Harvesting the Crop

This important operation is known as the hauhakenga, the verb hauhake implying the lifting of a root crop.

Among the Awa folk of the Bay of Plenty, and some other tribes, the heliacal rising of the star Whanui (Vega) was looked upon as the sign for the commencement of the labour of lifting the kumara crop. Hence keen eyes scanned the horizon to catch the first view of that star, and the first person to so detect it at once roused the village community with the cry—"Ko Whanui, E! Ko Whanui!" Then adepts would examine the crop to see if it was ready to be lifted.

The statement at p. 27 of Vol. 28 of the Journal of the Polynesian Society to the effect that Vega marked the time for preparing the ground for the kumara crop is incorrect; apparently a lapsus calami.

In his paper on The Peopling of the North, Mr. S. P. Smith states that:—"The time for harvesting this valuable crop was denoted by the rising of the star Rehua (Antares)." This is not corroborated, apparently, and Rehua is viewed as the most important summer star, hence the remark so often heard on hot days—Kua tahu a Rehua.

The late chief Ropata Wahawaha was the author of the following statement:—"Tera whetu ra, ko Whanui, i te mea ka mohiotia nga po e puta ai a Whanui, ka whakapaia nga rua, a ka rere a Whanui ka timata te hauhake i nga kai, a te potonga o nga kai, ka mahia nga maki a Ruhanui." (About that star. page 215Whanui, as the nights on which Whanui appears are known, the pit stores are put in order, and when Whanui rises then the lifting of the crop commences. When all the food products are gathered in, then the arts of Ruhanui are practised.) These arts comprise all games and amusements; the allusion being to the harvest festival. This same authority remarked:—"When Matariki [the Pleiades] rises, the planting of seed in the earth commences, and food supplies of land and sea abound. Hence the saying regarding those supplies—"Nga kai a Matariki nana i ao ake ki runga." [The foods of Matariki, by him brought forth.] Another old saying states that it is Matariki who drives food ashore. The old time Maori viewed the Pleiades in the light of a benefactor, and, in some districts, its heliacal rising in June was the commencement of the Maori year. It is recorded that such rising was greeted in a singular manner by the chanting of songs, and posture dancing.

The expressions Ruhanui and Ruwhanui were employed in the East Coast district to denote the period of leisure that ensued after the crops were lifted, the time when social pleasures and feasting were so much indulged in. In vernacular speech ruha denotes weariness, while Ruhanui may almost be said to be a season name.

The late Mr. John White collected a note on this subject:—"The tapu period of the year was the time when Matariki appeared above the horizon in the morning. That was the occasion on which our elders of former times held festival, when the people rejoiced, and women danced and sang for joy as they looked on Matariki" Sir G. Grey remarks that first fruits were offered to Matariki.

A curious note on Whanui, preserved by Mr. John White, runs as follows:—"Another star of the heavens is Whanui. His message to all persons on this side of the island is—O friends! Here am I, Whakakorongata. Awake, arise and grasp your spade! Gather and store the food supplies, then rejoice and give yourselves to pleasure and song, for all women and children will then rejoice and be thankful."

The kumara crop was dug up in the tenth month of the Maori year, which included parts of March and April. It was usually alluded to simply as the ngahuru, or tenth, such being the old word for ten, and so this word has come to possess a secondary meaning, that of harvest time. This tenth month was marked by the rising of the star called Poutu-te-rangi, which has not been page 216identified, though William's Dictionary queries it as a Aquilae. Some tribes utilise the name of this star as a name for the tenth month. The following are the month names formerly employed by the Tuhoe tribes, as given by Tutakangahau. They now use our names, though some old men still keep to the ancient names:—

1.	Pipiri.—All things of the earth are contracted, owing to the cold, as also man.
2.	Hongonui.—Man is now exceedingly cold, he kindles fires to warm himself.
3.	Hereturi-koka.—The scorching effect of fire is seen on the knees of man.
4.	Mahuru.—The earth has become warmed, as also plants and trees.
5.	Whiringa-nuku.—The earth has now become quite warm.
6.	Whiringa-rangi.—Summer has arrived; the sun is strong.
7.	Hakihea.—Birds have now settled on their nests.
8.	Kohi-tatea.—Fruits have now set; man now partakes of the first fruits of the year.
9.	Hui-tanguru.—The foot of Ruhi now rests on the earth.
10.	Poutu-te-rangi.—The crops are now dug up.
11.	Paenga-whawha.—The refuse of food plants is piled on the margins of the fields.
12.	Haratua.—Crops are now stored in the pits; the labours of man are over.

