250 Transactions. — Zoology. 



The Maoris have a tradition that the " kiore maori " (M. 

 maorium) was purposely carried in a box on board the Aotea 

 canoe, and so brought as a valuable commodity or special pet 

 from Hawaiki to New Zealand by the first Maori emigrants. 

 This I look upon as a story founded on the fact that these 

 people, on arrival, found their old acquaintance the "kiore" 

 already established in New Zealand : or it may have survived 

 the voyage, hidden among the vegetable productions with which 

 the canoes were provisioned ; but this seems hardly probable, 

 unless rats are able to slake their thirst with the brackish 

 bilge- water entering a vessel by leakage. This rat is found 

 on the outlying islands of New Zealand, together with the 

 wood-hen (Ocydromus), which has no power of flight, and this 

 would suggest the idea that such islands were at one time a 

 part of or connected with the main land, and so lead onward 

 to the theory of a once gigantic continent reaching from New 

 Zealand to Norfolk Island, New Caledonia, and other Pacific 

 islands. 



I have, in speaking of the black rat, already given you the 

 chief remarks which Dieffenbach makes on the " kiore maori." 

 He further states, when referring to the rights of landed pro- 

 perty among the Maoris, ' ' It was formerly very common that 

 the fat of the native rats (' kiore ') killed on such lands should 

 be given to the principal proprietor; and in many cases a title 

 to land seems to have been derived from the fact of having 

 killed rats on it. Thus a chief will often say, 'This or that 

 piece of land is mine; I have killed rats upon it.' " 



He also states to the effect that a favourite speculation 

 among the Maoris was that, as the "kiore maori" was de- 

 troyed by the introduced " kiore pakeha," so would the Maori 

 people disappear before the European. This is a remarkable 

 theory when we remember that so few white men were in 

 New Zealand in 1840. 



The following karakia, or incantation, is given by Dieffen- 

 bach, for a translation of which I am indebted to Mr. Edward 

 Tregear : — 



An Incantation for the Maori Rat. 

 (That it may come to the pit and be 

 He Karakia Kiore Maori. killed.) 



Taumaha ki runga, Thank-offering above, 



Taumaha ki raro, Thank-offering below, 



Ki taku matua wahine, To my mother, 



I ki ai taku kiore, Said my rat, 



Ma te reke. By the snare. 



Taumaha ! Taumaha ! Thank-offering ! Thank-offering ! 



Etaka te po, etaka ki Tuhua. The night falls ; it falls at Tuhua. 



Etaka te ao, etaka ki Karewa. The day falls ; it falls at Karewa. 



I tutu ai he kiore. The rats gather together. 



