Walsh. — On the Cultivation and Treatment of the Kumara. 17 



was ever used for the kumara. The very idea of such a thing 

 would have been repulsive according to Maori ideas," the 

 only fertiliser employed being the sand already mentioned. 

 This was carried up from the pits or river-beds in closely 

 woven flax baskets, one basketful being placed on each hill. 

 Men, women, and children joined in this laborious business, 

 the slave and the rangatira working together. 



Planting. 



The planting usually commenced about October and ex- 

 tended more or less up to Christmas, according to the variation 

 of the season, the state of the weather, the locality, and the 

 condition of the soil. Various natural signs and portents 

 assisted in determining the proper time for the work. Thus, 

 when the kumarahou (Pomaderris elliptica), a small shrub 

 with a sage-like leaf and yellow tufted blossom, which had 

 been in bud all the winter, suddenly shot out into flower it 

 was known that the season was approaching ; and when a 

 " mackerel sky "f showed an exact picture of a kumara-plot 

 extending across the heavens the Maoris knew that the atua 

 were busy at their planting above, and that they themselves 

 ought to be doing the same below. As a matter of fact, the 

 celestial phenomenon, portending as it does, according to 

 the English farmer's proverb, a state of weather which is 

 "neither wet nor dry," indicates an atmospheric condition 

 exactly suited for starting the young plants. 



Up to the time when the planting commenced everything 

 was noa, or " common," but once the seed began to be handled 

 until the crop was harvested the whole thing became tapu, or 

 consecrated, including the ground, the plants, and even the 

 workers so long as they were engaged in the cultivation. The 

 tapu was invoked by the tohunga (priest) or the kaumatua 

 (head chief), the two offices being often combined in the one 

 person, by the performance of a karakia or religious service 

 consisting of certain symbolical actions, accompanied by the 

 chanting of an address to the atua (ancestral deity), its object 

 being to ward off evil influences in the shape of injurious 

 weather, insect pests, decay, &c, to protect the cultivation 

 from intrusion, and generally to secure the blessing of heaven 

 on the growing crop. Any breach of the tapu was a crime 

 against the atua, and was punishable with death ; and until it 

 was removed by a second karakia by the tohunga it was un- 

 lawful for any "common" person to enter the plantation or 

 even approach too closely to it under any circumstance what- 

 ever. 



* Cf. Coleuso, loc. cit. 



f Eangi kotinc/otingo, literally " spotted sky." 



