Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/148

136 in this case would be a cause of unsafely, but the old form of pahi in which the ancestors of Maori and Rarotongan made their voyages, were not, I believe, ornamented in the same manner, or at least not to so large an extent.

In the matter of sea provisions, the Polynesians had plenty. The bread fruit, when in the form of masi, which was a kind of cooked paste, would keep, under favorable conditions for more than a year. Coconuts again contained both food and drink, whilst water was carried in bamboos. The Rev. J. B Stair states, "In reply to my enquiry (of the Samoans) whether they did not often run short of water, they have astonished me by telling me that the early voyagers always took a supply of leaves of a certain kind of herb or plant, as a means of lessening thirst. * * * By chewing the leaves of this plant they declared that, to a certain extent, they could drink salt water with some kind of impunity and thus assuage thirst. I made very many unsuccessful attempts to obtain the name of this shrub and ascertain its character, * * * they themselves said that they did not now (1838–40) know it, as the custom had grown into disuse, but they were confident it had prevailed in the past when voyages were more frequently made by their ancestors."

The preserved Kumara (Maori name Kao) would also furnish provisions for a voyage, that will keep well; and in the voyages made from New Zealand to the Central Pacific, the fern root made into cakes, or in the state of root, would also furnish a food capable of lasting a long time without perishing. No doubt, in some of their lengthy voyages, sea-stores sometimes ran short; this is clear from the account of the voyage of the Taki-tumu canoe to New Zealand circa 1350, where the sufferings of the crews and