It is pleasanter to think of a piggy as a pet than as pork, and
pleasanter still to know that the little New Zealanders have something
really nice to eat--the finest sweet potatoes that grow anywhere.
They say that sweet potatoes, which they call _kumere_, is the food
good spirits eat, and they sing a song about them, and so do the
mothers, which is very pretty. The song tells how, long ago, Ezi-Ki and
his wife, Ko Paui, sailing on the water in a boat, were wrecked, and
would have been drowned but for good New Zealanders, who rescued them.
And Ko Paui saw that the children had very little that was wholesome for
them to eat, and showed her gratitude by returning, all by herself, to
Tawai, to bring them seeds of the _kumere_. And how storms arose and she
was in danger, but at last arrived in New Zealand safely and taught them
how to plant and raise this excellent food. And every verse of the song
ends with: "Praise the memory of beautiful Ko Paui, wife of Ezi-Ki,
forever."
Little New Zealanders run about with very little on, as a general thing,
but they all have cloaks--they call them "mats." Their mother sits on
the ground with a little weaving frame about two feet high before her,
and makes them of what is called New Zealand flax. The long threads hang
down in rows of fringes, one over the other, and shine like silk. They
have also water-proofs, or "rain-mats," made of long polished leaves
that shed the water.
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