But since today is a banyan day I have ordered beef to be served out instead of the dried peas, as being a better foundation for battle.

"Mostly there is salt beef, too, and the ship has banyan days, with peas or beans, and we catch fish and turtles.

When the din was over and when the hands were perhaps half way through their dinner (oatmeal, ship's bread and cheese, Monday being a banyan day) West repeated that he was sure of the cutter now, and almost certain of her pennant.

The men had a pretty clear idea of which way the wind blew by this time, and on the next banyan day, when butter alone was served out, they refused it, saying that to accept butter without cheese would be a tacit acknowledgment of the theft.