PITA, OR BREAD. 
393 
To make bread of the hinau (elceocarpus hinau), the berries 
are steeped for nearly a year in running water, to get rid 
of their bitter and astringent quality, they are then put into 
a basket {pit) which has been plaited very close, and beaten 
upon a stone with a small wooden club. This being sufficiently 
done they are sifted through closely plaited baskets; the 
husks, thus separated from the pulp, are thrown away, 
and the latter, which resembles dark flour, is kneaded into 
cakes with a little water. These being wrapped up in leaves 
of the rangiora , are placed in a native oven. When cooked, 
they have much the appearance of very brown bread, and are 
highly esteemed by the natives, though too oily to suit the 
taste of most Europeans. Hence the proverb which is used 
by a man when he is waked out of his sleep to eat, “ Kia 
wakaoho Jcoe i taliu moe, Jco te Watutureiarua," —“ When you 
disturb my sleep, let it be on account of the arrival of te Watu¬ 
tureiarua,” the first person who made bread from the hinau. 
The natives sometimes cooked it by pouring a quantity of 
the flour into water which had been heated by putting hot 
stones into it, the only way the natives previously had of 
heating water. In that state it was called rerepi. 
A RATA TREE. 
