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The kumara was undoubtedly the most important of the cultivated food products possessed by the Maori folk of New Zealand, for this far-spread tuber provided them with a greater bulk of food than did the taro and hue combined. It was probably on account page 100of this importance that so much ceremony pertained to its planting, cultivation, and even its storage in New Zealand. Such ceremonial observances have ever been practised in connection with the principal food crop of agricultural peoples the world over. Thus, in America, they pertained to maize, in other lands to wheat, rice, yams, and other products. Such ceremonies are often connected with peculiar myths connected with the origin and cultivation of the staple product, and we shall see that these mythopoeic beliefs are not wanting in connection with the kumara in Maoriland. In the mythologies of other races we note corn goddesses, such as Ceres, and similar beliefs; such beings are looked upon as the tutelary deities or protecting spirits of the cultivated product. Around these mythical beings cluster many singular customs and beliefs.

In regard to the mythical origin of their principal cultivated product, and its protecting genius, the Maori has evolved or preserved two different accounts, a fact somewhat puzzling to students of Maori myths. This confusion, it should be observed, extends to other departments or branches of Maori belief, tradition and customs.

In the native myth of the offspring of the primal parents, and of the origin of man, we see that Rangi the Sky Parent, and Papa the Earth Mother, had issue consisting of seventy male beings, all of whom are viewed as supernatural beings by no means on a level with ordinary man as known to us. One of the most prominent of these offspring was Rongo, whose full name was Rongo-marae-roa. Can we say definitely what meaning was originally intended in regard to this name? It might be rendered as 'Rongo of the great domain.' Rongo is viewed by the Maori in two lights, that is to say he has two functions, one of which is connected with peace and the other with agriculture. Rongo is essentially the personification of peace, as also of the arts of peace, which doubtless explains his connection with agriculture. In the vernacular tongue the word rongo means peace as seen in hohou rongo—to make peace, and 'Ka mau te rongo'—peace is made. Rongo is the tutelary deity or presiding genius of cultivated foods generally but more particularly of the kumara, of which he is sometimes said to be the parent or origin. He is known far and wide throughout Polynesia, as far north as the Hawaiian Isles. Tane, Tu, Rongo and Tangaroa are the widest known Polynesian gods, and belong to the most important class of deities. At the Hawaiian Isles Rongo was termed 'Rongo dwelling on the waters.'

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Now Marae-roa is an old expression employed to denote the ocean which is spoken of as the marae or plaza of Hine-moana, the Ocean Maid, the personified form of the far-spread ocean. Thus the full name of Rongo in New Zealand resembles in signification his Hawaiian name. He is Rongo-marae-roa—Rongo of the vast marae, Rongo of the great ocean. Fenton has stated that Rono was a name of the moon god in Babylonia or Accadia; of this I have not noted any corroboration, though Sina the moon 'goddess' of Polynesia (the Hina of New Zealand) recalls to us Sin the moon deity of Babylonia. At Hawaii Sina took the name of Rongo when she ascended to the heavens.

Rongo was also known as Rongo-nui or Great Rongo, and the 28th night of the moon was called Orongonui, at which phase of the moon the sweet potato was planted.

It is a curious and interesting fact that Tane the Fertiliser occupied a minor place in ceremonial connected with agriculture. Rongo was the being principally invoked. This is in accordance with the old myths, beliefs and usages of Babylonia, where the moon god was believed to control nature and act as a fertilising agency; he caused crops to flourish. For Rongo represents the moon, as Sin did in the great valley, while Tane represents the sun.

Rongo-marae-roa, Tane-te-hokahoka and Tangai-waho are the three beings who were appointed as preservers and caretakers of the fertility and welfare of forests, of all plant and tree life and of birds and fish. The great Tane, or Tane-matua, was the origin of plant and tree life, as Tane-te-hokahoka was the origin of land birds; Rongo does not appear as the originator of any form of vegetable life other than food products. As the men of old put it—'Ko Rongo-marae-roa te putake o te kai, o nga hua o te whenua'—Rongo-marae-roa was the origin of food, of the fruits of the earth.

