450 Transactions. 



generation of the Arawa people, for dredging is gradually being abandoned. 

 In olden days, however, the kakahi was very important. It was used in 

 the feeding of motherless infants where a wet-nurse could not be secured. 

 The kakahi was cooked and the child fed with the soft paru, or visceral 

 mass, which, further softened with the water retained in the shell, could 

 be sucked like milk. Three or four kakahi formed a meal. Hence the 

 Maori said, Ko te kakahi te whaea o te tamaiti (The kakahi is the mother 

 of the child). Ka whakangotea ki te wai o te kakahi (It was suckled on the 

 juice of the kakahi). 



The kakahi was often greatly desired by patients. When the eyes took 

 on a deathly, unnatural white appearance it was alluded to as kua whakawai 

 kakahi nga kanohi (the eyes have taken on a kakahi white appearance). 

 Then the appropriate treatment was to feed the patient with wai-kakahi — 

 the juice of the kakahi after it had been cooked in a hot spring. Smith* 

 mentions these uses of the kakahi. If the patient could take it the 

 prognosis was considered good. If the patient had been very ill and asked 

 for kakahi it was looked upon as a good sign. 



Kakahi were sometimes eaten raw. The opening of a raw kakahi has 

 a special word, tioka. If a person desired raw kakahi for a meal he said, 

 Tiokatia mai he kakahi (Open me some raw kakahi). If the kakahi were 

 cooked, the word for opening was kowha. They might also be eaten under- 

 done — that is, they were dipped into a hot spring for a few seconds. 

 This just warmed the kakahi and caused the shell to open very slightly. 

 This process was called whakakopupu. Hence the phrase Whakakopuputia 

 mai he kakahi means, literally, " Underdo me some kakahi." 



There was, of course, the ordinary cooking, though the Maori never 

 cooked their shell-fish until the shell was wide open and the contents 

 shrivelled to the consistency of leather, as the European seems fond of doing. 



The proper kinaki, or relish, to go with kakahi was the pohue, a kind 

 of convolvulus. The kakahi after being eaten as food was always alluded 

 to in the plural as nga kakahi. 



The shell of the kakahi was used for cutting the hair of adults, and also 

 the umbilical cord of a newborn child. 



In addition to the proverb already mentioned, there is another drawn 

 from the fact that the kakahi in moving about on the bottom of the lake 

 forms a trail of curves and spirals not unlike tattooing or carving : Nga 

 kakahi ivhakairo o Rotorua. This was applied to toa, or warriors, who 

 dashed in and out of the war-party. 



The kokopu and toitoi were eaten locally, and not preserved. The inanga 

 and koura, on the other hand, were preserved, and, besides providing for 

 local needs, were sent as presents and exchanges to outside tribes. 



The inanga were dried by being spread out on the papa or rocky slabs 

 rendered hot by the natural hot steam below. When dried they were 

 called whakahunga, and were packed in baskets lined and covered with 

 fern-leaves, and were then ready for storing or export. 



The koura makes delicious eating, the flavour resembling that of large 

 prawns. It has survived the introduction of trout better than its finny 

 comrades, and to this day the tau koura still obtains' good catches, though 

 not comparable to those of times gone by. Curried koura is often included 

 in the menu of the dining-room run in connection with the dances in the 

 carved meeting-house of Tama-te-kapua at Ohinemutu ; and during the 



* T. H. Smith, Trans. N.Z. Inst, vol. 26, p. 429, 1894. 



