80 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND, Chap. IV. 
having assigned to us two or three newly made baskets- 
ful of birds and potatoes cooked deliciously. The ma- 
ori " umuy" or cooking-hole, is a very complete steaming 
apparatus, and is used as follows. In a hole scraped in 
the ground, about three feet in diameter and one foot 
deep, a wood fire is first lighted. Round stones, about 
the size of a man's fist, are heaped upon the faggots, 
and fall among the ashes as the fire consumes the wood. 
When they are thus nearly red-hot, the cook picks out 
any pieces of charcoal that may appear above the stones, 
turns all the stones round with two sticks, and arranges 
them so as to afford a pretty uniform heat and surface. 
She then sprinkles water on the stones from a dried 
gourd of which the inside has been hollowed, and a 
copious steam rises. Clean grass, milk-thistle, or wild 
turnip leaves, dipped in water, are laid on the stones ; 
the potatoes, which have been carefully scraped of their 
peel with cockle-shells, and washed, are placed on the 
herbs, together with any birds, meat, or fish that may 
be included in the mess ; fresh herbs are laid over the 
food, flax baskets follow, completely covering the heaj), 
and the mass is then buried with the earth from the 
hole. No visible steam escapes from the apparatus, 
which looks like a large mole-hill ; and when the old 
hags, who know how to time the cookery with great 
accuracy from constant practice, open the catacomb, 
everything is sure to be found thoroughly and equally 
cooked. 
The little birds were chiefly the tui or mocking-bird. 
This bird has been often described. It resembles a 
blackbird in size and plumage, with two graceful 
bunches of white feathers under the neck. It abounds in 
the woods, and is remarkably noisy and active. Its most 
common note is a mixture of two or three graduated notes 
on a flute, a sneeze, and a sharp whistle ; but it imitates 
