168 
EATING. 
Baskets appear to have been used in a similar way by the 
ancient Egyptians; they are represented in their paintings, as 
well as alluded to in Scripture. The chief baker had in 
his dream a basket of bakemeats for Pharaoh ; and so in 
Israel, Jehu commanded the elders of Jezreel to bring him the 
heads of Ahab’s sons in baskets; and the Israelite was blessed 
in his basket and store. 
Formerly, they were often much pinched for food in winter; 
that period went by the name of the grumbling months, they 
had no other name for them; they were blank in their calendar, 
as they could do nothing but sit in their smoky huts, with eyes 
always filled with tears. 
In times of scarcity, the only food they had to depend 
upon was fern-root and shell fish. The traveller is often sur¬ 
prised, as he journeys along the coast, by the large heaps of 
shells which he sees on almost every mound he passes ; these 
are records of bygone scarcity, and frequently he will find 
fragments of human bones mixed with them, for it was at such 
times that the least offence sufficed to cause an angry and 
hungry savage to knock his slave on the head, that he might 
satisfy the cravings of his hunger. It is remarkable that some 
natives cannot eat the pigeon, when it feeds on the young leaves 
of the howai, the New Zealand laburnum (Edwardsia micro 
phylla); the Nga ti hine kino, a hapu of the Nga ti Ruaka, a 
Wanganui tribe, are said to have weak heads (raid raid) and 
are especially adduced as an example; the pigeon at such 
times gives them violent headaches, though other persons can 
eat it with impunity. 
The natives are now gradually acquiring a taste for European 
food, and some have quite renounced their old way of living. 
Some years ago, Tamihana te Rauparalia and several young 
past, which was served up in dishes made of dock leaves, sewn together, and 
my drinking cup was also of the same material. The Sikhs are less particular 
in these matters than the Hindus, and will eat twice, and oftener, out of the 
same plate ; but the Hindus, more especially the Brahmin or the Rajpul, will 
not eat twice out of any vessel that cannot be cleansed with earth: when, 
therefore, they play the host, the Hindus cause their dishes to be made of 
dock leaves, which are thrown away after they have been used.” 
