84 



Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Ta-whakamoe 



I 

 Kahu-wi = Moenga 



Tama-riwai 



Karetehe II. 



I 

 Te Motukura 



I. 

 Monika 



I 



Puihi 



(living 1902, an old 



man) 



I 



Te Amo-haere 



I 

 Maata 



(a child of four years, 



1898). 



Te Rehe 



I 

 Hine-hau 



I 

 Te Uru-whiua 



(died 1900) 



I 

 Taua 



(living) 



I 

 Wairini 



(living, twenty years, 

 1902). 



Tangata-iti 



I 



Te Ahitahu 



i 

 i 



Numia 

 (living) 



I 

 Hine 



(About twenty years, 



1900). 



This genealogy will serve as an illustration of several 



remarks concerning the potato. It is probable that Tuhoe 



acquired their first potatoes from Ngati-Awa, the latter being 



a coast tribe, from whom these bushmen obtained their first 



European implements, &c, by means of barter. Moni, of 



Ngati-Awa, went north to the Ngapuhi country and brought 



back the first potatoes, guns, and steel axes to the Whakatane 



district. Now, many old natives assert that they possessed 



several kinds of potatoes, and cultivated them, long prior to 



the advent of Europeans. It is probable that they did so 



before they encountered any Europeans, having acquired the 



article from the far north, or other distant places, by means 



of the seed being passed from tribe to tribe. The evidence 



against the statement is this : that the generic terms for the 



potato (riwai and taeiva) do not appear in song or story of 



ancient times as foods of the people, yet how often the kumara, 



taro, &c, are thus mentioned. Tamarau, of Ruatoki, mentions 



as evidence in favour of the pre-European theory that Moenga, 



mother of Tama-riwai (see genealogy), was living when the 



riwai was being cultivated ; that, despairing of having a child, 



she dressed up a potato {riwai) as a sort of sooterkin, and 



nursed it as she would a child. Afterwards she gave birth to 



a son, and named him Tama-riwai, in memory of the potato 



incident. Quite so ; but it is only three generations from 



Moenga to Numia, a middle-aged man now living, although 



the line is longer through Tama-riwai and Karetehe. The 



statement made by Puihi that the potato was acquired in the 



time of Tangata-iti may be but little removed from the truth. 



