MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1939, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) How critically though silently we notice the difference in American customs and they ours. At dinner for instance, they cut the meat and vegetables into small portions, then lay the knife aside and use only the fork for eating. The same difference in table manners is shown by Maori diners, not only between their and our customs, but in their own manners of eating and drinking. In the ranks of commoners or slaves (pononga) the bone of a bird or a pig was held in one hand and eaten in silence. Rangatira (chief) and Tohunga (priests) were distinguished by their obvious appreciation of food and drink. Choice bones were held in both hands and cleaned off with protruding lips and champing jaws. In the case of a specially rough white man at a public dinner drinking soup with audible sounds, the Maori guests decided that he must be one of the upper class, because his loud appreciation of the good things pre r- '' him proclaimed his high Of course tr another d "