Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/40

 as was their method on foot, and spending a night in the bush, so that they might complete their journey by the afternoon of the following day, they would start on horseback as early in the morning as they had light to see by.

After the Maoris got horses they had little interest in dogs. Before the advent of horses every man had a dog. If they wanted to kill one they treated him as they did a pig, viz., tied up his mouth and his legs and threw him into a water-hole to drown.

The old Maori was very reticent about the sources of his food supply. He would never give anyone outside of his own tribe any information either on this subject or concerning the tracks he used. They had a secret track to Mackenzie Country long before that plain was discovered. They went up behind Temuka, and struck the opening of Burke’s Pass.

They visited Mackenzie Country for eels and wekas. The latter, in that locality, fed on a berry about the size of a pea, which grew plentifully on a shrub. They got very fat in February and March, when this berry was ripe, and it was then the Maoris took them, curing them, like mutton birds, in