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from notes archived at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i |
Category: | Food(1) | Topic: | Coconuts | Consultant: | ||
Coconuts were formerly not very numerous on Rotuma until a German came and planted them for copra. This was before the time of the commissioners. Thatching was formerly made of the leaves of a different coconut than that now used. |
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Category: | Food(2) | Topic: | Cooking | Consultant: | ||
The men bring in the food from the plantations and prepare all that is cooked in the earth oven. The women cook the other foods. They also serve. The chiefs in a house eat first on their tables (umefe), after which the women eat. Young men and women eat together. | ||||||
Category: | Food(3) | Topic: | Cooking | Consultant: | |
Men did the heavy work i.e. = cooking, making the koua and bringing in and killing pigs. The women took out the food and served it, except meats, pig and now cow. The men ate first, then the women. The men usually feed the children who are around. Only at a big feast did they use the chiefs' tables 'umefe. First they served kava before which there was a fakpeje. When the meal was finished, the chief would say "Re sor." All the tables would be turned over and the women would clear away the food. No man could leave until the meal was over. The commoners ate opposite the chief without tables. Women ate afterwards. Many men ate outside. 'Ikou = fish baked in banana or ti leaves. Niuafoua = beef and greens in banana or ti leaves. Vakalolo = arrowroot pudding, Fijian name for fekei. |
fakpeje = ceremonial speech
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Category: | Food(4) | Topic: | Making of koua or earth oven | Consultant: | ||
In the earth or sand pit is made a wood fire on which the stones are put as soon as it is burning well. When the wood fire has burnt out and the rocks are well heated, banana leaves or sa'a leaves sewn together are put over the rocks if the food is not wrapped in leaves, and then the food is laid on. This is covered with leaves and then the earth is shoveled over. The sa'a leaves are sewn or laced together in thick pads and these are placed over the banana leaves to keep the heat in. They are sewn one on top of the other, not edge to edge with a strip of bark or coconut leaf. These pads are called lepa. |
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Category: | Food(5) | Topic: | Chief's food | Consultant: | |
When the ti leaf fekei or package called kokono'osei was served to a chief, a leaf was always placed on top and this was tied around the stem of the package. | fekei = pudding | ||||
Category: | Food(6) | Topic: | Division of pig | Consultant: | ||
The head was given to the chief as today the head of a cow is presented to him at the feast. The small of the back was given to the owner of the pig. The rest was divided into four quarters. | ||||||
Category: | Food(7) | Topic: | Preserved food | Consultant: | Undisclosed |
Telua | telua = hole in ground | ||||
Category: | Food(8) | Topic: | Cooking mena | Consultant: | ||
Raga is the same as mena plant. Men prepare the raga plant and plant it, but women take care of it and weed it. They dig it up and get many basketfuls from all the place. A Stick is tied up with coconut fibre and hung over husk and the center of vaka a canoe. Then handfuls of raga root are rubbed or pulled over the stick to grate it. A woman will ask groups of 6-7 men in different houses to work her raga. There is the same competition to get that work done first and also not to have any left. It is very hard work. Several goups of 6-7 men work it. The root is then squeezed into water and allowed to settle, as is done with arrowroot. Then the water is poured off the top. One half is kept for making mena, the other half used for making fekei. When mena is cooking in an oven, women must keep away from their husbands that night. The raga is put in half coconut shells and baked all night. If a woman has slept with her husband, the next morning when she takes mena out of the shell, pieces will stick to the shell. The half kept for pudding is put in the sun to dry and this makes a sort of flour that will keep for years. It is baked with taro or alone into fekei. |
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Category: | Food(9) | Topic: | Cooking mena | Consultant: | |
Mena is superintended by a majau, and it is divided by him when made. After the froth that is to be made is removed the residue is called taua. This is made into food. Some of it is wrapped in leaves and baked in the koua = called popo. The rest is put in umefe bowls and hot stones are put in to cook it. That's called fekei sui. | majau = expert | ||||
Category: | Food(10) | Topic: | Koua puha | Consultant: | ||
Koua ne puha or cooking of the ji root was an arduous affair and also had ceremonial attached to it. While the root was being roasted and the oven made, all the men connected with the work wore ji leaves around their head and wrists and a strip over their shoulders and titi of the same material. When the root was cooked, the first bit taken out was presented to the chief of Noatau and then to the other chiefs of the island. Each man who gathers ji to be cooked for his family gathers enough so that he can send a bit to all his relatives on the island. This seems to be partly a rite, but was explained as necessary because it took so much work and so much time to prepare it, that it was very rare. In cooking it, a tremendous pit five or six feet deep is dug and a great boulder "carried by three men" set on the floor. Against this the firewood is laid in a bonfire with two or three openings so that men can walk underneath to light it from the inside. Logs of the largest sort are laid on the outside and rocks cover these. The fire is left to burn for a day or so until the rocks have all fallen on the floor of the pit. It is then that the puha root is placed in the pit and covered with leaves and earth. This is left to roast in the heat of the stones for three days. When the puha is cooked it is stripped, dipped in coconut milk and squeezed over grated coconut, and served in coconut shells as a great delicacy. All this work of preparing it is also done while wearing the titi and ji leaf garlands. |
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Category: | Food(11) | Topic: | Koua puha | Consultant: | ||
The puha is a root of the ji tree. The root is cooked in an oven for two days. The oven is heated by a great fire built over the stones, after which the pua are buried in these and left to bake. The root produces a red liquorice tasting juice which is mixed with the meat of young coconuts. |
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