MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1941, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

ARUHE AND KIORE. ißecorded by J.U.S., of Palmerston North,! for the "Times-Age.”! This staple article of Maori diet was! dried fernroot. Perfected only in rich soil, the deeper the root grows the better for food. It is dug out in November, washed clean, cut to nine inches, and stacked under cover open to the air on all sides. It cannot btq oaten fresh, and comes to perfection in* the following winter when most need-, cd. To the Maori it was more necessary; even than corn to the Pakeha. When thus matured it is steeped in I water and dried in the sun and then! roasted. Tito hot root taken in the fingers is chewed with relish and thoi fibre spit out. For use in other ways: the fibre was beaten by a stone, yielding 70 per cent of the health-giving I (’.our. When roasted in the form of bread j mixed in water it tastes like a goods biscuit and has health-giving proper- ■ lies. A Hindoo brought up among Maoris, preferred Aruhe to his national sav-i miry, rice A Maori kidnapjied and! taken aboard by De Surville from the’ Dav of Islands wept on his dying bed I for a meal of his favourite restorative fern root II is indeed strange that this root of’ the common bracken fern so well known in past centuries to the Maoris as a delicious health-giving food, lias not been exploited by chemists, bakers, or biscuit factories. The native rat (Kiore! was highly f relished as food. Caught in traps or I pit.*- tb.e skinned bodies were suspended on twisted cords winch revolved| them before bright embers. The Norway rat which has extirpated the Kiore a vegetarian is not eaten.