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The Maori Race

Food, Cultivation, Etc

page 84

Food, Cultivation, Etc.

The European is so accustomed to draw on his flocks and herds for large supplies of animal food and on his crops of grain for bread-stuffs that it is difficult for him to understand how any people not in the hunting or pastoral stage can subsist without large stores of meat, or how a race that has no cereals can continue to support life if largely dependent on roots and on the products of shore and forest. Yet the Maoris did this, and kept their bodily frames up to the highest efficiency, not, however, without industry and risk, those blessings in disguise to human nature. There was plenty and more than plenty at times, but it was purchased with brain and muscle, with digging-stick and fishing-net, at the point of the bird-spear and canoe-paddle.

Nothing can be more ridiculous than to assert that cannibalism originated in New Zealand through scarcity of food. If that had been so the women would have been in poor page 85 case, for human flesh was a tapu food for them. The women were as well nourished as the men, and the Maori would have been a poor race if it had depended on half-starved mothers. Nature was not prodigal to her dusky children as in the sunny islands of the South Seas; although food was on every side, it had to be won; won with an ingenuity, a resolution, and an industry that awake admiration the more it is contemplated. Birds of all kinds, eggs, sea-fish, river-fish, shell-fish, cray-fish, eels, rats, dogs, bread of hinau and raupo-pollen, berries, edible seaweed, sweet roots of cabbage-tree, heads of palms and tree-ferns, sweet potatoes, yams, taro, fernroot, etc., etc., were eaten fresh, were dried, stored, and kept for winter provision. Cliff and beach, forest and lake, sea and river, all had supplies of food waiting for those wise enough and laborious enough to gather them in, and also generous enough to feel that it was the portion of the strong and well equipped to share not only equally but bountifully with the weaker members of their tribe.

As the great bulk of their food was vegetable we had better turn first to their staple root-crop, viz, the sweet-potato (kumara) and to save reiteration speak of it henceforth under its native name. The kumara (Ipomœa chrysorrhiza) is a very handsome plant of tender growth and very prolific in good seasons; it is an annual and needs considerable skill in cultivation. The little hillocks on which it was planted had to be manured every year with fine gravel obtained from pits or river-beds, and carried in closely-woven baskets, page 86 with much labour, on the bearer's back to the place where it was to be used. The ground was kept entirely free from weeds, and the young plants sheltered from the wind by small screens of tea-tree (manuka); careful watch was also kept upon the growing plants to guard them from the ravages of a certain caterpillar; the larva of a large moth (anuhe, awhato, hotete; Cordiceps robertsii) which preyed on the kumara leaves sometimes in almost incredible numbers. This pest is better known as the “vegetable caterpillar” from a fungus that grows from it after death. It caused great havoc, eating from the edges of the leaves inwards, leaving the rib-veins. Hence the proverb against a glutton “Caterpillar always slowly eating” (awhato ngongenga roa). The larvæ were carefully picked off into baskets, carried away and burnt; it was a job always greatly disliked. This part of the work, fetching the gravel, weeding, watching for the caterpillars, etc., was faithfully and carefully performed by the women. Sometimes, however, old men past other work would be set, as the crop grew towards ripeness, to scare away thievish rats by working rattles at night, these rattles being composed of lines on which mussel shells were strung in bunches, that jingled and made a sound sufficient to scare away the rodents. There were at least forty or fifty named varieties of kumara, 1 all of which came true to their kinds when planted, but none of the species flowered nor was there any legend to the effect that they had ever done so. By some tribes the tuber was allowed to throw out page 87 a sprout before being put into the ground, but this necessitated even greater care and watchfulness than usual. Before the roots were ripe the old women would visit the plants and remove a few of the tubers by scraping away the soil at the side of a mound, then the earth round the plant was carefully loosened with a dibble and hilled up again, every withered leaf and weak sprout being removed. The roots taken out were scraped and half-dried on mats spread in the sun, each being carefully turned every day and shielded from dew at night. When properly dried they were (if not eaten at once) packed in baskets and kept as sweet-meats, or sometimes mashed up with warm water. These dried roots were called kao. Great care was shown in taking up (hauhake) the crop; this was always done in autumn before the frosts came. They were sorted out as to size, variety, etc.; all broken or damaged roots were eaten as soon as possible, but the better specimens were put into newly-made flax baskets and on some bright sunny day bestowed in the kumara store. Any moisture on them when put away would soon have spoiled them and they would have become mouldy.

