378 
MEANS OF SUPPORT. 
The kumara requires not only a warm aspect, but also, in 
general, an artificial soil ; sand or gravel being laid on the 
ground to the depth of six inches. So also the taro, which 
needs the aid of bush screens and other expedients to make 
it flourish. These also soon exhaust the soil; three years’ 
cropping with kumara being, in general, all that can be ob¬ 
tained from one spot. The place is then abandoned, and 
another selected ; but this abandonment is only for a certain 
space of time. Instead of turning up the soil, and suffering 
it to lay in fallow a season, their method of renewing it is 
to allow it to remain unoccupied until it is covered with a 
certain growth of wood, if situated in wood land, or of fern, 
if situated in fern land, which requires a period of from seven 
to fourteen years, when the spot is again cleared and planted. 
Thus, many places, which appear never to have been touched 
by the hand of man, are pointed out as having been the farms 
of some ancestor, and, when the place is more closely re¬ 
gained, it will be found destitute of all old timber. The 
kumara , taro, and even potatoe grounds, are generally selected 
on the sides of hills, having a northern aspect; by this de¬ 
clivity towards the sun, they gain an increased degree of heat. 
The hue (or gourd) is everywhere raised, and it is, indeed, an 
excellent vegetable. It bears a white flower, and produces a 
calabash, which is sometimes of very large dimensions. When 
young, it is a delicious vegetable, sweet, juicy, and extremely 
savoury. When ripe, it is of the greatest use, supplying the 
place of crockery. In it, the New Zealander carries his water, 
his stores, potted birds, fish or flesh ; lie also uses it as a dish, 
and even as a lamp. It is often beautifully ornamented with 
tattooing. The natives have a very singular idea respecting 
the hue, that the seed can always be procured from the entrails 
of the sperm whale, which they affirm they have frequently 
verified. They account for it by saying, that in Hawaiki the 
hue grows spontaneously, and hangs over the cliffs in great 
quantities, which, when ripe, fall into the sea, and are de¬ 
voured by the whales, which frequent that part. 
The melon and pumpkin are now also cultivated, as well 
as the cabbage and turnip, which grow wild, having been 
