Best. — Food Products of Tuhoeland. 55 



among the Matatua Tribes, but termed tahune elsewhere) of 

 this plant. The tahuna is described in Williams's Dictionary 

 as the -'pappus of seed of raujio." The raupo is only found 

 on the outskirts of Tuhoeland, hence it did not form an im- 

 portant part of the Tuhoean food-supply. A good description 

 of the making of a sort of bread from the tahuna may be 

 found in the Eev. Taylor's " Te Ika a Maui." My own notes 

 on the subject are meagre. 



We will now see what berries or fruits were included in 

 the food-supplies of the Tuhoe people, this being an important 

 source of food of these forest-dwelling people, for the three 

 principal items in such supplies were the berries of the hinau 

 and tatva trees and birds. 



The berries of the hinau (Elceocarpus dentatus) were largely 

 used in former times, and even now to a small extent. The 

 kernel of the berry is covered with a mealy substance, which 

 is the edible part. This meal is made into a sort of cake 

 and so cooked. The berries are collected from the ground 

 under the trees into baskets and put into a house until 

 dry, probably for a couple of days. They are then poured 

 into a wooden trough (kumete), and pounded with a short 

 club or pestle of hard maire wood or stone. This process 

 is termed tnhi, and is to free the meal from the stones of 

 the berries. The pounded berries are then put in a basket, 

 which serves as a sifter, and is made of strips of ti leaf, 

 with small openings left between the strips. This basket is 

 called a tatari or ketc puputu. The meal is sifted over a 

 closely woven mat, and the meal escapes from the basket 

 and falls upon the mat, the stones of the fruit being retained 

 by the basket. This meal is then put into another basket 

 with smaller spaces and again sifted, in order that any 

 stones (karihi, or iwi, or iho) that may have escaped the 

 coarser sieve will be retained. The refuse — i.e., the stones 

 — still have a certain amount of meal (termed renga) adher- 

 ing to them. They are therefore cast into a wooden trough 

 or bowl, water is poured over them, and the mass is stirred 

 about with the hands until the adhering meal is washed off. 

 Then the stones are scooped up with the hands and cast 

 away. The meal-and-water mixture (termed loai haro) is 

 then stone-boiled (himhua) by means of throwing hot stones 

 into it, and is then drunk. It is a sort of gruel. 



The meal which has been sifted is collected from the mat 

 and placed in a bowl, where water is poured on it, and it is 

 mixed (poipioi and pokepoke) into a mass and then placed 

 in shallow baskets termed rourou. These baskets are made 

 from the leaves of the mauri or of the kokaha (probably 

 both Astelia), and are lined with leaves of the paraharaha 



