Best. — Food Products of Tuhoeland. 81 



like the purangi, and not merely dragged. It is also applied 

 to set bird-snares, because net, pot, and snare "sleep" day 

 and night, but they secure food just the same. Hence the 

 saying, " On main, E tc hawau moe roa ! " The pouraka net 

 was used for taking the marcarea fish. In these degenerate 

 times a piece of scrim is used for a net for taking that fish. 



Truly some strange things were eaten by the Maori of old ; 

 and one notes how they were keen for anything sweet to eat. 

 Hence they ate the sweet gum which exudes from the trunk 

 and branches of the manuka, and shook out the honey from 

 the flowers of the native flax into vessels, which was some- 

 times kept for future use. 



Another article eaten for its sweet taste was the mimi 

 koekoea, as the natives here term it, but which is probably the 

 excrement of that bird (the large cuckoo). It is found on the 

 leaves of trees, often dropped by the bird when startled, and 

 is licked off by the natives. 



The pororua, rau-roroa, and pulia-tiotio , three plants of 

 which the leaves are eaten as greens, also furnished in former 

 times a chewing-gum, of which the women and young people 

 were extremely fond. This gum was the sap of those plants 

 hardened and toughened by exposure. To procure it the 

 leaves were plucked from the plants, and the white, milky 

 sap, exuding from the wounded surfaces, gathered and stiffened 

 on the stalks, when it would be collected and placed in a leaf. 

 When a sufficiency was thus obtained it was pressed into a 

 ball for use. The bitter taste soon disappeared on the pia 

 being chewed, but it always retained a taste of its own. This 

 chewing-gum was much used formerly. Such a ball would be 

 handed down from mother to daughter. My informant pos- 

 sessed one which had been used by her family for three gene- 

 rations, until it was lost in the fight at O-rangikawa. 



In times of scarcity a certain kind of clay (tikit) was eaten. 

 When the Kura-renga pa (fort), near Te Mahia, was being 

 besieged by the Taupo, Tuhoe, and northern tribes, the gar- 

 rison was reduced to the necessity of eating clay. The 

 natives of Eoto-mahana also ate a kind of clay found at that 

 place. 



Birds constituted the most important food-supply of these 

 mountain dwellers. Apart from eating them while in season, 

 they were preserved in great numbers for future use. Kiwi, 

 weka, kaka, koko (tui), kcikdpo, kereru, and also smaller birds, 

 were preserved in the following manner : — 



The birds are first plucked and cleaned, and then the 

 bones are all taken out in the most ingenious manner, the 

 process being known as makiri, after which they are placed 

 in rough baskets termed poutaka. These baskets, with their 

 contents, are then placed in cold water until the birds are 

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