At Tahiti Ro'o-ma-Tane (=Rongo-ma-Tane) was one of the principal atua, gods or supernatural beings, and the name was also applied to a stone set up at the sacred place of a village, which stone was decorated with flowers.

An interesting note has been sent me by the Rev. T. G. Hammond to the effect that, at a certain place on the Taranaki coast, is a tapu stone embedded in the earth, above which it projects about three feet. Upon it are incised certain designs, and, in olden days, it was anointed with oil by the natives, while it was covered or draped with some kind of fabric. This recalls the 'Stones of Tane' at the Hawaiian Isles, as described by Fornander in his work The Polynesian Race, stones that were anointed with oil by priests and covered with black tapa. Perchance the Taranaki stone page 102was connected with the cult of Tane, or, haply, that of Rongo. Maori myth tells us that the 'house' of Rongo was named Hao-whenua; in it was determined all procedure pertaining to food supplies.

The other mythical being to whom the origin of the kumara is assigned is one Pani-tinaku. The word tinaku means 'to germinate'; it also denotes seed tubers and a garden or cultivated plot of ground. Thus Pani may be termed the Germinator. She is said to have been the mother of the kumara. One version of the myth, noted in Tregear's Maori Dictionary, is to the effect that Pani was a son of Rongo, but other versions show Pani to have been a female. Her stomach was the storehouse of the kumara. A version given by Ngati-awa of Whakatane shows that the husband of Pani was Rongo-maui who was the younger brother of Whanui, which is the name of the star Vega. That star, we shall see, is connected with kumara cultivation. She is said to have given birth to that useful product, the seed of which was procured from Whanui by Rongo-maui. Pani always gave birth to the tubers in water, and this is the interesting part of the myth; the sweet potato being essentially a dry land product. As she gave birth to the 'Kumara children' she recited a certain charm, in which she herself is addressed in the first place as "Oh Pani! Oh Pani, the germinator," and called upon to produce in the water, but the final line must be rendered as though she herself were speaking—They come down from my aro—the latter word being a euphemistic expression for the female organ of generation. To identify the production of the kumara with water is a manifest absurdity, hence the supposition that Tinaku or Pani orginally represented rice, which, among some Indonesian folk, is said to have been obtained from the Pleiades.

The names of the children of Pani so produced are the names of different varieties of kumara.

In another version Rongo-maui is replaced by one Maui-whare-kino. In yet another Tiki appears as the husband of Pani, and of Tiki as a personification of male fertilising power much might be said. Mr. Tregear has told us that pani is a variant form of pari and vari, both rice names, and that vari is also used to denote water and mud. Possibly the Maori has preserved in Pani the old Ceres or old rice name of S.E. Asia, as he certainly has preserved the Dravidian word for rice, viz., ari. In modern Hindu pani denotes water, I believe. A Tuhoe version of the myth contains a statement that Pani was one and the same personage as Taranga, the mother of the Maui brothers, and page 103that she adopted the name Pani when she entered the water in order to give birth to the kumara. This is very suggestive.

Anyhow it is clear in Maori myth that Pani, mother of the principal cultivated food product, is connected with water, and produces that food in water. It is equally clear that this food product cannot have been the sweet potato, which demands dry land cultivation. Is it possible that a migrating folk would transfer a myth and name to another product when resettled in a new land? The food product brought forth in, or produced by, water would seem to mean some plant that grew in water or wet lands. "The inundation in Egypt was of so useful a nature that the water goddess became the deity nourishing the growth of crops," writes Tregear in a paper on Asiatic Gods in the Pacific. (See Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. II, p. 144). A similar combination seems to have arisen in Chaldaea. The connection of Pani with water and also the kumara is very curious and worthy of enquiry.

The interesting name of Papa-nui-tinaku occurs at p. 35 of Vol. 30 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society. If this is Papa the Earth mother then the name of Generator is certainly an appropriate one for her, inasmuch as from her all things sprang. She was the universal Mother. In Maori narrative Pani is sometimes alluded to as Tinaku and Hine-tinaku. In Grey's Polynesian Mythology, Maori part of 1885 edition, p. 59, occurs a charm recited in order to facilitate the birth of the child of Hine-te-iwaiwa, in which occurs the name of Hine-tinaku. Hine-te-iwaiwa was one of the names of Hinauri, or Hinakeha, who represents the moon, and she was the patroness or tutelary being of woman and the art of weaving.