The kumara was considered an exceedingly sacred crop and both the planting and harvesting of the roots were attended with much ceremonial. The plant itself was regarded as a god under the name of Rongo-marae-roa, and it was considered as eminently “The food of Peace” never to be contaminated by being cooked in the same oven nor stored in the page 88 same place as fern-root which was “The food of War.” The kumara had to be steamed in the oven, the fern-root roasted in the fire. The kumara was mystically supposed to be under the guardianship of a goddess named Pani, hence a kumara plantation was called “The belly of Pani.” If when harvesting any unusually large or peculiarly shaped sweet potato was found, it was called “Pani's medium” and was made sacred. If this was not done the whole kumara crop would rot away in the store-house, beside other evils. It was therefore taken by the priests and used at offerings of first-fruits cooked on a sacred fire. To find such a root was a cause of much gratulation as ensuring Pani's blessing, and as such kumara were only found when the crop was unusually prolific it was taken as a proof of Pani's favour. An incantation to this goddess always preceded the planting of the crop.2 The tubers of the ordinary kumara that were to be offered as first-fruits to the gods at the digging-up were planted in a separate plot (mara-tautane) of the cultivation. Rotorua was a famous place for kumara, probably on account of the warmth of the volcanic soil, and on the island of Mokoia (in Rotorua lake), a very sacred place, the ceremonies necessary were observed with great strictness. The first incantation used was “The Song of Maui” (Tetewha o Maui.) The priests went out to the forest and gathered boughs of the mapou tree, while the people fasted; both that day and the next were held very sacred, even the lake being tapu, no fishing was allowed nor page 89 did canoes put forth. The priests carried the mapou boughs and laid them with recited charms before the stone-god known as Te Matua Tonga. All day the branches rested there imbibing the essence of the god, and then they were removed to the kumara plantation and stuck into the soil to ensure a fruitful crop. The next morning the priests repeated their spells while the people were putting the tubers into the ground. When a great chief's kumara fields were being planted, the skull of his father or some other ancestor was brought out and placed beside the mapou boughs, remaining there during the season to give fecundity to the crop. The Arawa tribe used for this purpose the skull and bones of the old giant Tuhourangi, but in some places the skulls of vanquished foemen were set up along the sides of the kumara fields to promote a large yield of roots. It is said in legend that two persons, named respectively Taukata and Hoake, brought the kumara from Hawaiki to New Zealand, and Hoake returned as a guide in the canoes which started to get more, but Taukata was sacrificed and his blood sprinkled upon the door-posts of the store-house in which the first crop of kumara was placed, lest the spirit (mauri) of the roots should vanish and return home. Hoake did not return from Hawaiki, but six generations afterwards his descendants came to New Zealand with their vessels loaded with the sweet-potato. On landing they took the skull of Taukata from its burial cave (whara) and placing a seed-kumara in either eye-socket of the skull, the page 90 skull was set up on the edge of the plantation. Thereafter at the gathering and storing of the kumara a descendant of Taukata was sacrificed as an offering to the gods, and his blood sprinkled on the door-posts of the kumara store-house.

The ceremonial of planting differed according to locality. Some tribes set up three stakes on posts, each representing a god, viz, Kahukura (the rainbow—chief god of the kumara crop), Maui-i-rangi and Marihaka; to these incantations were chanted and offerings made. The priests then went to consult the holy image of Kahukura that stood in the sacred place of Mua. (See Wharekura). If the god was propitious his image would shake or tremble as a sign that protection would be given by the celestial powers to guard the crop both from natural enemies and tribal foes. Great trouble was sometimes taken to ensure the presence of a celebrated priest (who was sometimes brought from a place far away), for, if a mistake was made in the prayers or any ceremonies omitted, the presiding priest would be smitten with death by the gods, and the crop ruined. The principal chief would probably see to the death punishment. At different stages in the work of planting loud shouts would be given by the workers, a shout when the ground was first broken by digging, again when taking the young shoots from the tubers, again when the bulbs were set in the little mounds. All the men, chief and followers, who worked at the planting did so perfectly naked. The kumara sets were addressed page 91 as persons, reminded how good effects were to be obtained if they meant to grow, viz, from sun, wind and rain, and from holding on to the soil; nor were reminders of the ancient heavenly origin of the plant forgotten.

The kumara crop was dug when the star Vega (Whanui) was above the horizon in the direction (?) of Hawaiki. Should the star rise slowly there would be a fruitful year, not only for kumara but for all crops and all kinds of food, such as birds, rats, etc. If the star rose quickly there would be a lean year. If the kumara crop was not dug when Whanui was seen the crop might be good to eat at the time, but would not keep for winter use. The priest-chief (ariki) was always presented with the first-fruits of the kumara crop, some of it cooked and some of it raw. At the same time other offerings, of birds, fish, etc., were made to him, accompanied with hymns and chants reserved for the occasion. The men engaged in planting and harvesting kumara were very tapu and needed special forms of spells and purification before they could resume ordinary avocations.3 The kumara was so sacred that when a pa was in danger of attack tubers of this plant were buried in all paths leading to the fort, in order that should a foeman chance to step on one of these he would provoke the anger of the gods against his party. For this reason a war-party would always make its own path if possible, and not use a beaten track. If the spell named Whatu mahunu was recited over the buried kumara the legs of a foeman would feel as if burnt and he would turn and page 92 flee. The most beautifully adorned house in a settlement was generally the red-painted kumara store, which was always erected so that the door was turned away from the cold south wind and also that the spirits of the dead might not fly athwart them as they journeyed to Te Reinga. The stores were usually set up on carved posts, their internal walls were often made of neatly-placed yellow reeds renewed every year, and they had squared plinths of fern-tree stems placed at base to keep out rats. The roof was well fastened down with ropes of the climbing fern (mangemange: Lygodium volubile) and the carved work of the gables was inlaid with haliotis (paua) shell. All kumara stores were rigidly tapu and persons entering them were tapu also, so that only necessary and exceedingly formal visits were made to these sacred stores. In Waiwiri lake (generally known as Papaitonga, but this is properly the name of an island in the lake) at Horowhenua, posts were erected in the water and food-stores erected thereon.

