(The Sandwich Islanders always squat on their hams, and who knows but they may be the old original "ham sandwiches ?" The thought is pregnant with interest.) The poi looks like common flour paste, and is kept in large bowls formed of a species of gourd, and capable of holding from one to three or four gallons.

Poi is the chief article of food among the natives, and is prepared from the taro plant.
The taro root looks like a thick, or, if you please, a corpulent sweet potato, in shape, but is of a light purple color when boiled.

When boiled it answers as a passable substitute for bread.

The buck Kanakas bake it under ground, then mash it up well with a heavy lava pestle, mix water with it until it becomes a paste, set it aside and let if ferment, and then it is poi--and an unseductive mixture it is, almost tasteless before it ferments and too sour for a luxury afterward.

But nothing is more nutritious.