BATS, BREADFRUIT,and FEATHER CLOAKS

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BREADFRUIT TREES STARRED IN AN OLD MOVIE I SAW ON T.V., "MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY".

That's right, but breadfruit trees had a long, important history before 1000 young trees set sail on the Bounty from Tahiti in l787. For hundreds and hundreds of years ripe breadfruit was a basic food for Polynesian people. The preserved fruit kept native people alive after hurricanes or tribal wars destroyed the breadfruit trees and other fruit crops.(1)

The life-giving breadfruit tree was part of the history and mythology of the Polynesian people.

BEF0RE WE GO ANY FURTHER, PLEASE TELL ME WHERE THE BATS FIT IN.

In the South Sea Islands at least three kinds of flying foxes eat breadfruit and plant the seeds. Those known bat seed planters are the Pacific flying fox, the Seychelles flying fox and the Marianas flying fox.(2)

Pacific flying foxes

YOU SAID THAT ANCIENT POLYNESIAN PEOPLE COULD PRESERVE BREADFRUIT. HOW? THEY DIDN'T HAVE FREEZERS.

Throughout the islands of the South Pacific there were many different ways to preserve breadfruit.

You could:(4)

1. Peel the fruit with a sharp seashell.
2. Place the cut fruit in woven bags.
3. Soak the bags in the sea for 2 hours.
4. While soaking, trample the bags with your feet.
5. Remove the bags from the sea, leave to drain for a few days.
6. Line a box with banana leaves
7. Pour the contents of the bags into the box.
8. Leave to ferment for at least one month.
9. Change the banana leaves weekly.

OR

You could make the following delicious breadfruit paste that will keep for 20 years.(2)

1. Dig a pit that is 30 feet deep and l8 feet wide.
2. Line the pit with 50 large Heliconia (banana-like)leaves. Overlap the leaves.
3. Wash the breadfruit.
4. Scrape the rind off of the breadfruit.
5. Put the breadfruit in the lined pit.
6. Cover the breadfruit with the overlapping leaves.
7. Cover the leaves with dirt and rocks.
8. Wait at least 34 days.
9. Use within 20 years.

THEN

1. Spread a Heliconia leaf with coconut cream.
2. Wrap the leaf around some breadfruit paste.
3. Bake 2 hours.
4. Enjoy this delicious and nutritious pudding called 'ma.(4)

The English explorers who visited the South Sea Islands were so impressed with breadfruit that they thought it would be an excellent food for their African slaves labouring on the West Indian sugar cane plantations.(4)

The explorer who first described the breadfruit tree in English was the buccaneer, William Dampier, a gifted naturalist and scientist. He travelled from Mexico to Guam in 1686. In a later published writing, he described the breadfruit tree "as big and high as the largest apple trees in England" bearing fruit "as big as a penny loaf". He also described how the native people of Guam baked the breadfruit, removed the scorched rind and found within " . . . a tender thin crust, and the inside is soft, tender and white, like the crumb of a penny loaf."(8)

Seventy-five years later, Captain James Cook coupled his own observations with those of Dampier and promoted the propogation of breadfruit trees in the West Indies.

Enter Captain Bligh, the Bounty and 1000 young breadfruit trees. After the crew mutinied and tossed the breadfruit trees and Captain Bligh overboard, several years passed. In l793 the resiliant Captain Bligh, also impressed by Dampier's writings, successfully delivered over 2000 young breadfruit trees to the West Indies aboard two ships, the Providence and the Assistant. Breadfruit trees have flourished there ever since.(4)

TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT THE BREADFRUIT TREE ITSELF.

Two especially interesting features are the tree's inner bark and the flowers.

The inner bark is made into 'tapa cloth in the following way.(5)

1. Remove the bark from a breadfruit tree.
2. Soak the bark in a stream for several days.
3. Remove the outside bark with sharp seashells.
4. Spread the fine inside fibres over a piece of wood that is 36 feet long and 1 foot wide.
5. Invite your friends to come over. Tell them to bring their special wooden batons for beating the fibres.
6. When your friends arrive, beat the bark fibres and fold them repeatedly until the cloth is ready to dry.