Pipiri is a star name known to Maori and Tahitian. The first month is often called Te Tahi o Pipiri (The First of Pipiri). The ninth month is called Rūhi-te-rangi by Ngati-Awa of Whakatane. This Rūhi, also known as Peke-hawani, is also a star, and, in Maori myth, is said to be one of the wives of Rehua. When Rehua goes to live with Rūhi, she places her feet on the earth, the left foot first, and then the fruits of the earth are formed. When Rehua moves on to his other wife, Whakaonge-kai (another star) then blazing summer is upon us, and she renders food scarce, as her name denotes. All three personify spring and summer, also the enervating effects of summer heat.

The name Ruhi is apparently allied to the adjective ruhi, weak, exhausted, enervated, and to rūrŭhi, an old woman.

The eighth month was sometimes called Te Waru patote, on account of cultivated food products being then scarce, just prior to harvest time. The ngahuru was also known as ngahuru kai page 217paenga, because, at this time, food was prepared on the borders of the plantations.

It is held that early man naturally measured the year from the time of the ripening of crops of one year to the corresponding period in the next year. This system of measuring time is said to have given the early part of May as a starting point for the year in ancient Egypt, as also in Chaldea at a still more remote period. The Maori year began about two months after the harvest was gathered, but little notice was taken of these two months, which are held to be of no importance and were not so precisely named as the other ten months. The twelfth month was known in some parts as the Matahi kari piwai or gleaning month, when the piwai or tubers overlooked by crop-diggers were dug up for use. The term matahi seems to have been also applied to the first month (June-July) according to Williams, as the Matahi o te tau (First of the season).

The Pleiades year was also recognised in the Cook Group, and it would be of interest to know if it has been introduced from the northern hemisphere in past times. As a passing remark it is interesting to note that in some districts the Maori year commenced with the rising of Rigel (Puanga).

The Maori tells us that when Whanui, the star Vega, moves slowly (appears to do so) it is a token of a plentiful crop, an abundance of food. When it moves quickly, as though blown by the wind, it is a sign of a lean season, of poor crops.

Prior to the crop lifters commencing operations certain ceremonies had to be performed by priestly adepts, but we lack details of these matters. Mr. White tells us that the tohunga or adept, with certain companions, proceeded to the field, where he pulled up one of the kumara plants with the tubers still adhering to the roots. These were taken to the sacred place and there left as an offering to the gods, being simply suspended on a pole or stake. A few tubers were then dug and cooked for the tohunga, who ate them as a part of the tapu lifting ceremony. The recital of ritual matter or charms accompanied all these acts. One of the tubers cooked for the expert was held out by him and waved to and fro as an offering to the gods; the balance he ate. More tubers were cooked in a separate steam oven for the companions of the tohunga, while a third and much larger quantity was cooked in a third oven for the balance of the people. Having partaken of this ceremonial repast the work of digging the crop was proceeded with.

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Here follow some further notes collected by Mr. White:—When the kumara crop was taken up, a few tubers and leaves of the plant were suspended to a stake or a tree at the side of the field as an offering to the gods. A few were also cooked and eaten by the priests or adepts who performed the various ceremonies.

Those engaged in lifting the crop were not allowed to partake of food between sunrise and sunset until the work was completed.

When the crop was about to be lifted, a priestly expert, or, in some cases, an elderly woman, would enter the field and take up sufficient tubers to fill a small basket. These were cooked in a steam oven, and, when the oven was opened, the first tuber taken out of it was offered to the souls of the dead relatives of those who had recited the usual ritual at the time of planting the crop. While this small oven was being opened, the officiating tohunga took his stand on the eastern side of it, and some little distance away. When the woman lifted off the last covering and disclosed the cooked food, she took up the first tuber caught sight of in her right hand and held it up on high, being careful, however, not to hold it over her head. As she did so, the tohunga (priestly adept) recited the following:—

"E kore e whakarongo ki te hau o Tu,
Ki te hau o Rongo, ki te hau o Whakatakerekere,"

the meaning and application of which are obscure. This appeared to take the tapu off the remainder of the cooked tubers, which were then eaten by the tohunga and chiefs.

When the kumara crop is matured and ready for lifting a few tubers are first taken up and cooked in a steam oven. This is termed a whakamahunga, a trial of the crop. The crop is then taken up and conveyed to the stores, but all the largest tubers are placed together. The tubers, as taken up, are put in heaps in the field, and persons, termed kai whakarawe, take baskets to these heaps and fill them. These basket fillers, as also those who carry the same to the store houses, must not obey any call of nature while engaged at their tasks.

