22 Traiisactiona. — Miscellaneous, 



it was made up into a kind of pounded mass. lu the spring of the year 

 the succulent young shoots (monehu), which rose out of the ground hke 

 asparagus, were also eaten fresh ; they were very mucilaginous. 



No doubt the fern-root was very nutritious ; the old Maoris thought 

 highly of it, and always liked it, even preferring it in the summer with fresh 

 fish, of which, in that season, they always had abundance. They also used 

 it in the summer season soaked, after pounding, in the sweet luscious juice 

 of the berry-like petals of the tutu (Coriaria ruscifolia). Pigs fed on it, in 

 their wild state, always yielded the finest and most delicious pork ; as tve 

 well knew and experienced before that we had either beef or mutton in the 

 country. 



Both by way of illustration and of proof, of how the fern-root was for- 

 merly prized, I here bring forward the following : — 



(1.) It is stated of the New Zealand chief Kiinui — who had been basely 

 kidnapped and carried violently away from his native home (Doubtless Bay) 

 by M. de Surville, commander of the French ship Saint Jean Baptiste, in 

 December, 1769, and who died of a broken heart at sea, on the 24th March, 

 1770, off the Isle of Juan Fernandez, on their passage to France — that 

 " while he ate heartily of all the ship's provisions, he pined after the fern- 

 root, and always regretted the want of his primitive food.'' — (Rochon's 

 Voyages aux hides Orientales, Tom. III., p. 389.) Curiously enough Captain 

 Cook, on hi?, first voyage, had only just left that bay on his voyage north, 

 when De Surville entered it ! They did not, however, see each other's 

 ships. 



(2.) The Fable of the Fern-root and the Kumara. — The fern-root and the 

 kumara were one day bantering each other ; at last the kumara, rudely said to 

 the fern-root, " Thou art an unsightly thing ! containing but small sustenance 

 from long eating." Then the fern-root answered his antagonist triumph- 

 antly (for it has passed into a proverb with us), "Although I am but an 

 unsightly thing to look at (as thou sayest), carry me to the water and soak 

 and prepare me properly, and when the sea-breezes are blowing, then it 

 will be nothing else but the joyful cry of ' prepare ! prepare !' "* 



Meaning, that in the summer season, when the sea-breezes blow daily, 

 and the choicest fish in large shoals approach the coast and are caught, and 



* I find that Taylor has given this fable, in incorrect Maori and worse translation (!) 

 as usual ; not apprehending the real gem of the excellent retort, through which it had 

 passed into a proverb. To which, and worse still, he has added this remark, — "Formerly 

 fern-root was nearly the sole food of the Natives during the winter months. It was beaten 

 indoors, on account of the constant rain, and their houses being always filled with smoke, 

 the eyes were as constantly suffused with tears." (Loc. cit., p. 302.) I copy this remark 

 as being quite in keeping with the erroneous ones copied at pp. 4-5, footnote. 



