310 
EATING. 
states, they were forbidden for food as in the Mosaic law ; 
his English translator adds, the probable reason was their 
having a tendency to produce scrofula ; it is remarkable, 
that this is the prevailing disease of the Maori, and that 
they are great eaters of the eel.* 
The natives have only two meals a day, the first being 
about ten, the other at sun-set, or a little earlier ; but for- 
merly in those months when food was scarce, they had only 
one, and no other relish for their potatoes than a little sow- 
thistle, or wild cabbage. A native will endure hunger very 
patiently ; but those who live with Europeans are seldom 
greater eaters than ourselves. 
Though extremely dirty in their persons, they are cleanly 
in their food, which is served up in baskets, these are neatly 
and expeditiously made by the females, whilst it is being 
cooked ; guests of rank have each their fresh-made basket 
set before them, and when the meal is over they are thrown 
away ; one reason appears to have been, the fear of witch- 
craft, or of destroying their tapu, by eating out of a basket 
which had been used by some one else ; a chief never ate 
after any one, or allowed any one to eat after him ; the 
remains of his food, with the basket which contained them, 
were thrown into the wahi tapu, that no one might obtain any 
portion with which to bewitch him ; formerly they had the 
greatest dread of witchcraft by such means ; when a great 
chief or tohunga took his food, he might frequently be seen 
seated within a little fence of basket-work, or else in the 
corner of the verandah, apart from the rest. In general, a 
basket is placed before every three or four persons ; it is 
filled with potatoes, garnished with a piece of meat, a fish, 
or a bird, and in default of these, with a little sow-thistle or 
wild cabbage ; when there is meat, they pass it round, each 
taking a bite or tearing off a portion ; and when the meal 
is over, they wipe their greasy fingers on the backs of the 
attendant dogs, which supply the place of serviettes, for 
* Deaths from over-feasting on the Pihapiharau , or Lamprey, are by no 
means uncommon amongst them. 
