98 Transactions.- — Miscellaneous. 



called toto. A collection of houses is called a Jcainya, the same 

 as ill Maori. 



Their clothing consists of the universal maro worn by the 

 men, made of cocoanut-leaves. The tihci, worn by the women, 

 is a garment made of finer cocoanut-leaves, split into strips 

 and fastened on a cord at top, which secures it round the 

 waist and allows it to fall to the knees. The Tahitian and 

 Maori word for the same article of dress is the same. The 

 parcii is a short mantle of plaited cocoanut-leaves, narrow-ed 

 round the neck, and falling over the shoulders to the 

 waist. A large garment called kahu (Maori, kakahu) is 

 sometimes used as a covering at night. They also make 

 a pare (same word in Maori) to shade the face from the 

 sun. 



Their diet did not contain much variety. Cocoanut in its 

 various forms was the staple article, flavoured with fish, which 

 was cooked in an oven of stones exactly like a Maori umu, or 

 hangi. A light meal of raw cocoanut was taken soon after 

 rising, a more substantial one at noon, and the principal meal 

 of the day just before sunset, in all of which they resembled 

 the Maoris. The general name for cocoanut at Tongarewa is 

 niic, a word common to most of the islands, with sliglit varia- 

 tions. In some parts the leaf is called ni, and from this I 

 think the Maori derived the name of our only palm, the ni-kau, 

 ■which may be translated /7i-only, or 72z- without — a very natural 

 name to be applied to a palm similar to the cocoanut, but 

 without its fruit. The niu has, however, in all the islands 

 various names in its different stages of growth. In Tongarewa 

 they appear to be as follows : In its earliest stages it is 

 called makomako. Vaimamja is the top of the young fruit 

 before it has become husk ; in that state it is eaten by the 

 natives with fish. Niu-mata is the half-grown state, with the 

 soft pulp from which is made niu-icara (or, as Laniont spells 

 it, niu-oara), the connnon food of the people (maia, in Maori, 

 means unripe). The motumotn. is the ripe nut with the husk 

 still green : from this is made poc in the same manner as niu- 

 wara, but it has not such a delicate taste. There is a par- 

 ticular kind of cocoanut called mancjaro (which in Maori 

 means mealy), the green husk of which is sweet-flavoured. 

 Old dried cocoanuts are called hakari (cikari in Earotonga), 

 from which is made u)xiro, a preparation which is considered a 

 great delicacy. If the cocoanut fails, the people have nothing 

 to fall back on but fish and the drupes of the pandanus, 

 for neither kumaras, taros, nor yams appear to have been 

 known to the people in former times. The Kev. W. Wyatt 

 Gill mentions in one of his works a proposition then on foot 

 to remove the people to some other island, as they were in a 

 state of starvation. The only animal was a small rat, which 



