72 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



(rat-pits) in excellent preservation. No man living had seen rats 

 caught in these pits, but their history was known, and it was 

 evident that they were traps for some small animal. 



And now with reference to what I have been able to 

 learn about the Maoris' knowledge of the moa. Everybody, no 

 doubt, has heard the story of the " last of the moas " living in 

 a cave on the side of Whakapunake Mountain, near Wairoa, 

 Hawke's Bay. At nightfall it used to descend to the plains 

 and roam about. "When it wished to return it rushed with 

 great speed along the level ground, and the impetus thus 

 gained carried it up the precipitous mountain-side to its den, 

 where it w^as guarded by a taniivha (dragon), w4iose awful 

 loud breathing was sufficient to deter any one from approach- 

 ing. This story was told me first by Hori Ngawhare, a 

 Manawatu chief, who died at Waotu in 1871, but I have heard 

 it often since then in different places. Hori also told me that 

 before Eauparaha's migration to the south in 1819 he was 

 living at Maungatautari, and remembered the finding of some 

 iwi moa fmoa-bones), which were afterwards fashioned into 

 ornaments, and were highly prized. I knew the late East 

 Coast chief Apanui very well, and among other things he told 

 me the story of Hape and the moa ; but it does not agree with 

 what Judge Gillies said was told to Mr. White. A few miles 

 to the westward of Mount Edgecumbe there is a high steep 

 hill on the right bank of the Tarawera Eiver called Te Taka- 

 nga a Hape. Apanui' s tale to me was that Hape pursued a 

 moa to the summit of this hill, when, thinking it exhausted, 

 he reached forth his hand to seize it by the leg, but it lashed 

 out and hurled him back into the valley by the river-side. 

 Being a taugata. atua (god-man) he was not killed, but 

 the spot was called Te Takanga a Hape (where Hape fell). 

 Hape's name is connected with various places in that locality. 

 Further up the valley the Tarawera Eiver, flowing from the 

 lake of that name, runs for two or three miles between low 

 rocky banks until it approaches the verge of an enormous 

 precipice, when suddenly it disappears, and then, bursting 

 again from the face of the cliff, it forms a beautiful cascade in 

 a wooded glen far below. It is evident that at one time the 

 river flowed over the full height of the precipice, but it is said 

 that Hape, after the whimsical fashion of divinities, struck 

 the rock with his heel and caused the water to flow in its 

 present subterranean channel ; so the place is called Te Tatau 

 a Hape (Hape's doorway). It is over twenty years since I 

 .visited this spot, but I remember thinking it one of the most 

 remarkable and beautiful objects that I had seen. I merely 

 mention this place to show that Hape, who is said to have 

 killed the "last moa," belongs to the " dim past;" and so, I 

 believe, do all the genuine stories about the moa. That the 



