Polynesian cultures owe to a large degree their longevity and stability to their ability to exploit natural plant resources to provide food, shelter, clothing, medicine, and articles of religious or ceremonial value. Technologies involving indigenous plants, such as those used to poison fish, have been highly developed (Cox, 1979). The importation and/or selection of successful cultivars of taro, breadfruit, yams, and other crops allowed the establishment of relatively stable agrarian and fishing communities. The possibility of drought or invasion, however, presented two constant threats to the stability of the food supply. Unlike continental peoples, the Polynesians were seldom able to migrate to avoid the ill effects of a catastrophic drought; long or even intermediate length sea voyages required advanced preparation and storage of food. Early warning of impending invasion by war parties was also difficult to obtain since most of the villages in Polynesia are highly vulnerable to rapid sea-borne attack because of their proximity to the coast. Invasionary forces represented more than an indirect threat to the food supply; in many Polynesian traditions the greatest victory one could obtain over his enemy, short of eating part of him and thus obtaining his mana, was to destroy his crops completely. Even in modern Samoa, village councils still occasionally punish particularly heinous offences against the village with 'ati ma le lau or the complete destruction of the offender's crops. Thus the early Polynesians faced two separate problems in regards to their food supply: first, one of preserving crops against the onset of catastrophic drought, and secondly, one of concealing their stored crops from invasionary forces. The first problem was exacerbated by the high temperatures, high humidity, absence or poor development of pottery with which to form durable containers (although it appears that the progenitors of the Polynesians understood pottery making), and the lack of large ungulates which could be used to store a portion of the vegetable production as animal protein. The second problem was intensified, particularly on the low islands and atolls, by the difficulty in constructing large forts and places of refuge which could be fortified against attack and in which food stores could be concealed. It should not be surprising, then, that any technology which could overcome the dual challenges of food preservation and concealment would spread throughout the different island groups. The first technique I will describe in a Samoan context is known as lua'i masi (masi pits). Similar techniques are found in many different islands with similar names: ma in Marquesas, mahi in Kapingamarangi, ma'i in Mangareva, maratan in Ponape, manakajen in the Marshalls, and namandi in New Hebrides (Buck, 1950; Massal and Barrau, 1954; Murai et al., 1958; Scattenburg, 1976).