Best, — Maori Forest Lore. 275 



Tradition states that a moa was killed at Whakatane by one Ngaliue, 

 a very early voyager to New Zealand, who returned to the isles of the north. 

 Mr. Percy Smith heard this same tradition repeated by a very old Native 

 of Karotonga. 



Pio, of Awa, born about 1823, has his little budget of notes concerning 

 the moa : " There were certain folk on this island in ancient times. They 

 were like birds in appearance, and also resembled man in structure. They 

 had two legs, two arms (?), and a head, and a mouth too, but they could 

 not speak. They stood on one leg and held the other up — drawn up. It 

 always kept its mouth open, because it lived on air (or wind). It always 

 stood facing the wind, no matter whence it blew — north wind, south wind, 

 east wind, all were food for those folk. Those creatures had fine plumes, 

 like birds' plumes, that grew under their armpits. These plumes were 

 called rau o piopio, and were worn by chiefs in ancient times. They were 

 also used, together with huia and kotuku plumes, when dressing the hair 

 of a dead chief for the lying-in state. A certain ancestor of ours, whose 

 name was Apa, came across one of those folk on the western side of Pu- 

 tauaki (Mount Edgecumbe). It looked like a man standing there. Apa 

 struck a blow at the leg it was standing on, whereupon the creature kicked 

 Apa so violently with the drawn-up leg that he was hurled over a cliff and 

 killed. Hence that place has since been known as the Takanga-o-Apa. 

 Those folk of that tribe were called moa. I say those folk who stood on 

 one leg and held the other up are lost : our ancestors killed them. Those 

 moa are no longer seen, but their bones are found — huge bones, like those 

 of cattle or whales in size. They were descendants of Tutunui. They were 

 all slain in ancient times. It was said that sui'vivors of the moa were living 

 on high ranges, on precipitous places, in gullies, at Tawhiuau and elsewhere. 

 I saw some of their bones at the base of Tawhiuau (near Galatea). After 

 Christianity was introduced, a party of Maoris went with a European to search 

 for moa at Tawhiuau. They did not find any." 



The above, is the only tradition concerning the moa that is known by 

 the Natives of these parts. The ancestor Apa here mentioned flourished 

 about four hundred years ago. The tribe Ngati-Apa, of Putauaki, were 

 apparently of the early inhabitants of New Zealand. The Tuhoe people 

 have preserved no other traditions concerning the moa. Their history, 

 legends, folk-lore, songs, &c., are silent as to the moa, save for the few notes 

 given here. And Tuhoe are truly of the old-time people of New Zealand, 

 who were in camp here long centuries before the last migration of Poly- 

 nesians to these shores. 



A very singular statement appears at page 494 of vol. vii of the " Trans- 

 actions of the New Zealand Institute." It is quoted from a letter written 

 by the late Judge Maning : " There is no subject, except perhaps the his- 

 tory of their wars and migrations — none on which the traditions of the Maori 

 are so numerous and particular as those regarding the moa," &c. This 

 is somewhat startling w^hen we know that early European settlers and 

 sojoiu-ners in New Zealand could gather but very little information anent 

 the moa from Natives then living, or from song, story, and legend. Colenso 

 is correct in his statement that scarcely anything anent the inoa has been 

 preserved save a few fabulous stories. He made inquiries at Te Whaiti 

 and Te Reinga, and many other places, in 1841, but could gain nothing 

 authentic. The Reinga Natives spoke of a lone moa that lived in a cave 

 (guarded by a reptile) at Whakapunake. They also stated that a few years 

 before Colenso's visit in 1841 they had been raided by the Ure-wera Tribe 



