CHAP. IV.] PIGS. 49 



consumed in the "reinga," the dwelling-place of 

 departed spirits, and it is certainly the food most 

 esteemed among the living. 



They have several ways of preparing the sweet 

 potato : it is either simply boiled, or dried slowly 

 in a "hangi," when it has the taste of dates, or 

 ground to powder, and baked into cakes. 



The calabashes (hue) were, according to their tra- 

 ditions, the next addition to their stock of eatables. 

 The first, from which they received the seeds, was 

 carried by a whale, which threw it on to the shore. 



All the other articles of food were introduced by 

 Europeans, by Captain Cook and those who fol- 

 lowed him. Captain King, when, at the end of the 

 last century, he brought back the two natives who 

 had been taken away by force to teach the settlers in 

 Norfolk Island the mode of dressing flax, landed at 

 the north end of the island, and there introduced 

 maize, and gave the natives three pigs, which, how- 

 ever, were mistaken by them for horses, they hav- 

 ing some vague recollection of those which they 

 had seen on board Captain Cook's vessels. They 

 forthwith rode two of them to death ; and the third 

 was -killed for having entered a bury ing-ground. A 

 very old man, who had known Captain King, related 

 this singular story to me. Pigs have only of late 

 been generally introduced into many parts of the 

 country ; and in some places where tribes have been 

 broken up they are found wild in large numbers. 

 The native name is poaka; and although English 



VOL. II. E 



