MEANS OF SUPPOBT. 
495 
To a stranger, the natural means of support may appear few 
and insignificant ; but, in early times, when wars raged, or 
unfruitful seasons destroyed the hopes of the kumara harvest, 
the New Zealanders had recourse to the indigenous produc- 
tions of the land ; almost every spot produces some kind of 
food, the plains being covered with the joteris . esculentis, 
edible fern, although that which is selected for food only 
attains a proper size on rich land, the roots chosen for this 
purpose are found about a foot and a half or two feet deep, 
and are dug up with a long strong pole, sharpened at one 
end, with a rest for the foot, called a ko ; the upper roots 
are stringy, hard and harsh to the palate, but the lower ones 
contain more farinaceous matter, when dug up they are 
either stacked to dry on the spot for future use, or eaten 
fresh. The way of cooking the root is to lay it on the 
embers for a short time, till sufficiently roasted; it is then 
scraped with a shell, to take off the blackened outside, and 
afterwards beaten with a wooden or stone mallet to loosen 
the fibres, the natives sometimes pound it into masses, 
pulling out the fibres, and putting it in calabashes, con- 
taining the juice of the tujpakihi , it is eaten immediately it is 
cooked, and is by no means unpalatable or astringent, as is 
generally supposed, but rather the contrary; even to the 
present day, it is an article much prized, especially by the 
sick, who often prefer it to any other food ; and it is always 
taken by the natives on a voyage, as the best antidote for 
sea-sickness. 
Several species of the joerei and maikaika ( orchis ) are 
likewise eaten, also the tender shoot of the nikau ( areca 
apidajj and ti tree, as well as its tap root, and those of the 
toiy these are baked in a native oven, and, when cooked, have 
a sweet and pleasant taste. The root of the ranpo (bulrush), 
and the shoot of ftingao , a sedgy plant, growing by the sea 
side, often afford the hungry traveller a meal. 
The chief article of food furnished by the forest is the 
mamaku (a tree fern), the stem is often twenty feet long, 
and is all eaten ; when the outside is pared off, there is a 
medullary substance, sometimes eight inches in diameter. 
