Tregeak. — On the Extinction of the Moa. 423 



the compound words in Maori, and see what evidence they 

 produce. We have a word, maimoa, which means a decoy- 

 bird, and a pet or fondling. As "a pet" the word is thus 

 found also in Tahiti, Tonga, and the Paumotus. Mr. Colenso 

 says that mai-moa is a good name for a decoy, as it means 

 " come hither, moa," which is undoubtedly the right transla- 

 tion, if we shut out the notion of it being the Dinornis which 

 was coaxed to come and be a pet. Mai, which in Maori, 

 Tongan, and other pure Polynesian dialects, means "hither," 

 is used as the verb " to come" in Aniwa, Motu, Pellew 

 Islands, Sula, and other Malay and Melanesian localities. 

 But when combined with moa it will be well to consider the 

 example given in Lorrin Andrews's Dictionary of Hawaiian. 

 He says that mai mai means to call one to come ; to invite 

 towards one ; to call, as one calling chickens ; and the ex- 

 ample is, e kolokolo aku i ka moa, to call fowls. So that 

 mai-moa is to call fowls, not to call the Dinornis. 



Our next Maori compound-word is taramoa, or tatara- 

 moa, the bramble or "bush-lawyer" (Bubus australis). This is 

 a plant armed along the under-sides of the leaves and stems 

 with sharp recurved spines. Now, tara means a point, as a 

 spear-point; taratara, a spine, a spike, a thorn. In Tahiti 

 tataramoa is the name of a prickly shrub ; in Tonga, talatala- 

 amoa is the name of a prickly shrub, and also in Samoa ; tara, 

 or tola, meaning a spike, a thorn. But in Tahiti tara means 

 more : it means a cock's spur ; and, while tataramoa means 

 a prickly shrub, tarataramoa means the spurs of a cock. 

 So also in Hawaii, where kakala ("k" for " t " — kakala is 

 tatara) means sharp, sharp-pointed ; it also means the spur 

 of a cock; and moakakala, a cock with sharp spurs. To 

 add to this, we find in Hawaii that moamoa means the 

 sharp point at the stern of the canoe. Thus, then, these 

 compounds plainly state two facts : First, that the Poly- 

 nesians had a common name for prickly shrubs before they 

 separated — a name known to the Tongan and Tahitian, as to 

 the New-Zealander — and that this name was given to such 

 plants as had spines like the spurs of a cock. Consequently, 

 the Maori once knew the cock as moa. 



The third compound word is tautauamoa, denned in Wil- 

 liams's New Zealand Dictionary as being a quarrel in which 

 few take part. Tan here evidently means " to attack," as 

 in taua, a war-party. Mr. John White says (Trans., 

 vol. viii., p. 80) that a battle in which there are a number of 

 single combats going on is called he whaivhai tautau a moa, 

 a fight, two and two, like the moa. If we try to find this 

 word in other dialects we may turn to Mangaian, wherein 

 taumoavwa, to contend for a prize, is only used in the dual ; 

 and to Samoan, where we find fa'a-moataulia, " to provoke 



