Then it is bound again tightly in green
leaves in long rolls, and buried in the hot ashes till cooked. Such
cakes are said to be very nice. They must be nutritious for the blacks
among whom Koi-ie is one of the principal foods are fat and agile
fellows. These Princess Charlotte Bay boys cooked their flour in a
somewhat similar way. The result was a sodden, tough, dirty damper, the
sight of which roused the not usually tender susceptibilities of the
owner of the boat. Taking pity on the untutored boys, he had a proper
damper made with soda and acid and a due proportion of salt. It turned
out a beauty, so spongy and light that it almost lifted the lid off the
camp oven, in which it was baked. The boys accepted it, but not without
manifestations of doubt and suspicion. They presently returned in a
solid and unanimous deputation loudly proclaiming that the boss was a
humbug, and had cheated them, the bread being full of holes containing
no "ki-ki" whatever, while they made "ki-ki" as dense as the deck, which
they tapped with their feet significantly and about which there was no
palpably hollow fraud. At first the boss failed to understand, for the
blacks had little even of pidgin English.
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