\r\nof their gradually changing hues the fleeting shades of the expiring\r\ndolphin. The autumnal tints of our American forests, glorious as they\r\nare, sink into nothing in comparison with this tree.\r\n\r\nThe leaf, in one particular stage, when nearly all the prismatic colours\r\nare blended on its surface, is often converted by the natives into\r\na superb and striking head-dress. The principal fibre traversing its\r\nlength being split open a convenient distance, and the elastic sides of\r\nthe aperture pressed apart, the head is inserted between them, the leaf\r\ndrooping on one side, with its forward half turned jauntily up on the\r\nbrows, and the remaining part spreading laterally behind the ears.\r\n\r\nThe fruit somewhat resembles in magnitude and general appearance one of\r\nour citron melons of ordinary size; but, unlike the citron, it has no\r\nsectional lines drawn along the outside. Its surface is dotted all over\r\nwith little conical prominences, looking not unlike the knobs, on an\r\nantiquated church door. The rind is perhaps an eighth of an inch in\r\nthickness; and denuded of this at the time when it is in the greatest\r\nperfection, the fruit presents a beautiful globe of white pulp, the\r\nwhole of which may be eaten, with the exception of a slender core, which\r\nis easily removed.\r\n\r\nThe bread-fruit, however, is never used, and is indeed altogether unfit\r\nto be eaten, until submitted in one form or other to the action of fire.\r\n\r\nThe most simple manner in which this operation is performed, and I\r\nthink, the best, consists in placing any number of the freshly plucked\r\nfruit, when in a particular state of greenness, among the embers of a\r\nfire, in the same way that you would roast a potato. After the lapse\r\nof ten or fifteen minutes, the green rind embrowns and cracks, showing\r\nthrough the fissures in its sides the milk-white interior. As soon as it\r\ncools the rind drops off, and you then have the soft round pulp in its\r\npurest and most delicious state. Thus eaten, it has a mild and pleasing\r\nflavour.\r\n\r\nSometimes after having been roasted in the fire, the natives snatch it\r\nbriskly from the embers, and permitting it to slip out of the yielding\r\nrind into a vessel of cold water, stir up the mixture, which they\r\ncall ‘bo-a-sho’. I never could endure this compound, and indeed the\r\npreparation is not greatly in vogue among the more polite Typees.\r\n\r\nThere is one form, however, in which the fruit is occasionally served,\r\nthat renders it a dish fit for a king. As soon as it is taken from the\r\nfire the exterior is removed, the core extracted, and the remaining part\r\nis placed in a sort of shallow stone mortar, and briskly worked with\r\na pestle of the same substance. While one person is performing this\r\noperation, another takes a ripe cocoanut, and breaking it in halves,\r\nwhich they also do very cleverly, proceeds to grate the juicy meat into\r\nfine particles. This is done by means of a piece of mother-of-pearl\r\nshell, lashed firmly to the extreme end of a heavy stick, with its\r\nstraight side accurately notched like a saw. The stick is sometimes a\r\ngrotesquely-formed limb of a tree, with three or four branches twisting\r\nfrom its body like so many shapeless legs, and sustaining it two or\r\nthree feet from the ground.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ7N0JD72BFQ4GQJBJ2M","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM8KH7W102AKDC7HQY69H","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM2S4Y0R8RHRHMEWRSSQH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.342Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.803Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}