Canon Stack gives a South Island version of the Pani myth in Vol. XII of the Transactions of the N.Z. Institute, in which he says that the kumara was the offspring of Huruka (Hurunga) and Pani—"The husband of Pani wondered greatly how his wife procured their food. He watched her one day go down into the water and rub the lower part of her stomach, and then he soon afterwards saw her filling baskets with kumara."

Mr. White has a note to the effect that Tiki was the progenitor of Huruka, who took Pani to wife, and she produced the kumara—'He whanau na Pani te kumara'. In the first volume of White's Ancient History of the Maori we find:—

Tane
Tiki-whakaeaea
Hurunga=Pani

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Here Tiki appears as the offspring of Tane, who was one of the children of Rangi and Papa, the Sky Parent and Earth Mother. The meaning of the qualifying expression appended to the name of Tiki is by no means clear; it can be rendered in several ways, for instance as Tiki the producer. And as Tiki undoubtedly is the fertiliser or conceiver, this is probably the sense in which the above expression is used. Pani represents the female element necessary to reproduction. Tipihau, of the Tuhoe tribe, gave the following:—

This Tahu is the personified form of food, of food supplies as a whole, though certain kinds of food supplies have each their own personification.

The Awa folk of the Bay of Plenty have preserved yet another version:—

Here we have Rongo-maui, as a brother of Whanui, taking Pani to wife, and Pani is shown as a sister of one Tangaroa-i-te-rupetu, who was the father of the five Maui brothers. Pani is said to have been the foster parent of those five children. See Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. 32, p. 296; also Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 13, p. 145, for some interesting speculations concerning Pani-tinaku.

An old-time song contains the following:—

"Koia te kumara i a Hurunga
I a Pani e whakaahuru ana
Ki runga i te puke nui o Papa matua te kore."

(Hence is the kumara cherished by Hurunga and Pani on the body of Papa the Parentless—the Earth Mother)

Here follows an extract from another old song:—

"Kia whakarongo mai Reikura, Reiaro, Reimaru .. e
Nga tangata tena nana i kai to ratau taina te kumara
Te tama a te tane muri manu a Pani
A Tainui-a-rangi .. e."

(That Reikura, Reiaro and Reimaru may attend. Those were the persons who destroyed their young relative, the kumara, the child of Tainui-a-rangi, the secondary husband of Pani). This page 105name of Tainui, as that of a husband of Pani, has not been recorded elsewhere.

The following is yet another extract from an old song:—

"Ki taku kawenga i a koe ki tahataha o Wai-kurariki
Ki te wai i ope ai Pani i ona tama
Kataia e te patatai, koia te matenga i Raranui."

Herein is an allusion to Pani giving birth to her offspring in the water.

When Rongo-maui ascended to the heavens in order to obtain some of the kumara offspring of his elder brother, Whanui (the star Vega), he recited a charm as he ascended. He said to Whanui:—"I have come to procure some of our young folk, that I may take them with me down to Mataora." The elder one replied:—"I will not consent to any of our children being taken away by you." So Rongo retired, but after a time he stealthily returned and sought the young folk. Having found them he said:—"Let us go to Mataora." So they all came down to this world, and Rongo returned to his wife Pani-tinaku. Rongo then inserted the kumara children, or a piece of a tuber as one informant explained it, in his ure, and went to his wife (a ka ai raua). Thus it was that Pani conceived, and, when the time came to give birth to her offspring, Rongo said to her:—"Go you to the waters of Mona-ariki, and there give birth to your children." So she went and entered the water, and therein she stood and repeated the charm to cause birth. Now it was that the kumara children were born; their names were Toroamahoe, Matatu, Pio, etc. (all names of varieties of the sweet potato).

Now it was that Rongo-maui said:—"There must be instituted the ceremonial ovens in which to cook the kumara, the ovens known as waharoa, kirihau and kohukohu." The ceremonial manner of cooking such products was arranged, the different ovens for different grades of tapu persons of both sexes, for priests and chiefs, and the people.

