Arrowroot

How Early Polynesians Used the Now-Neglected Pia Plant

By H. C. Reed, Apia, Samoa

TO-DAY, in the Pacific, planters and other employers of labour are eagerly seeking substitutes for rice and simi lar imported rations supplied to natives working on copra and rubber estates and in the mining industries.

To an increasing degree, locally-grown foodstuffs are being included in the labourers’ diet. One of several Islands plants valuable in this connection, but long neglected since Europeans settled in the South Seas, is Pia, an indigenous arrowroot, formerly one of the stable foodstuffs of the peoples of marginal- Polynesia.

Except for the preparing of dessert foods, invalid dishes, and “Vai-salo” (re garded by Polynesians as the most nourishing of foods, especially for the nursing mother), Pia is but little used or even known to the younger generation of to-day. Its very name has changed, for in parts of the Pacific, Pia is now called Masoia.

Evidence of large-scale planting of the Pia bulb in earlier days in the Islands exists in the form of lengthy stone fences which once formed the boundaries of native arrowroot-gardens. The cultivation of Pia (or Tacca-pinnatifida, as the stem less dwarf-growing plant is botanically known) was simple, just a matter of dividing the cluster of small bulbs which form at the base of the plant, and drop ping the bulblets into holes made a foot apart.

The stone boundaries have long been a matter of conjecture, for the earliest white settlers concluded that these mys terious stone piles were, in all probability, native‘‘‘forts”! Native forts do exist to the present day, but these are of a totally different structure, and are found only on well-defined battlefields.

Great quantities of the dry, long keeping arrowroot were packed in coconut leaf baskets, lined with the sacred white Tapa-bark cloth and hung from the house-rafters of the high chiefs in readi nessi for any festive occasion, such as the arrival of Malo (visitors). Or supplies would be put on board one of the great double-floated sailing “alias”, the giant canoes which formerly carried huge amounts of foodstuffs, plus a passenger list of stalwart Polynesians numbering upwards of 140, to the farthermost corners of the vast Pacific. Material evidence backed by oral tradition goes to prove that the Polynesian mariners carried large quantities of Pia-arrowroot to is lands as far distant as “Pito te fonua” known to us as mysterious Easter Island.

TO provision an ocean-going canoe for a protracted voyage, required mature consideration.

Foodstuffs no longer made use of to-day were specially prepared weeks prior to setting out to sea. Bananas were sun dried, pressed into rolls of about two pounds weight, and bound tightly in the dry leaves of the “Ti” plant (Draceana).

The whole package was then securely bound up with a rope made from the Fou bark. The name of these prepared pack ages was “Sai-Fei’i”, and bananas thus prepared had long keeping qualities.

Every Matai (head of a family) was expected to contribute a basket of Fla arrowroot to the expedition. Such packages were heavy, but Pia was regarded im portantly as the medium of exchange to be bartered for coconuts, fowls, hogs, dried shark-flesh, and even those curious cart-wheel-like forms of so-called

“money” found in the islands of the Palau, Marshall, and Caroline Groups, whence they were carved.

Pia-sua, a dessert dish resembling rich tapioca, which has been highly esteemed since ancient times, formed an easily prepared and nourishing food when the “alias” were at sea. It consisted of a large bowl of the cream of rasped coco nuts heated up to boiling-point by means of hot stones, and thickened to a solid paste by adding dry Pia.

Among other foods carried on these long sea journeys was Calavy, a thick malt-like syrup made by cutting the tip of the flowering spathe of a coconutpalm, collecting the sap, and then boiling it until it became a rich sweet syrup.

Calavy is not often made these days, but the method of storing it is of interest.

The very largest form of coconut the Pacific knows is called the “Niu-Vai” (holder of water) and when cleaned of the kernel, often holds up to three or

four pints of water. These nuts were filled up to the “lot” eye with Calavy syrup, and were then sealed by means of a gum prepared by heating breadfruit tree sap. Coconuts thus filled would be plaited up with sennet (coir string) and hung in the rigging of the canoe to be used as required, rpo supplement the root and starchy JL foods on the voyage, live turtles were carried, secured to special pegs fitted at the bottom of the canoe thus acting more or less as “ballast”’ Oc casionally the turtles were allowed a “dip” in the briny, being tethered to coir rope Undoubtedly, turtle meat often saved the grim situation when hunger threatened as this form of sea-food could be eaten like oysters, cut up into dice and dipped in sea-water, or small portions could be heated over burning coconut husks and partaken with raw kumeras.

Dried shark-meat, as with the Bonito,

was always to hand, hung over the open fire-place (“umu”) of coconut-husks and splinters of tomano wood, which afforded considerable heat for the small amount of cooking required.

Water in coconut containers was car ried and when this supply ran out, coco nuts at various stages of maturity, such as Niu-Sami, Niu-Vai, Po Po, were relied on. In event of actual need, when even the store of nuts was expended, strips of white tapa-bark cloth were hung on the mat sail —tapa has an affinity for mois ture and even a heavy dew permits the material to be wrung out to exude a little water. With a shower coming on, tapa strips afforded a useful supply of water, being continually wrung out and the precious fluid caught in a tanoa (large hard-wood bowl).

Mr. A. R. Haviland is in charge of the Wau Police District, New Guinea, during the absence on leave of Mr. E. Steeples.