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42
THE ADVENTURES OF KIMBLE BENT
("Eat away, O Ringi,
Eat your fill of poroporo berries
To make you strong again;
Lest your waist be small and weak,
Eat to become a fine Englishman!")
The poroporo is a forest shrub which bears an abundance of large red berries, a favourite food of the tui and pigeons, which become very fat on this rich bird-fare.
The white man, however, as he told his wahiné, preferred to leave the poroporo to the tuis, and to fill out his attenuated waist, which the people looked upon with some amusement, with good Maori pork and potatoes.