Although mention has been above made as to the introduction of kumara by Taukata, Maoris of different tribes dispute fiercely as to the honour of first bringing the tubers to New Zealand, and as to which of the ancestral canoes conveyed them hither—probably they all had a share. It seems likely, however, that the migration from Hawaiki did introduce the root to these islands, as there is a consensus of legendary evidence to the effect that the previous inhabitants of the land were unacquainted with the sweet-potato and had page 93 subsisted on fern-root, on the sugary root of the cabbage-palm, etc. Many of the traditions are well away into the realm of myth, for Kahuhura (the god of that name) is said to have been the introducer, while the canoes passed backwards and forwards to Hawaiki in a miraculously short space of time. There is absolutely no trustworthy evidence in the matter, and it is simplified by one legendary statement that the kumara grew “on the cliffs of Hawaiki in the Under-world.”4 Unless some new and important material of enquiry is discovered, any attempt to ascertain the original country from which the kumara was brought is waste of time. The Maori saying that “Hawaiki is the land where the kumara grows spontaneously among the fern,” has only darkened counsel.5

The next food-staple in importance to the kumara was the root of the common fern (rarauhe: Pteris aquilina or esculenta), the root itself being denoted roi or aruhe. There were many varieties known to the natives and the flavours were said to be distinct, for instance that found on sandy soil differed in taste from that growing on the edge of the forest or on a steep slope. The best grew on rich, loose, alluvial soil, the root there having more fecula and less fibre. A good root would measure about three inches round by about one foot long. If it did not break crisply it was rejected. The supply had in some cases to be brought for miles, and the labour in procuring and preparing it was no light matter. It was dug in spring and early summer, then put into page 94 loose stacks shaded from the sun and built so that the wind could blow through among the roots freely so as to dry them. In about a fortnight it was picked over and sorted into varieties, some for chiefs, some for visitors, some for warriors, some for common use, and some for slaves. Then it was put away and stored; if well prepared it would last for years. After being slightly soaked it was scraped with a shell to remove the black skin, then roasted and pounded with a pestle or beater.6 The long wiry fibres were drawn out and the pounding made the mass acquire the consistency of thick dough. It was made into cakes (komeke) and was considered very nourishing and sustaining food, especially for sick people, or to a party of men on a forced march. It satisfied the craving of hunger for a longer period than most other kinds of native food. Hence the proverb “The sustaining food of Whete”—(Te manawa nui o Whete). Good fern-root when roasted tasted like biscuit, being mealy but rather tasteless. It was generally eaten with some relish such as fish, and sometimes soaked in the juice of tutu berries. The Maoris would not burn off fern from plantations except at the proper time of year, else the roots of the fern were injured, but if burnt at the right time it improved them. The fern had to be fired ceremonially, only two sorts of wood being used, viz the supple-jack (Rareao or pirita: Rhipogonum parviflorum) and the White-wood (mahoe: Melicytus ramiflorus) to kindle the fire. It was always dug up with the digging-stick (ko) and not page 95 with any other tool; care was taken not to bruise or break the root. Some districts particularly in the north, were very poor in fern-root, and it became very valuable; for the occupancy of a certain hill rich in this kind of food several battles were fought. When used on a voyage or war-expedition it was carried as a pounded mass. It was always pounded during daylight for it was believed that if beaten at night the head of the person so misusing the root would be pounded by the enemy.

The deity or lord of the fern-root and of all vegetable food growing wild was Haumia-tiki-tiki, a son of Heaven and Earth. When his parents were driven asunder he assented to the rending apart, and for this he was exposed to the wrath of the Lord of Tempests, Tawhiri matea, who pursued Haumia and would have slain him had he not been hidden in the breast of Earth, the mother. There is a curious ancient song relating that the fern-roots were growing on “The back of Heaven” and that when Heaven was uplifted the fern-roots came rattling down upon the earth. “At last the succulent crosier-like shoots appeared uprising among the habitations of men, and they were named ‘The Young-lady-who-showed-how-to-dig-up-her-lord.’” This young lady, the nascent fern-shoot, succulent and tender, was also eaten by the Maori.

