PUA, OR BREAD. 
391 
patience required to collect sufficient for the purpose, and for 
religious rites connected with it: showing, most clearly, how- 
very much pinched for food the aborigines formerly were, and 
the great stress they laid upon religion in aiding their efforts 
to procure it. It is also remarkable for the number of words 
belonging to the process, which is a proof of the value put 
upon this article of food. 
The first thing which was done, was the erection of a shed 
near the swamp, from which the pollen (pua) was to be collected. 
The process of gathering it always commenced at daybreak ; 
for when the sun began to shine, the feathery seeds blew about, 
they had then to discontinue their work until the evening, 
when they recommenced the work. The gathering of the 
flower heads of the raupo was continued for several days, until 
a sufficient quantity of pollen was obtained. They then cut 
a quantity of flowers of the kakaho (arundo Australis), which 
being strewed on the floor of the shed, the pua was heaped, 
upon them. It was daily carried into the sun to dry, and 
again returned in the evening to the shed, lest it should be¬ 
come damp with the dew. Parties of from fifty to sixty men, 
women, and children, often assembled for this work ; each 
family having its own division (tuakoi) of the shed to attend 
to. When the process of collecting was finished, they went into 
the forest to procure the bark of the hinau (elceocarpus hinau ), 
which they stripped off the trees in large pieces, twelve or four¬ 
teen feet long. These were doubled up so as to make a bag, 
one end being left open to form a mouth, while the sides were 
sewed with flax, leaving only a small hole at one of the lower 
corners. Being set on their ends, they formed long bags, 
almost as tall as a man, which were propped up by poles. 
They then took the mats (tapaki) , which had been previously 
plaited by the women of split flax, and spread them on the 
ground by the side of the bag (pu), part of them stripped 
the flower from the stem: this process was called uliu. A 
quantity being shred, it was put into bags, which had been 
plaited with great care of finely split flax, so as to allow only 
the smallest particles to escape. Men only were allowed to 
sift the pua , which was done by shaking these bags over the 
