The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-29
WHEN TARO
WAS TABU.
Long Years Ago 1t Was
Not Eaten.
POISONOUS SAID PEOPLE
Story of the Rise of Poi Vegetable
Told by a Native
Youth.

In ancient times of Hawaii rel the
n people considered the taro poisonous.
ana they did not dare to cook or eat il.
AS the taro was never pulled, it grew
I aDundantly After many years a stran-
ger came and lived among the Hawaii
ans He noticed this plant growing.
very beautiful, as always is the case. OF
the taro. He pulled some and cooked it.
n When the people saw him doing this
they warned him. but he needed them
not. because they thought taro was a
poisonous plant. The stranger took the
\ taro, cooked some, but the rest of the
people were very much terrified. so
they watched him closely to see what
would be the penalty of this disobedien,
man; but after all, as the taro was
cooked, the stranger tasted it first.
then began to eat the. whole of it, no
death came TO him, as the people had
expected.
After the people saw that the man
was not killed, they themselves came
and tried the taro; it tasted fine. At the
same time large feasts We're held in
honor of the first one who found out
that taro was a living food. Soon their
superstitious belief disappeared After
the feast, heralds were sent to the other
parts of the Island to notify that taro
was food. The people began to save
the hulis which grew near their houses.
when the king heard that taro was a
: ioOd ne sent messengers around the Isl
/ and to forbid the common people 10
3 plant taro for their own, but for the
| royal families. So the common people
were not allowed to share in the use of
this valuable food.
/ Tradition tells us of a man named
4 kamapuaa, who was a demi-god He
mad the power of assuming the form of
a gigantic hog. Once he made a tour
around the Island and married a wife
He took his wife and lived near the
kings house. This king was prosper
Gus man, having many acres of both the
dry-land taro and the water or Lof taro
After living there a famine came upon
that part of the Island. Kamapuaa was
in bad fix for food. One night as
dark as could be, he rose and changed
/ himself into the form of gigantic hog
secretly went out and began to dig
here and there with his nose. He then
changed into the form of man anLin-
Vaded the kings taro patch. pulled up
many acres and carried the taro and
hulis into his field and there he planted
them Wien his work Was done he
went TO ~ At daybreak when the
people awok&Sey saw taro growing in
kamapuaa's lavthey wondered where
II came from, and they came to see
. kamapuaa, but he was in bed. When
they told him all about it he seemed to
be surprised, and pretended that ne did
not know anything about it, and he
went out, pulled the taro and shared it
with his friends and neighbors.
As time went on the kings workmen
were surprised to see that the taro in
their fields always disappeared They
finally went and told the king The
king wished to find the robber. so ne
set watch in all the fields. Nigbt af1ar
night. month after no b.. t. .-.cl
Cd. bat t;s-y did .rt s. a. 4t t....t.- t.
a. ~ ' ,.ae o. 1..l a. .er
keep at thu. lie r...s.4 80. .... Sac. Ill.
crops We're ripe ana t.-4-. NC. ul5
and dug up some more taro, so hesco-lG
plant what he stole from somebody
else's field. one dark night while n
was out hustllng arounI in the kings
taro patch, one of the watchmen came
that way. At first he saw a black
thing as he came nearer saw it moving
/ by this time kamapuaa had changed
himself into the form of a man and
was going to pull big taro, when sud-
denly he felt someone holding him.
When he turned around he was in the
hands of a tall man but after a hard
struggle Kamapuaa escaped, because
Z v.
Before he disappeared the Waterman
discovered who he was and went imme-
dfately and told the king. Early in the
morning the king sent some men to
bring kamapuaa to him. When they
reached his house he was working as
hard as he could, pretending that moth
ing had happened in the night They
tried to arrest him, but he was too pow
erful. and he escaped and they had TO
give IT up.
Thus IL was that Kamapuaa gave the
common people taro in order to share
with the royal families the use Of this
valuable food.
Taro is cultivated in three different
ways. on dry land. in marshy soil call
ed the LOi taro, and another called the
kipi tarO. In planting the water taro
Il Is necessary TO plant the best hulis
only, for all kinds of hulis win grow on
ury land, but with the water taro only
the hulis that win not decay in the
water VIII produce good taro.
The Kipi taro is planted much in the
same way as the dry-land tarO, except
that ditch of water runs around the
taro patch. In planting taro / have
seen people open the stalk little wide
They say 1t will then bear a large crop
When person is skillful in the pro
duction Of taro, he is spoken of as the
Lima hua," or the Fruitful hand"
In Olden times the various tools for
planting taro were the 90 made OF
ohia, cocoanut, opiko hala, koa, guava
sharpened at the end and fashioned so
you can hold it easily. These the an
cient Hawaiians used when they had
no iron. But now we use shovel. pick
ak. 90. iron bar and hoe.
There were over one hundred diff
ferent varieties Of taro in ancient times
l The tarOS most commonly used in olden
times We're the Lehua, Maha-e-eIe. ia
ua, Wehiwa, Mana ula-ula and Ala
GEORGE KAUHI.
Kamehameha Manual School