The oysters had also come from the water, in a great bunch that Has-se
had just been able to lift and carry to the fire. To cook them he had
simply placed the entire bunch on the coals, where they had roasted in
their shells, which now gaped wide open, offering their contents to be
eaten.
The eggs were plover's eggs, of which Has-se had discovered several
nests among the tall marsh grass. They also had been roasted in the
hot sand, from which the fire had been raked one side.
The vegetable puzzled Rene considerably, for he had never seen its
like, and knew not what to make of it. When he asked Has-se what it
was, the latter laughed, with the soft, musical laugh, peculiar to his
people, and answered,
"Dost thou not know thy namesake, Ta-lah-lo-ko? It is the leaf bud of
a young palm-tree, and with us Indians it takes the place of bread when
we have neither a-chee" (the maize) "nor koonti-katki" (the
starch-root).
It was indeed the tender leaf bud of the cabbage-palm, roasted in its
own husk, and to Rene it tasted much like roasted chestnuts.
From the shells on the beach he obtained a small quantity of salt, that
had been left in them by the evaporated water of some former high tide.
This he wanted for both his fish and his eggs. Then the two boys sat
down to their feast, and ate and laughed and chatted, and enjoyed it so
thoroughly that one of them at least thought nothing had ever tasted so
good to him before.
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