Pani was a sister of Tangaroa-i-te-rupetu, the father of the Maui brothers, and, when the father died, then Pani cared for his children, for their mother had also died. The orphan children became fishermen and reproached Rongo with his indolence in not assisting them to procure food supplies. Rongo was much abashed and this was the cause of his applying to Whanui for the kumara children. But he stole those children, and this act was the beginning of theft in the world. Nor did the act go unpunished, for Whanui sent down to earth certain creatures to punish Rongo for his dishonest act. He sent down Anuhe and Moka and page 106Torongu (three caterpillar pests that attack the kumara plant), and ever these creatures destroy the kumara children of Pani and Rongo.

Upon a time the Maui brothers went forth upon the ocean to take fish, while Pani prepared an oven of food for them; it was an ordinary oven, the one styled umu potaka, not a tapu one. The food cooked therein was the tuber of the new food supply. The brothers were delighted with this new food and asked Pani where it came from, but she would not tell them. So Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga resolved to discover the source of this new food, this truly kai rangatira (superior food). He concealed the tu whaka-whanau of Pani, the girdle that she wore when she entered the water to give birth to the kumara tubers. He wished to delay her going until daylight appeared, even that he might observe her movements. When day dawned he returned to her the girdle and she proceeded to the waters of Mona-ariki. Maui followed her and observed her from a height known as Taumata-tirohia. She entered the water and there recited her charm:—

"E Pani E! E Pani E!
Opeope ki te Wai o Mona-ariki
Ka heke i tua, ka heke i waho, ka heke i taku aro
Me ko wai, me ko Pani."

Then Pani gave birth to the kumara in the water; and Maui saw the act and said:—"We are being fed with the paraheka (secretion) of Pani." Then Pani discovered that she had been observed, and great shame was hers, thus she retired to the lower world taking with her as companion, Hine-mataiti, who was the parent of the kiore (rat). Maui sought her by means of his magic dart; he descended and found her tending her kumara cultivation. Pani descended from Mataora, which is in space, while Hawaiki is this world.

Rongo-a-tau was a descendant of Pani-tinaku and Rongo-maui, and he also was connected with the kumara. He was an important person of Hawaiki, in fact it was called Hawaiki-nui a Rongo-a-tau on account of that prized product the kumara. He is also said to have lived at Mataora. His children were Kanioro, Hoaki, Taukata, and Tuturuwhatu. Kanioro was taken to wife by Pou-rangahua, he who crossed the ocean to procure the kumara, and she was also the guardian of the pounamu (the prized greenstone of New Zealand). Hoaki and Taukata were the men who brought the knowledge of the kumara to New Zealand, landing at Whakatane.

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There is a close connection between the stars and food supplies among many uncultured folk, as shown in Frazer's Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild. The Maori traces the kumara to Vega as certain folk of Indonesia claim to have received rice from the Pleiades. Frazer gives much evidence about these peculiar beliefs concerning the Pleiades, and might have added the Maori myths to his collection, for here Matariki (the Pleiades) were invoked by crop planters, offerings were made to them, and they were believed to be 'food bringers,' to exert a great influence on food products. Hence the name of Matariki appears in an invocation to the stars that was repeated in connection with the first fruits (mata o te tau)—

"Matariki atua ka eke mai i te rangi e roa, e
Whangainga iho ki te mata o te tau e roa, e."

Maru is another of these celestial beings who was supposed to influence the growth and welfare of crops, and many offerings were made to him.

In Vol. XIV. of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Mr. Colenso gives an English rendering of a long karakia, or ritual chant used in former times at the planting of the sweet potato, and here again we note the name of Pani, who, among the Maori folk, seems to take the place of Ceres. A people not possessing any kind of grain might well evolve some form of tutelary deity, or beneficient being, controlling their principal cultivated product. In the ritual referred to occur the lines:—

"O Pani! O! Come hither now, welcome hither!
Fill up my basket …
Pile up my basket to overflowing
Give hither, and that abundantly, etc."

