Food in the Swamp Reed.

The Maori, when put to it, could procure sustenance in the most unpromising looking places. As we all know there was food in abundance in the swamp and lagoons in the form of eels and duck, but even the raupo reed he could turn to account for the filling of his meal basket.

The Maori of a past generation knew how to make use of the pollen in the red or brown knobs on the heads of the raupo. This substance, called the pua, or hunehune, was gathered when it was in a ripe stage and shred or sifted, and was dried in the sun and placed in large baskets. These baskets, which had been lined with green leaves, were baked in earth ovens; this converted the pua into solid masses or cakes, which were eatable.

The process of manufacture of this kind of nutriment was rather laborious, and the Maori did not resort to it until he was hard up for food, and in that emergency he could turn many an ordinarily unattractive natural product to some account.