copper Maori N.Z.
(ˈkɒpə ˈmaʊərɪ)
Also Kopa Maori, Kapura Maori, etc.
[Maori kāpura fire, kopa oven.]
A Maori oven in which food is placed on heated stones and covered with flax, earth, etc.
| c 1826 J. Heberley Autobiogr. 30 (MS.), [They] sucked [the slave girl's] blood..till [she] was dead, then they cut her up and cooked her in a copper Maori. 1834 E. Markham N.Z. Recoll. 38 Coppre Mourie or the Native Ovens are described I rather think in Captain Cookes Voyages. They are done this way. They scratch a hole 8 or 10 inches deep..and then light the Fire in the hole. 1888 Trans. New Zeal. Inst. XXI. 417 So they set to work and they dug holes in this flat,..each hole about 2 ft. across and about 1½ ft. deep, and shaped something like a ‘kopa maori’. 1889 Ibid. XXII. 104 A number of kapura Maori, or native ovens. 1905 W. B. Where White Man Treads 102 ‘Coppa Maori’, ‘Maori oven’, etc.—these are the slang names given by those who know no better. |