The taro (Arum esculentum or Caladium esculentum) was probably introduced from the South-Sea Islands, for like the sweet-potato it was a tropical plant, and never throve in the page 96 colder climate of New Zealand without great care and trouble. The taro was beautiful in appearance, the large leaves handsomely veined would excite admiration if used only as a foliage plant, but the succulent root was the edible portion. It required a damp situation and rich soil of a light loamy or alluvial character, and was often planted on the banks of streams or lakes or at the foot of cliffs. Sand or gravel had to be brought and spread over the soil in which the roots were planted, in order that the heat of the sun should be drawn to the plants to nurture them, and they also had to be sheltered by means of rows of tea-tree boughs stuck in the ground. It was propagated by planting tubers or rather offsets from which shoots were carefully picked off. Three years' planting exhausted the soil, which was then left to grow bushes that when cut down and burnt manured the land ready for another crop. It was a perennial, and always in season, so did not need to be stored up when wanted for food; it was very prolific, increasing its offsets fast. At least twenty varieties were known and named. Taro is still to be found growing, but not the old valued kinds, these were superseded by a coarser variety of a poorer flavour but more easily cultivated, called American Taro. If the root was not fully cooked it was very unpleasant to the taste, causing burning of the lips and throat. It was much used in ceremonial observances.

The Yam (Uhi or uwhi-kaho: Dioscorea sp.) was little cultivated, as it would only grow in sunny places in the northern parts page 97 of the North Island, and that only in clearings recently made, where the fresh ashes had fertilised the soil. The Gourd or Calabash plant (hue) was an important vegetable, delicious in flavour and easily grown. It was a running or trailing plant, with large white flowers, and pumpkin-like fruit of all sizes from that of the fist up to the dimensions of a bushel measure. The gourd required a damp rich soil to bring it to perfection; it was often sown near taro plantations and on the edge of the forest. It was only used for food when young, and steamed in the earth-oven; it was devoured either hot or cold. An immense number were eaten in the hot season. It was raised from seed that was yielded in great plenty, but there was only one variety truly indigenous, the other (putahue) was introduced in the Hawaiki immigration. Before sowing the seeds were wrapped in the fronds of the common fern and steeped in water for some days. They were planted when the warmth of summer began to be felt and on the 15th and 16th days of the moon; indeed all vegetable seeds had to be planted about the full of the moon to ensure abundance. If gourds were broken up to be cooked in the oven, a charm had to be repeated by the woman preparing them. The great value of the hue was in the use of its fruit for calabashes; the natives, in the absence of pottery, would have been put to great straits to find a substitute for the gourd, not only in the manufacture of water-vessels, but for containers of potted-birds, etc. To use as calabashes the fruit was page 98 prepared by drying when mature by the aid of sun or fire, the contents being scooped out through a small hole in the stem-end. Small gourds were used as vessels for holding oils and paints for the body, the medium size were made into dishes and water-vessels, while the very large specimens were reserved for potting birds. For this purpose the stalk-end was cut off and a carved wooden mouthpiece inserted; this was cut out of one piece of wood large enough to allow of a man's hand being inserted into the vessel. At the bottom of the large gourd three or four legs were fitted so that it would stand upright; such containers were highly prized, and became heirlooms.

The tap-root (kauru or mauku) of the cabbage-tree (ti: Cordyline sp.) was dug up at particular seasons, split and cooked. The root of a finer quality from the species known as ti-koraha was carrot-shaped and about two or three feet in length, requiring a deep rich soil for its proper growth. The seedlings were carefully planted out, and the following year the root was fit for use. The plants were dug up, stacked in piles, and dried in the sun. The fibrous roots were burned off while drying. When dry the roots were scraped and slowly baked for from 12 to 18 hours. They were either chewed at once, or pounded, washed and squeezed to extract the sugar which was contained in great quantity, partially crystalised among the fibres of the root. The sugar was eaten as a relish with fern-root. There was another variety of cabbage-tree (ti para: C. edulis) a flowerless variety, growing page 99 to a height of four or five feet and propagated only by suckers and side-shoots; when it had thrown out its suckers it died. The stem of this plant, which was considerably thicker than that of a cabbage, was cooked and eaten. Sometimes the heart-shoots of the cabbage-tree (ti) were eaten raw or after being roasted on the embers; this was usually done by men on a journey when food was scarce. The frond-stems and heart of the great tree-fern (mamaku: Cyathea medullaris) were also baked and eaten, a very nourishing food resembling sago. The heart of the nikau palm (Areca sapida) was eaten raw; it was succulent and wholesome but it destroyed the tree for a very small quantity of nourishment to the eater. The roots (koreirei) of the bulrush (raupo: Typha angustifolia) were found to be mild, cool and refreshing if eaten raw, but the roots of the New Zealand lily (rengarenga: Arthropodium cirrhatum) had to be cooked in the oven before becoming fit for food. A plant resembling a long red radish (perei: Gastrodia cunninghamii) was valued for its root, but it was scarce, and only found in dense forests. The roots of the common convolvulus (pohue: Convolvulus sepium) were carefully dug up and cooked, but were not much thought of as an article of diet, for they were to be found in small quantity and it took much trouble to dig up the long whip-like roots. The bulbs or large scaly bracts of roots at the base of the leaves of that most beautiful of objects, the horse-shoe fern (para-reka: Marattia salicina), whose leaves sometimes reach 14 feet page 100 in graceful length, formed a delicious article of food, but the locality in which it grew was limited, and confined almost wholly to dark shady forests. The kernel-like inner part of the root of the sedge (ririwaka: Scirpus maritimus) was eaten.