Any tubers cooked as food for the workmen while engaged in lifting the crop, must not be scraped, but are cooked with the skin on and eaten in the same condition.

When all the crop was stored then some of the large tubers were cooked for the workmen in an oven known as a tuapora. When this oven was opened, a tohunga first took therefrom a small portion of the food and, holding it up, waved it to and fro. This was then suspended, probably to a tree, as an offering to Rongo, page 219a placation of that atua, inasmuch as the people had been cooking his offspring, the kumara. The contents of the oven were then put in baskets and placed before the workmen.

Mr. John White left us some further notes on kumara cultivation, among which is the following:—He remarks that the crop was expected to be a tenfold return of the seed planted, or even more. Describing what were presumably methods employed by the Ngapuhi folk of the far north, he says that this tenfold return was called a ngahurutanga, apparently from ngahuru= ten. If 6 baskets of seed tubers produced a crop of 70 baskets, this would be expressed as maea mai e ono tekau ma rau ngahuru, meaning that sixty odd baskets were gathered. There is probably an error in this statement, the word denoting "and upwards" is ngahoro, not ngahuru, hence the expression should be e ono tekau ngahoro, I presume. Some further notes on this mode of counting are also of doubtful accuracy. However, the above may have represented a local usage.

Tuta Nihoniho of the East Coast contributed the following brief note:—As the tubers were recovered they were placed aside to dry, and, when dried, they were collected in heaps which were covered with a layer of haulm, and then with earth. The tubers were sorted as to different sizes, also all damaged ones were set aside for immediate use. The sorting process is described by the term kopana.

All those intended to be stored in the rua or pits were placed in large flax baskets termed tiraha, which were all made the same size. Each basket must be quite full and must be carried on the back to the store pit; it was deemed extremely unlucky to half fill a basket, or to carry one in the arms, that is to hiki it. These baskets of tubers were counted in pairs, as ngahuru pu= 20; hokorua pu = 40; hokotoru pu = 60.

Women in a paheke condition were not allowed to take part in lifting and storing the crop, because such a thing would cause the crop to decay in the pits.

Here follow a few general remarks culled from Mr. White's unpublished manuscript:—

In some cases at least there appears to have been a careful division of labour when taking up the crop. A certain number of men attended to the digging only; others collected the tubers into heaps; others put them into baskets, while others carried these baskets to the store pits, where the task of stowing them away was performed by old men, often by the leading men of the clan. page 220No interference with each others work was allowed among these groups of workers, and certain restrictions were imposed upon them. All such restrictions, and all ceremonial observances, were practised with one object in view, the placation of the gods, lest they cause the valued crop to decay in store. To insult Rongo by any act of omission or commission would spell disaster.

When the crop was all consigned to the store pit, a kind of ceremonial feast was held, and some of the tubers were cooked for this purpose in a special steam oven known as the umu tuapora. When cooked, and prior to the distribution of the food, a small portion thereof was taken out and used as an offering to the gods. The process was to hold it with outstretched hand and wave it up and down, after which it was deposited on some tree in the vicinity. First fruits of a crop are termed maomaoa and tuapora.

Archdeacon Walsh's remarks on the harvesting operations are remarkably brief:—"The general crop was taken up about March or April, a dry sunshiny day being always chosen, so as to avoid the danger of mouldiness. Should frost or prolonged heavy rains come on, however, the roots had to be dug at once, to save them from rotting or second growth. The general harvest, or hauhakenga, as it was called, was the most important event of the year, all other operations being suspended until it was completed. It was naturally made the occasion of a hakari, or harvest festival, accompanied by religious rites, but of these I have been unable to learn any details."

Any kumara tubers overlooked by the crop lifters and left in the ground are known as houhunga, a name also applied to a crop left too long in the ground. The word seems to denote a condition in which the tubers will not keep, but must be eaten soon.

If a nest of the pohowera bird, the banded dotterel, should be found by harvesters in a sweet potato plantation, then the yield of the field is already known, for there will be twenty baskets of tubers for each egg found in the bird's nest.

The peculiar ceremony performed for the purpose of lifting the tapu from a crop about to be dug is sometimes styled the pure, while tamaahu, a verb, describes the act. The first fruits of the kumara are also termed tamaahu. The tubers used in the tamaahu rite are termed tamoe. The Rev. R. Taylor states that the first fruits of the kumara were offered to Pani, and there seems to be a curious division of honours between Pani and Rongo. It is worthy of note that the first is always spoken of as a female and the latter as a male.

