The few banana trees present were just beginning to bear
fruit in March 1961
cant
and cannot be expected to form any signifi-
part of the diet for some years to come.
The taro pit is very limited in size,and when visited in
March 1961
fewer than a half dozen small plants in poor condi-
tion were surviving.
The outlook for a Significant taro crop
in the future was bleak.
The fish consumed consists primarily of reef fish such as
the goatfish,
Mulloidicthys sp., mullet,
fish, Acanthurus sp.,
baked,
boiled and raw.
and the siganids.
Neomyxus sp.,
The fish
are
surgeon-
eaten
The three fish which we have observed
the Rongelapese to eat raw are goatfish,
mullet and siganid.
Fish are also preserved by baking and then drying in the sun.
Sometimes salt is added before the fish are dried.
The langusta,
spiny lobster,
is eaten boiled.
The clams
are either boiled as a chowder or baked in the shell ina
covered pit.
The clam meat is sometimes also dried in the sun
after baking and kept for several days.
Birds are eaten either pakea or boiled and are also dried
following precooking.
Bird eggs are usually hard boiled and
form only an incidental part of the diet;
they are used princi-
pally when the Rongelapese are visiting islands other than their
main island or nearby Ailinginae Atoll.