Bread (pua) was made from the yellow pollen of the bulrush (raupo). It was collected in summer, and when raw was like mustard in appearance. It was gently beaten out from the flowering spikes, and mixed up with water into thin large round cakes and then baked. The taste was like gingerbread, and it was both sweet and light. Bread was also made from the berries of the hinau tree (Elæocarpus dentatus). The berries had to be steeped for a long time, sometimes for months, in running water. Then they were placed in troughs with water and rubbed with the hands, the nuts, stalks and bits of broken skin were drained off, and the residue was a kind of coarse meal which was made into a huge cake and steamed in the oven. It took two days to make a cake weighing from 25 to 30 pounds. It was troublesome to prepare but was greatly relished, as, though darker than our brown bread, it was pleasant to the taste. It was often set before visitors as superior food. Some tribes did not steep the fruit but only pounded it in a rude mortar and sifted it through a sieve made of the mid-ribs of the leaf of cabbage-tree (ti).

The pulp of the berries of the karaka tree (Corynocarpus lœvigata) was sometimes eaten raw and the poisonous woody kernel thrown page 101 away. But as an article of food it was the kernel that was valued, and held in higher estimation than fern-root, but it was not so common, as the tree only grows near the sea. The fruit was soaked in water for months, a dam being formed in a small stream for that purpose. When ready they were washed by being trampled with the feet, the outer pulp and skin passing away. Then the kernels were cooked in the ovens. Another mode was to gather the fruits in the autumn and steam them in large ovens for a long time; then they were put into loosely woven baskets which were shaken and knocked about to remove the pulp and outer skin, the large seed being left; this removed the poisonous qualities. Afterwards they were spread out on mats and stages to dry and then stowed away. When used the kernels still in the husk were steamed again in the oven. Sometimes the hard seeds of the fruit of the tawa (Nesodaphne tawa) were steamed and eaten; the fruit, which is like a long plum, is not very palatable. Maoris after the arrival of the Europeans acquired a liking for a filthy kind of food, viz, maize steeped in water till rotten and then cooked, but it need not be considered as an article of Maori food proper, as maize was an introduced plant. The berries (konini) of the native fuchsia (kotukutuku: Fuchsia excorticata); of two species of solanum shrubs (poroporo, poporo: Solanum aviculare and S. nigrum) and of some other trees and shrubs were eaten raw. Fungi of various sorts, especially those growing on dead timber, were eaten and relished as we page 102 enjoy mushrooms. If fungi were found in abundance it was believed that a year of scarcity of all kinds of food was at hand. The sow-thistle (puwha: Sonchus oleraceus) was used fresh as a vegetable, gathered once or twice a day and steamed in the oven. Only the tender young leaves and tops were used, and the stems were sometimes bruised and washed in running water to get rid of the bitter milky juice. It was considered a great relish when used in spring and summer, and cooked with fish. The leaves of certain other plants (raupeti, toi, and tohetake) were also used as vegetables. The so-called “Maori cabbage” was introduced by Cook, and was not an indigenous plant. The fleshy flower (tawhara) of the climbing plant kiekie (Freycinetia banksii) was eaten greedily and its fruit (ureure) was also eaten when it was ripe, in the winter. A few varieties of seaweed were also cooked and devoured; the principal of these was a species of Laminaria (karengo). It was an extremely slippery and flat growth, like paper, found on tidal rocks. It was collected and dried in the sun and closely packed away in baskets. Karengo was generally eaten after being steamed in the oven and mixed with tutu juice, when it became like jelly and was allowed to cool. It was considered a great treat, and was carried to inland tribes as a valued present.