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The laying aside or offering of first fruits to the gods was a general Maori custom; the first fish caught in a new net, the first birds of the season, the first portion of harvested crops, &c., all went to placate the gods and retain their favour. Connected with the feeling that prompted these offerings was the peculiar attitude of the Maori toward the stars. Many of the principal stars were regarded as food suppliers, as influencing such supplies in some way, hence certain ritual chants were recited by tohunga during the first fruits ceremony in order apparently to influence the stars and invoke their aid and favour. The following ritual, given by Tutakangāhau of Tuhoe, was chanted by priestly adepts (tohunga) at the opening of the planting season, prior to the commencement of the labours of the season. They collected a quantity of new, young growth of plants, &c. (styled te mătabreve; o te tau), took it to the tuahu, where rites were performed, and there offered or fed it (whangaia) to the principal stars, which are styled atua (super natural beings). The object was to obtain the favour of these atua, the stars that influenced food supplies, that all food products might flourish; also to prevent any pest or malign influence affecting the same. The invocation is as follows:—

"Tuputuputu atua ka eke mai i te rangi e roa, e
Whangainga iho ki te mata o te tau e roa, e
Atutahi atua ka eke mai i te rangi e roa, e
Whangainga iho ki te mata o te tau e roa, e
Takurua atua ka eke mai i te rangi e roa, e
Whangainga iho ki te mata o te tau e roa, e
Whanui atua ka eke mai i te rangi e roa, e
Whangainga iho ki te mata o te tau e roa, e &c., &c.

The chant continues, naming as above all the principal stars. Tuputuputu is one of the Magellan Clouds; Atutahi is Canopus; Takurua is Sirius, and Whanui is Vega.

The spot where the pure rite was performed over the kumara crop was called the taumatua, while Williams gives tuperepere as signifying the pure ceremony on housing the kumara crop. If this signifies a secondary pure rite, then its object could scarcely be the lifting of tapu at such a juncture. In noting the various usages of this word pure, it is fairly clear that it does not always mean the lifting of tapu; in some cases its signification is of rather an opposite nature. The name tokomauri was applied to certain poles, wands or branchlets of mapou (Myrsine Urvillei) used in the pure rite over a plantation.

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The Rev. R. Taylor gives whakamahunga as the name of a ceremony for rendering tapu those who planted the kumara, and those who lifted the crop. These persons had to be fed by others while under tapu, for they could not touch food with their hands. Williams gives amoamohanga as an offering of first fruits of the kumara crop to the principal chief; also māhu, and mahukihuki as ceremonies to remove tapu from a kumara crop.

Cruise, who sojourned in New Zealand for ten months in 1820, has left us the following notes connected with native agricultural operations:—"The commencement of the koomera [kumara] harvest is the great epoch which marks the recurrence of the year; and the labour of gathering it supersedes all other occupations. It is ushered in with the blessing of the priest for its success, and terminated by his tabbooing, or making sacred from intrusion, the storehouses in which this favourite food is deposited. Even in the predatory excursions of the New Zealanders it has sometimes happened that, when everything else has been plundered, the superstition of the tabboo has saved the koomeras from violation.

One of the gentlemen of the ship was present at the shackerie [hakari] or harvest home, if it may so be called, of Shungie's [Hongi] people. It was celebrated in a wood, where a square space had been cleared of trees, in the centre of which three very tall posts, driven into the ground in the form of a triangle, supported an immense pile of baskets of koomeras. The tribe of Teperree of Wangarooa [Whangaroa] was invited to participate in the rejoicings, which consisted of a number of dances performed round the pile, succeeded by a very bountiful feast; and when Teperree's men were going away, they received a present of as many koomeras as they could carry with them….

The rejoicings are the same when the koomeras are planted, as when they are gathered in. During the sowing season the ground is strictly tabbooed, as well as the people employed in cultivating it: they have temporary huts built upon it; nor can they pass the boundary night or day until their labours are terminated. So cautious were the natives lest we should approach those tabbooed [tapu] grounds, that they had persons ready to warn us off, and to lead us, often by a considerable circuit, to the place for which we were bound. In some instances, when Europeans came accidentally upon them while so employed, and did not immediately go away when desired, the work was suspended, and they seemed to think that they dreaded a failure page 223of the crop if the seed were put into the ground in the presence of a white man."

The statement made by Cruise concerning the safety of the crops from the attention of raiders is scarcely in accordance with native ways. They were very frequently despoiled by war parties. Visitors who sojourned a brief space on these shores might well make errors in recording native customs, &c.