MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1939, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

EFFECT OF MODERATION. (Recorded by J.H.S. for "Times-Age.”) The earliest published reports of Maori domestic life are in some instances confirmed by other written testimony, some of this over 120 years old. The original Maori pa invariably had its central marae, a square space used for huiharingi (social gatherings), and hakari (feasts). We may realise the industry and sanitary habit of the women when we find that the small plaited baskets of clean green flax in which each person’s meal was served were never used twice. The gourd or calabash (hue) is never permitted to touch the lips. Their only drink was cold water, taken an hour after each meal. Sitting in a row, each persons with their hands under the chin has a copious stream of clear, cold water poured into his upturned open mouth by the family pononga (slave). The common folk must eat and drink in decorous silence. Only the rangatira (chief man or woman) and the tohunga (priest) were permitted to lake food with a smack of the lips or drink with audible sounds of relish. Having no calendar but the full moon, and no written record, it was difficult to determine their vital statistics except by the extraordinary numbers of mokopuna (grand-children) and tamaiti tawhito (aged sons). It is clea rfrom this that many of them passed a century of life. Fortunately, they had no fermented or spirituous liquor. It was a source of shameless merriment in the early days to see Maori men, women and children helplessly drunk after a single glass of port wine.