Beattie. — Nature-lore of the Southern Maori. 61 



was a big, powerful man, but it must have been a young whakahau or he 

 could not have held it." Another narrates that when a boy he copied 

 some white boys and made bow and arrows, and he got into sad trouble 

 for shooting an arrow into a poha of kekeno flesh suspended to the roof. 

 The poha was ' opened, and he says the seal-flesh made good eating, 

 although fat. The Maori method of killing the seals, &c., is said to have 

 been by clubbing, but more particulars would be welcome. 



Whales in the South were called kewa, and the traditions frequently 

 mention them, chiefly as miracle-workers ; but the Maori would occasionally 

 find stranded whales, when they would enjoy a course of whale-flesh. 



Bird-hunting. 



So much has been written about the snaring and catching of birds by 

 the Maori that the collector will not say much on the subject except to 

 add a remark or two made by the old people. 



The southern Maori trained their kuri to catch birds such as weka, 

 kakapo, and tokoeka. The last-named bird I was told had big " paws " 

 (toes) and was able to kick the dogs, so there was a certain knack in 

 catching them. In catching woodhens {weka), the art, as I understand it, 

 was for the huntsman to entice the woodhen near enough for the dog to 

 seize without letting the bird whakakeokeo or alarm the rest. Keokeo is 

 the short sharp cry of the weka when alarmed, and to prevent it the 

 hunter would turutu, or imitate the cry of the bird, and so coax it quite 

 close, when the dog would spring at it ; but not many of the present Maori 

 have been weka-catching. Weka were also captured with a noose. 



Wild ducks were snared in the creeks with a flax net or snare, called 

 the kaha. I was also told that a Maori who was a fast swimmer could 

 catch moulting ducks, which in common with unfledged young are called 

 maunu. An old and respected white settler tells me that in 1859 he was 

 invited by the Maori at Hdnley to take part in a " duck drive " on Lake 

 Waihola. They started out at daybreak in canoes and dug-outs, and 

 rounded up great numbers of young and moulting paradise ducks unable 

 to fly. They ran these maunu into a corner and slew them with waddies. 

 They returned in triumph to the " kaik " with six or seven hundred 

 birds, cleaned them, and hung them up in rows, to be subsequently stored 

 in the whata (food -storehouses). ' My informant added that one of the best 

 feeds he ever had was an eel taken out of the whata one day he chanced 

 to call. 



Ducks, said one of my informants, were caught in long nets, into which 

 they swam, and the more they struggled to withdraw their heads the 

 tighter the mesh became on their necks. He had never heard of the , 

 Maori swimming under the birds and pulling them down by the legs, as 

 was done in some parts of the world. There was no need to do so, as they 

 were so plentiful, and they were very tame and would come close to you. 

 There were no guns to scare and make them afraid and wild, and all the 

 killing of them done by the Maori was done quietly and orderly. 



Another said that the place-name Pomahaka should be Pou-mahaka, 

 meaning posts to which the snares for catching ducks were attached. 



The season to catch weka, said one old man, was from April to July, 

 when they were fattest ; after July the birds became thin. Sometimes 

 the Maori would go out at night and blow (or whakataki) on flax held 

 between the lips. If two weka had been answering each other this call 

 would bring them. Two birds calling each other were called ptihuka, or 