The Maoris drank little excepting water, or water made sweet with the honey of the flax flower (Phormium). The sugary roots of the cabbage-tree (ti) were sometimes bruised page 103 in water as a sweet drink, but there was nothing to be called an artificial beverage except the juice of the tutu (Coriaria ruscifolia) berry. This juice had to be carefully strained to extract the seeds, which were highly poisonous, but if there were no seeds the drink was pleasant and wholesome. The juice was expressed from the berries and placed in cala-bashes which were set in a cool place for immediate use. A sister variety (kawa: Piper excelsum) of the plant (kawa: Piper methysticum) from which the South-sea Kava is made, grows in New Zealand, but although the Maoris had kept the name they apparently forgot how to make the beverage; neither the chewing or pounding the root for its juices was practised, or alluded to in legend. The gum of the kauri pine and of the tarata (Pittosporum eugenioides) was chewed as a masticatory; the latter being mixed with a gummy exudation from the sow-thistle. Bitumen was also chewed and passed freely from one to another.

The above covers pretty fully the subject of the vegetable food of the Maori, but before leaving the subject altogether a few words may be devoted to general remarks. Their plantations were not fenced; it was not until after the pig was introduced that fences became necessary. The only fences used were screens of reeds or tea-tree put up to shelter kumara and taro from high winds. The plantations were far apart, for fear that either an enemy's war party or a friendly plundering (muru) party might ruin the results of much page 104 patient labour, for at such times crops were wantonly and ruthlessly destroyed. In preparing a cultivation the big trees were felled with the aid of fire as described in canoe making. The smaller trees were cut down by means of heavy stone-axes (toki) lashed to the ends of poles and impelled against the tree to be felled. This was done until two deeply cut (or bruised) rings about a foot apart were made round the tree, and then the intermediate portions of wood were removed by applying wedges of smaller axes. This went on till the centre of the tree was reached. It was a slow process, for often a stage on which many men could work had to be set up round the trunk. The ramming at the tree with the great axe-shaft was done by parties of men timing their work with chants, as they would do in hauling out a log or paddling a canoe. The plantations were very pleasing to the eye, being kept in good order and set with mathematical accuracy. Kumara fields had their plants set about two feet apart each in its little round mound like a small mole-hill, while the beautiful taro plants with their dark rich green leaves rose from a levelled surface often white with sand patted smooth with the hand. The hue were set in little depressions like bowls or hemispherical pits. All lines of kumara and taro were set absolutely straight whether viewed lengthwise or across, a cord being used in laying these lines out with uniform precision. Except dry gravel and ashes of burnt timber no manure was used. The Maoris consider the use of animal manure as a revolting and page 104a An Old Warrior Holding a Kokoti or Patu.[See page 311.] page 105 filthy practice. They would have rejected as tapu any food grown in what they looked upon as so disgusting a manner, and regarded European cultivation with horror when they saw dung applied to agricultural purposes. It is, however, a most extraordinary thing for so observant and industrious a people not to have furnished clean water to their plants. They never watered their gardens even in times of drought and when water was close by, and crops sometimes perished for want of this simple aid in the struggle for existence. Agriculture was properly taught to the chiefs in the University.

The animal food of the Maoris was limited in variety but was fairly plentiful. Birds, fish, dogs and rats constituted the principal items. The fine New Zealand pigeon (kukupa or kereru: Carpophaga novæ-zealandiæ) was snared or speared in great quantity, as were the parrots (kaka: Nestor meridionalis). The paradise duck (putangi-tangi: Casarca variegata) a bird of beautiful plumage, but not of such flavour as the grey duck or teal, was considered a prize. The swamp hen (pukeko: Porphyrio melanotus), wood-hen (weka: Ocydromus sp.), the apteryx (kiwi: Apteryx sp.), the parson bird (tui: Prosthemadera N.Z.), the ground-parrot (kakapo: Stringops habroptilus), the quail (koreke: Coturnix N.Z.), the rail (mohopereru and moeriki: Rallus sp.) and many other land-birds were cooked or potted down. Many kinds of sea-birds, curlew, tern, mutton-birds, etc., etc., were caught and preserved in calabashes. The air-bladder of a page 106 kind of kelp was utilised as a vessel in which cooked mutton-birds were potted; the oil that escaped in cooking being poured over them in the container. Bark of the totara tree was fastened round the outside and kept in place by stout sticks, the kelp bags and the bark covering being pressed into the shape of a sugar loaf standing five or six feet high and ornamented with feathers. Gross feeding on these very fat birds would produce eczema or some kindred form of skin disease. The small frugivorous rat (kiore) was an article of food highly esteemed. If being prepared for the dinner of a visitor or of a well-born chief the fur was singed off and the bones crushed within the tiny carcase. Care was taken not to break the skin, so the broken pieces of bone were extracted through the posterior orifice, but the intestines and their contents were left undisturbed, the vegetable substance in the stomach serving for ready-made stuffing. When cooked they were like large juicy sausages. Seals were sometimes taken and were highly relished as food. At one time the large edible lizard was caught by being smoked out of its burrow at the foot of a tree; an inland tribe, the Rangitane, were said to eat them only about eighty years ago.

