On 27 Mar 2001, at 17:44, matesz wrote:

> From Weston Price's book: The native Maori in New Zealand, used large
> quantities of foods form the sea, wherever these were available.

Maori did make extensive use of nets woven from flax and also traps
woven from supple vines.   Fish traps of stakes driven into beaches
are easy to make.  The also fished with lures with a crude spike like
hook for barracuda.  Barracuda snap at anything red. The Maori used
red wood.  The also carved fish-hooks.

 Even
> in the inland food depots, mutton birds were still available in large
> quantities.  These birds were captured just before they left the
> nests....At this stage, the flesh is very tender and very fat from the
> gorging that has been provided by their parent.

The mutton birds were caught on off-shore islands and stored sealed
in large kelp "bags."   The smell of cooking mutton bird is a thing to
be avoided as mutton bird feed on fish.   While our modern
sensitivities regard eating fat mutton bird chicks as cruel it was an
efficient way of catching fish second hand as it were.

...vegetables and  fruits grew abundantly....large quantities of fern root were
> used...

Fern root had to be pounded to make it palatable.   The fruit
available in New Zealand were often poisonous until soaked for long
periods of time.    One of them karaka berry caused frightening
convulsions in those who didn't prepare them properly.  The
"standard" treatment was burial up to neck level to stop the
convulsions.

>they selected with precision certian shell fish because of
> their unique nutritive value." P. 261-262.

New Zealand  had paua (abalone), mussels, pipi, tuatua (a bit like
clams) in plentiful supply.   Most coastal settlements were near rivers
with grayling (now extinct)  and raupo reed swamps full of eels
which were caught in woven eel traps.

> The Maori children would at lunch time ruch for the beach where "while
> part of the group prepared bonfires, the others stripped and dived
> into the sea, and brought up a large species of lobster.  The lobsters
> were promptly roasted on the coals and devoured with great relish."
> P. 262.

The lobsters found in the sea are crayfish, a clawless lobster.
Their are also fresh water lobsters which are quite small.

The discussion has failed to mention wood pigeon which are heaps
larger than the common domestic pigeon.  The usual way to catch
them was with flax loops along the edge of half hollow logs that
acted as water troughs.   The point being stealth and guile replaced a
lot of senseless running about chasing things to eat as some would
have us believe was the nature of h-g.

Quentin Grady