Best. — Food Products of Tuhoeland. 91 



A much-used saying here is, " Mahia he wahie mo taku- 

 rua, mahia he kai mo tau" — i.e., "Prepare firewood for the 

 winter, but prepare food for the whole year." 



On the coast about Whakatane in former times pipi shells 

 and pumice-stone were used as fuel — i.e., placed on a fire of 

 manuka to supplement or assist the scanty supply of fire- 

 wood. 



In olden days firewood was broken into the required 

 lengths, hence the expressions tata wahie and tohatiichati 

 wahie. Even now some of the old people still use these 

 terms, albeit the steel axe is in use everywhere. A stack of 

 firewood (ivahie) is termed an apaap>a toahie. Dry wood was 

 stored in the sleeping-houses as fuel. Slings of aka, a tough 

 forest creeper, were secured to the wall of the back end 

 (tuarongo) of the house, being some feet above the floor. In 

 these slings the firewood was stacked and so kept suspended. 

 Dried firewood is usually stacked in the cooking-sheds for use 

 there ; in fact, the walls are sometimes composed of stacks of 

 fuel. 



Having no knowledge of the ceramic art, the Maori utilised 

 wood, gourds, and seaweed from which to fashion vessels to 

 contain liquids. In this district wooden bowls and gourds 

 were used, as we have seen. Also, vessels termed papa and 

 patua were made of totara bark, the former to contain huahua 

 foods, the latter to contain water, and also used for stone-boil- 

 ing. Small £><7^a* were also made for temporary use (to 

 contain water) of bark of the pualiou and mako trees. These, 

 however, soon shrunk and became useless. Oko were bowls 

 made by cutting a gourd in half. Ipu, or calabash water- 

 vessels, were sometimes ornamented by carving them, the 

 designs being similar to the tuhituhi patterns of house-rafters. 

 The poha was a vessel made of seaweed, and in which the 

 titi, or mutton-birds, were preserved ; but these were only 

 occasionally seen here, being obtained from coast-dwelling 

 people. Rifa was another name for the oko, or bowd made 

 from a gourd. 



When food was taken from the oven it was placed in 

 small baskets woven from leaves (ivha) of flax, mauri, or 

 kokaha. These baskets were termed honae, tonae, rourou,. 

 tipoti, &c. The two latter were sometimes used to cook food 

 in. These rough baskets were simply used once, as plates, 

 and then thrown away. The custom was for several persons 

 to have a basket of food between them, round which they sat 

 and helped themselves with their hands, the kinaki, or relish, 

 of birds or fish, &c, being placed on the top of the vegetable 



* Patua is, in Williams's Dictionary, marked with short accent over 

 first " a," but the first syllable is long — at least, in this district. 



