Bkst. — Maori Forest Lore. 245 



Muritai. — This was given me by a Tuhoe Native as a name for rats, but 

 he said that it was not used in this district, and that he did not know 

 whether it applied to the native rat or an introduced species. 



Akuhata te Kaha, of Tuhoe, says (27tli August, iy()8), " The muritai 

 is the same as the moke. This species always travelled along their runs 

 in single file, and closely following each other. The fur was dark-coloured 

 (piipanqo), but not black. He ahua fufamp nga huruhuru o te muritai. 

 The hinamoki was pango (black, or dark-coloured)." 



Pou-o-hawaiki, sometimes pou-hawaiki. — Old Tutakangahau, of Maunga- 

 pohatu, a good authority, said, " I saw the native rat die out in my 

 youth. We called the introduced European rat the pou-o-hawaiki. When 

 I was a lad I went with a party to the summit of the main range at Maunga- 

 pohatu, in order to obtain mutton-birds. On our arrival there we found that 

 a new species of rat had appeared, and had eaten all the young birds." 

 This witness was born about 18.30. 



Paitini says that the introduced black rat was named the pou-o-hawaiki 

 by the Maoris. Mr. White quotes several authorities in his aforementioned 

 paper as to the application of this Native name. Some applied it to the black 

 rat (presumably Mus rattus) and some to the old-time native rat, but the 

 best authority (old Tautai, of Taranaki) said it was the introduced Euro- 

 pean rat. Unfortunately it is not made quite clear as to whether Tautai 

 meant Mus rattus or M. decumanus. Williams does not give this Native 

 name, but Mr. White has its derivation all fixed up, albeit it was necessary 

 therefor to alter the spelling of the word from its proper form : " po= night, 

 hawaiki= the far country; and the combination means that the beast was 

 a mysterious visitor from an unknown land shrouded in darkness." Having 

 of late been sadly shaken by hinamoki and the identification of the ancient 

 Pani-tinaku with Espani (? Spanish), I cannot quite grasp this matter. 

 Was it the beast or the land that was shrouded in darkness, or were they 

 both so shrouded ? 



Tokoroa. — Already referred to (see supra). 



Hamua I know not, except the mention of it in John White's works as 

 a name for rats. 



Maungarua and riroi I have not heard of among Tuhoe. 

 We will now give a few notes touching upon the old native rat, as ob- 

 tained from members of the Tuhoe Tribe. 



The kiore maori, or native rat, nested in hollow trees, and also in bur- 

 rows in the ground. They came out only at night, remaining in their holes 

 in the daytime. They were more plentiful in hunua forests than in those 

 termed uruora — that is, they preferred the high-lying forests to those of the 

 valleys or other low lands. Their favourite resorts were the beech forests 

 which occupy the summits and upper parts of the ranges of Tuhoeland — 

 roughly speaking, from about 2,000 ft. altitude upwards. Their principal 

 food consisted of hua tawai, or beech-mast. Great quantities of these nuts 

 are produced by the beech forests of the high lands. 



The rats came out of their holes at night, and marched in single file 

 along the ara kiore, or rat-runs, to their feeding-grounds. Besides the beech- 

 nuts, they also ate the berries of the patate {Schefflera digitata), the para 

 (1 pollen) of the kahikatea or white-pine, and some other items. They 

 appear to have been clean-eating creatures, avoiding foul matter, and re- 

 sembling a squirrel so far as their food was concerned. They became very 

 fat in winter-time, and were then trapped and snared in great numbers by 

 the Natives. They became quite thin in summer-time, and were not taken 

 in that season of the year. 