AND THEN

When the delicate bark cloth has dried, dye it and decorate it with traditional designs.

Make a robe for a Chief

Make a loin cloth for a Chief

Make a skirt, a cape

Make house dividers

And make many, many more useful, meaningful items.(6)

Marianas flying fox

WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT THE FLOWERS?

A breadfruit tree has both male and female flowers on the same tree. The male flower looks like a yellow paddle. It grows below the female flower which looks like a yellow ball. The female flower ball is really over a thousand tightly packed tiny flowers.(7)

The female breadfruit flowers receive pollen from the male flowers and the female ball of flowers begins to grow until it can be l2 inches long and weigh l0 pounds. That is the breadfruit. It looks like one fruit but it is really over a thousand small fruits, one for each of the tiny female flowers.(7)

There are many kinds of breadfruit trees. Wild breadfruit trees have seeds. People prefer breadfruit without seeds. Bats plant the seeds from the wild trees and help to ensure that the valuable wild species will survive. To learn more about breadfruit species and history visit http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/breadfruit.html

SO THE BREADFRUIT TREE PROVIDES NUTRITIOUS AND DELICIOUS FOOD AND ROBES FIT FOR A CHIEF. ANYTHING ELSE?

Latex. Every part of the breadfruit tree contains a sticky white gum. That gum called "latex" is used to:

• fill seams on boats(4)
• mix with coloured earth to make paint for boats(4)
• rub on aching joints,sprains(7)
• treat fungal disease(7)
• to treat diarrhea and dysentery (diluted)(7)

Breadfruit tree wood is used to make:(4)

1. Canoes
2. Canoe bailers
3. Furniture
4. Storage containers
5. House posts
6. Surf boards
7. Hawaiian drums to accompany the hula dance.

 

AND THE HAWAIIAN FEATHER CLOAKS?

The Hawaiian chiefs wore cloaks made of brilliant bird feathers. The birds were trapped by putting latex from a breadfruit tree on the top of a post. After removing a few feathers from the bird, the sticky latex was washed from its feet with candlenut oil and the bird was released.(4)

ARE SOUTH SEA ISLAND PEOPLE STILL MAKING SOUR PASTE FROM FERMENTED BREADFRUIT?

If they do they are likely to use black plastic to line the pits or do the entire fermentation process in a plastic container. Today much of the breadfruit harvest rots on the ground. People who live in countries where breadfruit trees grow are being encouraged to preserve breadfruit in many different ways so that they will not be so dependent on expensive imported foods.(1)

References:

(1)Balick, Michael J., Cox, Paul, Alan, Plants, People and Culture, the Science of Ethnobotany, Scientific American Library, 1997

(2)Fujita, M.S. 1991. Flying Fox (Chiroptera:Pteropodidae) Pollination, Seed Dispersal, and Economic Importance: A Tabular Summary of Current Knowledge, Resource Publication No. 2, Bat Conservation International

(3)Hedrick, U.P., editor, Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, Dover Publications, 1972

(4) Morton, Julia, Fruits of Warm Climates, 1987, pages 50-58;http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/breadfruit.html

(5) The Tahiti Traveler, Art and Craft Industry, Tapa; http://www.thetahititraveler.com/general/artindust.asp

(6)Admiral, Lori, Tapa, Kapiolani Community College, Horizons 2001; http://bosp.kcc.hawaii.edu/Horizons/Horizons2001/9Tapa.html

(7)Breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis, Plant Data, Meet the Plants, National Tropical Botanical Garden; http://ntbg.org/plants/ Click on "Choose a Plant" and search for "Artocarpus altilis"

(8)Preston, Diana & Preston, Michael,2005, A Pirate of Exquisite Mind; The Life of William Dampiere; Explorer, Naturalist and Buccaneer, Corgi Books

Text and illustrations by ML Alley-Crosby who thanks Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle, Founder and President, Bat Conservation International, Austin, Texas, for permission to use his photographs of the Marianas flying fox and three Pacific flying foxes as source material.

August 2008
May 2007
January 2005

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