The Maoris had good fishing grounds all round their coasts as well as in lakes and rivers. They sometimes used large seine nets and hand-nets but also were adepts at using hook and line. The cod (hapuku) is a fine sea-fish, sometimes attaining a weight of 50 page 107 pounds. It is related that on one occasion a shoal of Black-fish came ashore at low water and the natives tethered the huge creatures by the tails with long ropes of flax, killing them as they were wanted. The mackerel, the kingfish, barracouta, and some other kinds were caught with the running line and a hook made from the bent shell of the haliotis (paua). Snapper, warehou, butterfish, trumpeter, moki, flat-fish (patiki), and other fine sea fish were plentiful. Sharks caught and dried on stages in the sun were much relished. Mackerel were prepared by being cleaned inside and washed with salt water, then half-cooked in the oven, afterwards placed on a high stage 10 feet above a fire which burnt during the night but was allowed to die down in the daytime when the sun's heat helped to dry the fish. This was a favourite winter food. A very tasty dish was made by cooking fish in an oven, then, taking out the bones, the flesh was pressed into a solid mass. This was then wrapped in young raurekau leaves and baked (or steamed) in the oven a second time. It was called koki. Large quantities of eels were sometimes caught, generally by building (often with great labour) winged weirs in rivers or streams leading out of lakes. Strong palisades of long posts were driven in, the walls inclining together so that eel baskets (hinaki) could intercept the fish passing. Eels are a gross and oily diet, and were preferred dried. This was done by tying them in rows between sticks, sometimes between two long sticks fastened together, from which the dried eels stuck out stiffly and regularly on each side page 108 like a large palm-branch. They were prepared by being placed over smoky fires which dried up the fat and cured the fish, allowing none of the flavour to escape. When being eaten only the skin was removed and no further cooking was required. Lampreys (piharau) were caught in loose mats of fern laid in the small streams and now and then examined, the fish being found entangled in their interlaced fronds. The natives sometimes died (as a certain English king did) from a surfeit of this luscious food. A small fish (inanga), resembling the minnow, swarmed in tidal streams, and made up for its size by its numbers; it was caught in a long conical net fastened to a frame and thrust down with a pole. They were eaten pressed into a solid mass, and are now called whitebait by the settlers. A kind of grayling (upokororo) was found abundantly in some rivers but its habitat was limited. Fresh water mussels (kakahi) were gathered with a large rake used in the lakes. Oysters, limpets, haliotis (paua), cockles, and mussels, were abundant along the coast. Shellfish were collected in tons during the summer, dried and carried off for winter stores. Crayfish were caught by diving, or in wicker traps, and were preserved as follows. They were taken alive and placed overlapping each other in the bed of a running stream, stones being placed on them to keep them down. After a day or two in the water they were taken out, shelled and the flesh hung on frames in the wind to dry. When quite hard they were put up in bundles and packed away in baskets, these being placed in the store-houses. They page 109 were often used as presents when thus preserved for the men of the inland tribes, the coast natives receiving presents of potted forest birds in return. The cuttle-fish was in ancient times especially reserved for the high chiefs. A certain larva (huhu) found in rotten timber was much relished by the Maoris; and they also esteemed as food the small green beetle (kekerewai) found on the tea-tree (manuka) shrub. It was called as a compliment Te Manu a Rehua, “the bird of Rehua”—Rehua was a god.

Oil was obtained by hanging up the internal organs of the shark until they were decomposed and the liver-oil ran down into a calabash placed beneath. A vegetable oil was obtained from the berries of the titoki tree (Alectryon excelsum). These berries were bruised and placed in a wooden vessel with water into which hot stones were put, and the oil ran out from one end of the vessel. Bruised leaves of aromatic plants were then steeped in the oil to scent it. It was used for dressing the hair of people of rank.

In times of plenty the natives had two meals a day; one in the forenoon about ten o'clock and one about four in the afternoon, but in days of scarcity one meal only was partaken of. The primitive knife used in preparing the food was a flake of obsidian or more commonly a sharp cockle shell, a clumsy tool in European hands, but marvellously useful in the deft fingers of a native woman. Food was generally cooked in the earth-oven. This consisted of a hole in the ground in which a page 110 fierce fire of dry wood was kindled, and upon the wood was set a number of large stones not liable to crack with the heart. When the stones had become red-hot they fell through the fire as it burnt down and were then taken out with rough sticks used as tongs and set aside. The ashes were taken from the hole and the hot stones replaced, upon these were set green leaves and the food laid on them. Edible roots and tubers were laid at the bottom and meat or fish on the top. The meat to be cooked was bound up in large leaves to keep the gravy in. More green leaves were placed over the top and then water poured over, the whole being quickly covered in with old mats soaked in water and with soil hastily heaped on so that the steam could not escape. After some time, generally about one and a half hours, the oven was carefully opened, the coverings lifted off and the well-steamed food taken out. The result was extremely good, and although this was almost the only practical mode of cooking known to the Maoris there was no complaint as to efficiency. Of course they knew how to cook birds or fish by broiling or toasting before the fire on a stick, but this was seldom attempted on a large scale. Not having utensils of metal, frying, boiling or baking was not attempted.

