504 
PUA BREAD. 
with green flax, or ti leaves ; when she opens the oven, she 
first carefully removes the earth in the same manner as it 
was put on ; then the mats are taken off with a little jerk 
outwards, so that not a particle of earth falls on the oven ; 
the covering of leaves is removed, and the food, deposited 
in the clean new baskets, is placed before the guests, each 
portion having some of the thistle or cabbage leaves laid 
upon them, with a piece of meat, if there be any.* 
They usually leave a small portion of the food, which 
has been rather burnt by the stones at the bottom, and the 
ladies eat it while sitting round the oven. Etiquette does 
not allow any of the hosts to come near their guests when 
eating ; and, if previously sitting with them, they remove to a 
distance; when the visitors are many and of high rank, all 
the principal ladies, and even the chiefs, bear the food ; 
each taking a hete , and walking in a long train one after 
the other, sets the food before the guests, and then retires. 
This is often a very pretty sight. 
Pua Bread. 
I sent specimens of different kinds of bread made by the 
Maori to the Boyal Exhibition in 1851. The first was of 
Aruhe, the root of the Pteris esculenta, the most generally 
used as food by the natives in former days. Another kind 
forwarded was that made from the berries of the Hinau 
(Eleocarpus Hinau), these are extremely astringent, but 
when steeped for some time in water, they become per- 
fectly sweet and wholesome ; the bread made from the 
* The natives of South Australia cook their food in a similar manner. A 
hole ( kangayappa ) is dug in the ground, and a fire kindled in it, upon which 
stones are laid to be heated. During the time these are being heated, they 
prepare the game or vegetables, and then remove the stones and larger remains 
of wood ; and, if they stew a kangaroo, they first fill the inside with part of the 
hot stones, and leaves of the gum tree. The kangaroo is then put into the 
hole, and covered with leaves, the remaining stones, bark, and earth. It 
remains there for an hour or more, until steam escapes from different parts ; 
when this takes place, the meat, or whatever is cooking, is sufficiently done — 
J. P. Gill, Esq., Tasmanian Journal , vol. i, p. 112. 
