268 Transactions. — Zoology. 



of the moa, but still using the nomenclature of ngarara — as 

 Dieffenbach says, "ngarara with a general name."* 



The killing of a second ngarara-hua-rau is recounted by a 

 native in the "Journal of the Polynesian Society." In this case 

 the creature is said to be a male, who carries off a woman to be 

 his wife ; he is a perfect saurian, but is capable of speaking the 

 Maori language, and there are other incongruities iu the tale. 

 The most useful part of the story would seem to be in the name 

 of the place where this occurred — Moa-whitu, the six moas 

 (D'Urville Island). These Maoris are said to have come from 

 the northern part of New Zealand, and so may be a part of 

 those who caused the word " moa " to be tapu. 



We are unable to account for the Maori words pero and 

 moimoi, a dog, used only in the North. Dieffenbach mentions 

 a tribe named. Nga-te-kuri, " the descendants of the dog," 

 who at one time lived at Kaitaia. When this ancestor 

 assumed the name of Te Kuri is it not possible that the word 

 kuri, a dog, was caused to be tapu and pero or moi used in 

 its place? (Vol. i., p. 218.) 



I am unable to produce much evidence as to persons using 

 the name "moa" as a cognomen. In the love-story of Hine-moa 

 we get her name as the girl-moa, and two of her sisters are 

 suitably named Tawake-hei-moa, the neck-ornament of moa 

 (feathers?), or the moa-feast, or possibly the noisy moa. 

 Here, it is remarkable, we find the word "moa" in juxtaposition 

 to lici, and the modern word hcihci is a domestic fowl. It is 

 still more curious that the second suitor was named Ngarara- 

 nui, the large reptile : here again we find " moa " and ngararam 

 propinquity, as forming the distinctive names of two brothers. 

 These people lived at Eotorua, and are said to have living 

 descendants at the present time. In the story of the stealing 

 of a pet moa, mentioned in the Transactions, vol. xxv., we 

 are given the original name of the hero as Ahahapaitaketake, 

 which I translate " to keep on going crooked." He had his 

 thigh broken by falling over a cliff, but, notwithstanding this 

 mishap, he secured the moa, and, owing to this accident, was 

 afterwards called Hapakohi (hop and go one). From these 

 similar names it seems more probable that this man was not 

 lamed when stealing the moa, but at some previous occasion, 

 and was then made permanently lame. The name of the 

 woman who was taken from the tribe of the thief as compen- 

 sation for the loss of the moa is said to have been Hine-moa- tu 



* A Maori might use the words "moa" and ngarara as having one 

 and the same meaning when talking to a pakeha ; but, if the listener 

 already knew ngarara as a name commonly used to denote a lizard, the 

 figure of a lizard would be present in his thoughts, and a ngarara spoken 

 of as dreadful or powerful would resolve itself into the conception of a 

 crocodile or large saurian, and not that of a 9ft. high bird. 