The translator remarks that the translation of this semi-poetical charm, or invocation was exceedingly difficult owing to so many archaisms, allusions and ellipses. He continues:—"Of the various spells, etc., anciently used in planting the kumara, that I have acquired from several tohunga [priestly adepts] during many years, there are no less than three which contain this direct invocation to Pani; and while the introductory words of those three forms vary a little, the kernel, the invocation itself, is almost literally the same in them all. This circumstance, together with its evident antiquity, the fact of its being one of the few known forms of direct invocation to any being or personification ever used by the ancient Maoris, its poetical structure and its regular fitting and progressive disposition, make it a subject of page 108extreme interest if not of importance. These charms, when used, were always muttered in an undertone by the tohunga, who performed this duty while walking about the plantation, solus. This one, used in the spring, at the first planting season, serves to remind us of the vernal sacrifices and prayers of the ancient Egyptians and Romans and other ancient northern nations; and like those employed by them, it was used to procure fertility; and when simple, as in this instance, they may be regarded as among the most beautiful and becoming of the rites of natural religion."

In a footnote this writer states that he also possessed a charm for the restoring of a sick person to health, in which Pani was invoked together with her husband Tiki, and both simply and separately called on to grant health to the patient. It is not so remarkable that Tiki should be called upon to restore a sick person, for the object that he represents was held to possess very strange powers, but it is not clear how Pani could be viewed as a life saver or restorer. If it can be shown that she represented water, some light would be thrown on the matter.

In a paper on Plant Names in Polynesia, published in Vol. 6 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, Mr. F. W. Christian tells us that kumad and kumthla are Sanscrit names for the white esculent lotus (Nymphoea esculenta). Was this edible water plant the original kumara produced by Pani in water? But if Pani represented the lotus we are reminded of the fact that peoples of India employed the name of the lotus as a sacerdotal term for the female organ of generation, thus she would assuredly be spoken of as the wife of Tiki (personified form of the male organ). Moreover, both in Indian and Maori beliefs, the female organ possesses very remarkable inherent powers, both destructive and curative, and the male organ is endowed with similar powers. See also a paper by Mr. Christian in Vol. 22 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, p. 77.

In a later note (see Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 32, p. 255) Mr. Christian tells us that the kumad, kuvara or kuvala, the edible lotus, has a sweetish, floury tuber, and that it has long been cultivated in India, together with the taro and the yam. He holds that the Polynesian names for the sweet potato, kuara, kuawara, uala, umara, kumara, etc., are derived from the above lotus names. In Ecuador, South America, the white potato is kumar.

Mr. Colenso concludes his paper on the kumara as follows:—"Another curious superstition relating to Pani, sometimes page 109observed on the harvesting of the crop of kumara, may also be mentioned. At such seasons a peculiarly shaped abnormal and rather large kumara was met with, though by no means frequently, sometimes not one such in the whole cultivation. This was called Pani's canoe or Pani's medium, between her and the priest and the crop; and was consequently highly sacred, and never eaten by the people. To do so would be to insult Pani, and sure to cause the rotting of the whole crop when stowed away for keeping and winter use in the store-house, besides other serious visitations on the people. It therefore became the peculiar property of the priest, and was set aside to be cooked at a sacred fire as a kind of offering of first fruits. The finding of such a root was a matter of great gratulation, for now it was made evident that Pani had heard and visited and blessed them. And as, from what I could learn, such a kumara root was chiefly, if not only, to be found when the crop was a very prolific one, this fertility was also taken as another proof of Pani's gracious visit and, of course, placed to the account of the knowing and fortunate priest, who had initiated all things so well as to bring it to pass, and so to secure a good crop."

One version of an old myth states that, when the offspring of the primal parents quarrelled and fought over a kumara garden called Pohutukawa, Rongo-marae-roa and his people were defeated, many of them being cooked and eaten. The remnant of the kumara clan took refuge within Pani, who thus became the store-house of this tuber, and she it is who produces or gives birth to it. In this connection the name of her husband is given as Maui-whare-kino, sometimes as Rongo-maui.

(See Addenda 1 for notes on Pani, etc., in the original Maori.) In regard to the more prosaic origin of the kumara or sweet potato, its original habitat remains unknown. It has long been cultivated in America, the Pacific Isles and Eastern Asia (China), and it is observed that some writers favour an American origin for this plant. Other esculents of Polynesia are traceable to a western origin. The sweet potato was introduced into Europe some seventy years before the true potato (Solatium) was taken over. Columbus found it in cultivation in the West Indies, the natives of Hispaniola planting it as the Maori did, in small mounds.

