38 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



number of large stones not liable to crack with the heat. When the 

 stones had become red-hot they fell through the fire as it burnt down 

 and were then taken out with rough sticks used as tongs and set 

 aside. The ashes were taken from the hole and the hot stones 

 replaced; upon these were set green leaves and the food laid on them. 

 Edible roots and tubers were laid at the bottom and meat or fish 

 on top. The meat to be cooked was bound up in large leaves to 

 "keep the gravy in. More green leaves were placed over the top and 

 then water poured over, the whole being quickly covered in with old 

 mats soaked in water and with soil hastily heaped on so that the 

 steam could not escape. After some time, generally about one and 

 a half hours, the oven was carefully opened, the coverings lifted off 

 and the well-steamed food taken out. The result was extremely 

 good, and although almost the only practical mode of cooking known 

 to the Maoris, there was no complaint as to efficiency. Of course 

 they knew how to cook birds or fish by broiling or toasting before 

 the fire on a stick, but this was seldom attempted on a large scale. 

 Not having utensils of metal, frying and boiling or baking was not 

 attempted.^^ 



Queensland baking ovens are thus described by Walter E. Roth: 



" It will be noticed in the accounts of the different animals and 

 birds utifized for food that they are all eaten roasted — that is, cooked 

 on the ashes. A modification of the process, it may almost be called 

 ^baking, is effected as follows, and may be met with throughout 

 northwest central Queensland: A pretty large fire is made and a 

 number of biggish-sized stones rendered as hot as possible; at the 

 same time a hole is dug close alongside and some of these hot stones 

 put in to line it. The 'meat,' whatever it is, is now put in and 

 covered over with another layer of hot stones, to be followed by a 

 'hide' of some sort, and a final covering of mud, the whole constitut- 

 ing a kind of primitive bakehouse. It is used especially for any 

 very large-sized piece of flesh, emu, kangaroo, bullock, etc."^" 



R. H. Matthews says that stone cooking holes were used by the 

 Austrahan aborigines. ^^ 



The breadfruit area, much extended by the Polynesian navigators, 

 is characterized by the pit oven. In some cases water is poured in 

 on the hot stones, as among the Maori, and in some localities this 

 custom is not followed. The Polynesians were skilled in the use of 

 the pit oven, and pigs and all sorts of other food were cooked as 

 required. 



One type of pit oven does not require the use of heated stones and 

 is an advance on the other type. The simplest form of this oven is 



*» Edward Tregear. The Maori Race, Wanganui, New Zealand, 1904. 



•0 Walter E. Roth. Ethnological Studies Among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines, 

 London, 1897, pp. 104-105. 

 »' Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. 55, 1895, p. 225. 



