Among the many varieties of flax mats, the _pureki_ had an interest all its own, for the makers managed to render it rain-proof, so that it was in a sense the prototype of our mackintosh. One might also say that it was the Maori substitute for _khaki_; for a native, wrapped in his _pureki_ and squatting upon a barren hillside, was scarcely distinguishable from the boulders surrounding him. Te Matanga went to work again and experimented with the berries of the _tutu_ or _Coronaria_, extracting thence a beverage as grateful as that which he had quaffed from the chalice of the flax-flowers. Yet the berries, eaten whole, are poisonous. The beverages which Te Matanga gave to his countrymen were neither noxious nor degrading. It was the civilised Christian who introduced to the pagan savage that "enemy which steals away men's brains." Left to themselves, the Maori showed no inclination towards intoxicating liquors. Even in later days they proved remarkably temperate, their barter with the Pakeha rarely including a supply of what they characteristically designated "stink-water." They did not even brew the highly stimulating _yaqona_, so popular with the South Sea Islanders; which is remarkable, since the plant (_Piper methysticum_) grows wild in New Zealand. Our wise man also taught his compatriots the value of the edible fern, _Pteris esculenta_, whose bright-green fronds waved ten feet or more above the ground. The underground stem was cut into plugs and matured, and, this done, was eaten plain, or cakes were baked of the flour beaten out of it. It was not ordained that the Maori should subsist entirely upon a vegetable diet. Te Matanga searched for something more stimulating and readily found it. He showed his people fat eels in creek and river, while from the sea they drew _Mango_, the shark, _Tawatawa_, the mackerel, _Hapuku_, the cod (not that of northern waters) and a hundred other varieties of fish, which they cooked or dried or smoked. It was sometimes their good fortune to slay great _Ikamoana_, the whale, and _Kekeno_, the seal, both of which they ate with relish; while for sauce, _Tio_, the oyster, sat upon the rocks and gaped while they scooped him from his shell. The dwellers inland had eels and the delicious little green, whitebait-like _Inanga_ of the lakes to eat with their fern-root and _kumara_. And well for them it was so; for, with the exception of _Pekapeka_, the bat, who swept by them in eerie flight when the long-lingering day grew pale about them, not a mammal roamed the plains or haunted the deep woods. _Kuri_, the dog, and _Maungarua_, the rat, they also ate; for _Maungarua_[29] multiplied exceedingly, while _Kuri_ took to the bush and ran wild.