Caution must be used in collecting such
to be reasonably sure that they are a

true

daily rations
representation.

Misunderstanding and a misguided desire to please on the part
of some individual Rongelapese

can easily

lead to merely a

collection of miscellaneous food items rather than actual daily
rations of prepared food.

It was felt that a few samples which

were witnessed to be composed of the items and portions actually
being consumed were
origin.

preferable to

Consequently,

many

samples of

uncertain

some samples proffered by individuals

were discarded.
In spite of the care used there are obvious discrepancies.

Sample number 3
lously low in

(Table 1),

for example,

total amount of

appears

food consumed.

to be ridicuThere can be

little doubt that there must have been some "snacking,"

for

which there is no accounting because eating habits of the
Rongelapese are irregular and it was impractical to follow each
individual throughout the day.

Therefore,

all of the samples

collected (Table 1) should probably be considered as erring
toward the

low side for total consumption.

However,

there does

appear to be a reasonable agreement with quantities listed by
Murai

(1953)

from a study at Majuro Atoll.

Catala

(1957) has

pointed out the difficulties of obtaining quantitative data in
these areas.

Select target paragraph3