When boiling water was required the water was put into a vessel of bark or a trough of wood and hot stones thrown in. There were proper and improper modes of cooking particular fish, and it was supposed that if attention was not given to this matter that living fish page 111 would leave the locality. Natives were sometimes afraid to make presents of fish lest they should be improperly cooked. Food was not eaten on a fishing expedition until all the fish had been caught that were required, or else the fish would not bite. Orthodox persons would not even take food in the fishing-canoe for fear the rule should be broken. Similarly no cooked food was allowed to be carried by bird-hunters; it would pollute the sanctity of the forest and drive all the birds away from it. If fern root had not been cooked it was permissable to carry it, and a small portion might be cooked on the spot, but only just enough for the meal, and if any remained over it had to be left behind, not carried on. If, when the ovens were opened, the contents were found to be only half-cooked, they had to be eaten in that state and not on any account to be cooked again. The cooking in this case had to be done at night, not in the day time. If a settlement was visited by bird-hunters and they were offered cooked food they might partake of it, but not take any as provisions for their further journey.

The food was generally served in small baskets of green flax, one for each guest of consequence, and these baskets were thrown away into a tapu place or else destroyed lest the personal tapu of the eater be desecrated. A food basket might be set between three or four common persons; this basket would probably contain sweet potatoes or taro with a piece of fish or bird and some sow-thistle or wild cabbage. A chief would not allow anyone else to page 112 eat from his basket or after him. Sometimes a high chief would give a portion of his cuttle-fish (tapairu) as a mark of honour to another person, but this was very exceptional. Any fragments left by the chief were carefully placed in the basket and deposited in the sacred place (wahitapu). In some villages, however, the chiefs had boxes formed like little houses set on posts, and in these extremely sacred receptacles the remnants of food were placed. Women generally ate by themselves, after cooking (assisted by the slaves) for and waiting on the men, but properly each person of any rank ate alone, so this was no hardship for the women. If it was the idiosyncracy of any one not to be able to eat certain kinds of food, such person was said to be wainamu. “So and so is a wainamu for eels,” etc.

It was not considered polite for guests when eating to be watched or intruded on by their hosts. A procession was formed and each person of the host's party bearing a basket would carry it for a visitor, set the food before the guest and withdraw. It was also considered very rude when carrying cooked food to pass in front of a chief or a guest. There is said once to have existed a small lake near Waikare-moana that was famous for the abundance of birds haunting the trees around it and thus a favourite place of bird-catchers. Unfortunately this lake has now disappeared, and no one can find it, because a chief who was snaring birds was disobeyed by his wife. He had warned her never to pass in front of him when she was carrying food, but she did so—and page 113 lo, the lake vanished for ever. Chiefs were very careful that the steam of cooking food should not drift over them or come into the house in which they sat; they considered their “sacredness” offended by such circumstance. On one occasion when murder had been done and war threatened thereupon, the offending persons were inveigled into a house whereto the steam of the uncovered ovens penetrated, and this degradation was considered a full revenge.

In addition to other ordinary feasts the great festival of the Maoris was the Hakari. This name was sometimes applied to the building erected for the food as well as to the feast itself. A huge pole 80 or 90 feet in height was dragged from the forest, dubbed or squared, and set up. Stages were built from about seven to nine feet apart all the way up the pole; the bottom stage being about 20 feet square, and the others diminishing in size to the top so that the whole took the form of a pyramid. The frame was braced by long poles set in the ground and slanting upwards along the outside of the stages to the central pole. Upon the stages were piled baskets of kumara, taro, hue, dried fish, dried birds, dogs, rats, etc., till the whole was almost a solid mass of food. At one feast there has been seen 2,000 one-bushel baskets of kumara, at another 20,000 dried eels, tons of sea fish, calabashes of oil, etc., etc. The food allotted for each tribe of visitors was particularly pointed out and set apart for them. The erection when finished with was allowed to go to ruin, or was broken up for firewood, it was never used again for a page 114 similar purpose, nor was another feast of the kind held in the same place.6 At ordinary feasts, and when the pyramid was not erected the feast was set out with long walls of food; walls about four feet high of roots such as sweet potatoes, etc., crowned with the cooked birds, etc. When the guests arrived they were welcomed with songs and then the presiding chief would strike different heaps or portions of food walls with his staff, naming the division of visitors to which it was allotted. The chief of the party receiving it divided it among his people. At such feasts many speeches were made, the orator walking one way and speaking, and then turning in silence to his starting point, when he began speaking and walking again.7