The kumara was widely cultivated in the Pacific area when Europeans first reached that region, and it is known by the names given above in Polynesia, that part of the island system populated by the Maori folk.

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This prized food plant was certainly brought from Polynesia by the ancestors of the New Zealand Maori, and apparently brought by a number of different vessels, though the first comers do not seem to have introduced it. A considerable amount of traditional matter concerning such introduction has been recorded in various publications, but it is not considered desirable to republish this matter. It will be found in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, the Journal of the Polynesian Society, and in Vol. IV. of White's Ancient History of the Maori. These traditions show that the kumara was brought to these isles, not by one vessel alone, but in many, along with other cultivated products of Polynesia, some of which were successfully introduced, while others failed.

The kumara is a plant of succulent nature and tender growth, liable to be injured by the buffetings of strong and cold winds. This annual needs a suitable soil and a considerable amount of care and skill in cultivation, much more so than the common potato. The latter will produce some sort of a crop on almost any soil, from sea shore to the high forest ranges of the interior: not so the kumara, the care necessary in the cultivation of which appears to betoken a tropical clime as the original habitat of this tuber.

Tradition tells us that the aborigines of New Zealand, that is to say the first people to settle here, possessed no cultivated food products, but subsisted entirely on the products of forest, stream and ocean. These original settlers, the Mouriuri folk, are said to have been a dark skinned people of an inferior culture to that of the Maori. They are said to have been the descendants of castaways from some far off hot land, but it is pretty certain that they must have come from a land where agriculture was practised. Being castaways of a drift voyage no doubt they would not bring to these isles any of the cultivated products of their home. On landing here they would be compelled to subsist on the indigenous products of the land. Inasmuch as they were occupying the Taranaki coast, the Bay of Plenty, the Auckland isthmus, and some other districts, apparently in considerable numbers, at the time the ancestors of the Maori first settled here, it seems clear that they must have been in occupation of the North Island for some centuries.

Nor does it appear, according to East Coast traditions, that the first Polynesian (Maori) settlers here brought the kumara and taro with them. In his Ancient Maori Life Judge J. A. Wilson writes:—"The aborigines did not cultivate the soil for food, excepting the hue gourd, from which calabashes were made; they had no useful page 111plants that they could cultivate." This reference is to the Toi tribes. Toi, the leader of the first Maori immigrants to these shores, came from Eastern Polynesia, where the cultivation of food crops had long been practised, yet he is known in local tradition as Toi-kai-rakau, Toi the Wood Eater. This name was given him, we are told, because he and his people possessed no cultivated products, while their food supplies consisted largely of fern roots, berries, edible matter obtained from the tree fern (Cyathea medullaris), and ti (Cordyline) of several species. So far the traditions are clear, but we now come to a confused mass of legend that has never been satisfactorily explained. One tradition states that the kumara was introduced into the Bay of Plenty district during the life time of Toi, and that up to that time Toi had been ignorant of the fact that such a food existed, which is absurd. Another states that this tuber was cultivated here in the time of Whatonga, grandson of Toi, and that Tara, son of Whatonga, cultivated it on the islands Matiu and Motu-kairangi, at Te Whanga nui a Tara (Wellington Harbour). Yet another places its introduction about six to eight generations after the time of Toi. There is also much dispute among the various tribes as to who first introduced it, which tends to further confusion. A Bay of Plenty tradition maintains that two castaways, Hoaki and Taukata, acquainted the people here with the knowledge of the kumara, and hence a vessel was constructed in which certain adventurous ones made a voyage to Polynesia in order to obtain seed tubers. See Transaction of the New Zealand Institute Vol. XXXVII., p. 130, for an account of the voyage of the Aratawhao. It is highly probable that seed tubers were brought hither by a number of different vessels, and that each tribe has endeavoured to claim distinction for its own ancestors and ancestral vessel.

No such controversy exists concerning the introduction of the taro and gourd, possibly because they were not such important food providers as the sweet potato. A local Bay of Plenty tradition indicates that the gourd was introduced before the kumara and taro.