Best. — Food Products of Tuhoeland. 105 



As a party of visitors inarch slowly on to the reception- 

 ground they are welcomed with loud cries and the waving of 

 garments, the old women being the principal performers. 

 Were it an uhunga, or mourning party, a doleful tangi, or 

 wailing, would be indulged in. The leading chiefs of the 

 village stand forth, one after another, and greet and wel- 

 come the guests, and whakatau, or " settle," them. Then 

 a kind of master of ceremonies appears, with a rod in 

 hand, and proceeds to apportion the divisions of the rows 

 of heaped-up food among the various sub-tribes or family 

 groups of the visiting peoples, calling out in a loud voice, 

 " This is for such a clan," and indicating with his wand 

 the portion for them. The long heaps of food are termed 

 taliuaroa. 



After the above ceremony a procession of food-bearers 

 appears, bringing baskets of cooked food for the first meal of 

 the visitors. They march slowly on to the ground, generally 

 two abreast, bearing the baskets of food in their hands before 

 them, and often waving them to and fro in time to a song 

 chaunted by the bearers. These songs are known as ivaiata 

 heriheri kai or ivaiata makamaka kaihaukai. When this food 

 is placed on the ground before the guests, then is seen the 

 custom known as whakatomo or kokomo. Any person who has 

 a relative or close friend among the visitors may have pre- 

 pared for him some special and choice food, which same he 

 now places before him for his own private use. After the 

 meal is over speech-making on various topics is indulged in 

 by the leading men of both parties, after which each tribal 

 division of the guests retires to the quarters assigned to it, the 

 people bearing with them the tahua, or heap of food, which 

 has been given to them. 



When the divisions of food {tahua) are apportioned to the 

 visitors it may strike the latter that some precautionary mea- 

 sure may be advisable, inasmuch as some evilly disposed 

 person of the place may have bewitched the food in order to 

 destroy the visiting people. So a leading man of the latter 

 will take a small portion of food from each tahua and eat the 

 same, in order to avert any spells of magic. Or, if you like 

 not that plan, here is another way : The head of a row of food 

 at these feasts is termed the kauru or upoko — i.e., the right- 

 hand end of the row as placed before and seen by the 

 visitors. The left-hand end of the row is termed the take. 

 When the food has been presented, but before any of it is 

 touched, a priest or elder rises from among the visitors and, 

 taking the basket of food which is at the extreme end of the 

 kauru, he carries it to the take and there deposits it, taking 

 also the basket from that end and depositing it at the head of 

 the row. This act is a whiti ora, and it will avert all troubles, 



