252 Transactions. 



Nau mai ki roto 



Poua te pou. tu te rupe 



Kaiihou ariki tii hokai rangi 



Tiiia i runga i te ara o Tane 



Ko Pipiri te ara i heke ai 



Ki raro ki Tauwhaiti 



Tuia i raro i te ara o Tangaroa i uta 



Ko Pipiri te ara i heke ai 



Ki Tauwhaiti 



Tuia ra. tuia ra ! 



This is said to have been a charm used by Toi, after whom Te Whaiti- 

 nui-a-Toi was named. The turupou mentioned was, says Tikitu, a staff 

 made of greenstone, that was handed down from one generation to another, 

 to Haeana and others. 



As to the method of cooking the native rat in former times, they seem 

 to have been either roasted, steamed, or potted in their own fat. The 

 Natives say, " Ka tunua huruhurutia te More'' — by which I understand that 

 they were roasted with the skin and fur on.* When cooked in the hangi, 

 or steam-oven, it was by the IvpaH process, as the kol-opu fish are cooked. 

 Leaves of the pororua plant were wrapped round the rat, which was then 

 cooked in the oven, the leaves being also eaten. Fronds of the petipeti 

 fern were sometimes used as a wrapper (kopahi) in cooking rats or birds 

 from which the bones had been taken away. Te Puia said, " The native 

 rat was plucked as is a bird, the fur coming off quite easily. The tail, head, 

 and feet Avere taken off, and the bodies were packed in close-woven water- 

 tight baskets, termed poutaka, woven from green flax. These w^ere care- 

 fully lined with fronds of the petipeti fern, and then wath the large leaves 

 of the rangiora shrub, so as to exclude the water. The baskets w^ere then 

 immersed in the waters of a stream. When wanted, the rats were taken 

 out of the basket, placed in a bowl formed of half a calabash, and therein 

 stone-boiled." 



Rats and birds when potted dowji [in their own fat are alike termed 

 huahua, and these fat foods are often alluded to simply as hinu. 



To prepare rats for potting they were plucked like birds, which ex- 

 posed a clean, white skin — " me te kiri pakeha " (like a white man's skin), 

 said my informant. The extremities having been cut ofi, the entrails were 

 taken out, and the bones pulled out. The latter process is described as 

 kounu (cf. unu= to draw out). This is not the same process as that of 

 makiri, by means of which the bones are taken out of birds. In the latter 

 case the flesh is cut away from the bones, but in the kounu the bones of the 

 native rat are said to have been pulled out easily without cutting, the flesh 

 appearing not to cling to the bones. 



The ngakau, or entrails, of the native rat were highly prized as a food 

 item — " the best part of the rat," says an old-timer. They were placed, 

 without any cooking, in calabashes, and so kept until the following spring. 

 They were then eaten with various greens, w'hich come under the generic 

 term of puwha. When the vessel was opened the entrails were no longer 

 recognisable as such, but simply appeared as a mass of fat matter. 



The rats were placed in a wooden trough, or kumete, and there left for 

 some time, until much of their fat melted and collected in the trough. 

 Stones were then heated in a fire hard by and dropped into this fat, where 

 they were stirred and moved about with sticks, this process being con- 

 tinued until rats and fat were cooked, or sufficiently so to please the Maori 



* Probably only cooked so when cooks were pressed for time. 



