250 Transactions. 



get at the bait, but so slight were the sticks that it was impossible for the 

 rats to turn or return upon them, hence they fell into the pit beneath. 



Sometimes a cooked bait was used instead of berries. Presumably the 

 bait of cooked food was the more savoury, and attracted more rats than one 

 of ripe berries. Pio, of Ngati-Awa, born circa 1823, says, " This is about 

 rat-killing. Hine-mata-iti was the origin of the rat folk. A pit was made, 

 food was roasted (as" bait) in the evening, and stuck on sticks in the middle 

 of the pit. At night the rats go to eat it. The trappers go and iind a pit 

 full of rats. They are slain and placed in baskets. Two, three, or four 

 basketfuls may be secured in a night. I trapped rats in the days of my 

 youth. It was interesting work. The rats were very fat." 



An interesting note was given to me by Tamati Ranapiri, of Ngati- 

 Raukawa, anent the genial kiore maori : " There were two ways of taking 

 rats — viz., by the tawhiti, and by digging a pit. A pit would be dug some 

 4 ft. or 5 ft. in depth, and in such a manner that the top overhung, the pit 

 being wider at the bottom than at the top. A peg was inserted at the bottom 

 of the pit, to which w^as attached the cords by which the rats descended. 

 Food was placed in the pit as baits, such as berries, &c. When this bait was 

 consumed, then more would be thrown in. That same night the trap would 

 be visited, and the rats slain. The trapper would know right well the par- 

 ticular cord by pulling which he could haul up all the cords, or aka, placed 

 for the rats to descend by. By pulling this cord he hauled up all the cords, 

 as also the peg to which they were fastened at the bottom of the pit. He 

 then jumped down into the pit and killed the rats. After these rats were 

 taken out the pit was swept and cleansed, so as to do away with the smell 

 of rats, and so that other rats would enter the pit when it was rebaited. 

 I have heard that the kiore swam from Hawaiki to Aotearoa (New Zealand), 

 that they swam hither together. A leader swam in front, the next rat 

 took the leader's tail in his teeth, the next took the tail of No. 2 in his teeth, 

 and so on to the last rat." 



In the above we note that, among Ngati-Raukawa, cords or forest creepers 

 were used as rat-ladders in the pits. The final remark, about rats swimming 

 hither from Haw^aiki, is of interest. In an article already quoted (Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. xvii, page 200), Mr. Meeson mentions a swarm of rats that 

 swam across the passage leading into the harbour at Nelson. The lemming 

 of North Europe is said to have swum out to sea in hordes. Hurae Puke- 

 tapu and other Natives of Wai-kare Moana have informed me that in former 

 times, when the native rat was numerous in those parts, they sometimes 

 took to the water in numbers. On misty nights, when fog lay close on the 

 waters, the rats, frightened by the cries of the ruru owl, would swim out into 

 the lake until they were drowned. Some say that the native rats would 

 so take to water when the pollen(?) of the tawai tree lay thick on the water's 

 surface. 



Return w^e to our tahiti kiore, or rat-traps. Te Puia Nuku, an old man of 



Tuhoe, who was a fighting-man in 1852, and died on the 20th December, 



1906, told me that on the opening day of the rat-trapping season all the 



trappers were tapu. As a man set his first trap he would repeat over it the 



following charm : — 



Kiore — e — e ! 



Hai konei ra piko ake ai 



I te whare nui, i te whaie roa 



E tataia e te mahanga 



Ko rua hamuti te kiore 



Te mau ana. 



