474 Transactions. 



" Ka riro ake ana te weka i te mahanga, e kore e Tioki mai " (The iveha that 

 escapes from a snare wdll not return). A man who escapes from a war- 

 party will not put himself in its way again, 



Moe araara, moe araara 



Ka taxi te mami ki nmga ki t« pae 



Kohere, kohera, ka tiritiri, ka waewae. 



This item appears in some notes handed to me by Mr. G. H. Davies. It 

 applies to the restlessness of people expecting an attack ; but the last line 

 is not clear to me. 



" Te Weraiti umu tahu noa^' ; " Te Wai-iti umu tahu noa" : At Te 

 Weraiti, and Te Wai-iti, two forest valleys at Rua-tahuna, food, such as 

 birds, was so plentiful that many ovens would be seen filled at one time, 

 indicative of a land of plenty. The saying, " He tutae Jcoingoingo,^^ is 

 applied to persons who depend on birds as a tasty relish for vegetable foods. 

 In some seasons birds are numerous, at others they are scarce. 



A\Tien fishers or hunters brought in a large haul of fish, fowls, or rats, 

 the women proceed to titihawa — that is, to dance, caper about, and chant 

 an umere, or song of joy. A portion of such fish or game set aside for a 

 family or subclan is termed an inati. To apportion food in this manner is 

 ivhahainati. 



The origin or parent of the weweia bird, says Pio, was one Rukuruku. 

 The parera is a descendant of Moe-tahuna ; the hawau is the offspring of 

 Noho-tumutumu. 



Preserving Birds. 

 The Ahi Matiti. 



In former times vast numbers of birds were preserved for future use. 

 "When the season opened, a number of birds of the first take were set aside 

 for the ritual feast already described, but the bulk of the birds were con- 

 signed to the aM matiti. When Matariki appears, then the ahi matiti is 

 kindled, for it is about that time that the bird season opens. 



The first process was that of plucking the birds, after which came the 

 makiri. To makiri a bird is to take out the bones. This is always done 

 before the birds are potted down, except in the case of small birds, as we 

 have noted in the case of the pihipihi. The birds are kept a few days 

 before being makiritia, as the bones are then more easily taken out — the flesh 

 strips off them easier. The operator first grasps the wings and pulls hard 

 at them to straighten them out. (This boning process, by the way, is 

 generally carried out by women.) Next a cut is made round the base of the 

 wings in order to sever the flesh. In these times a knife is used for cutting, 

 but formerly the beak of a kaka was used for that purpose, and the operators' 

 thumb-nails were allowed to grow long so as to be the more serviceable 

 in stripping the flesh off the bones. A slit is now made down the back 

 of the neck and the skin stripped off the neck. The lower beak of the bird 

 is torn ofi and left attached to the neck-skin. The upper beak, head, neck, 

 wings, legs, and body of the bird are all connected when the flesh is stripped 

 from the frame. The flesh is stripped downwards off the breast, and the 

 legs are pulled through it. The skin of the neck is twisted and tied, so as 

 to leave the lower beak sticking out, for when the prepared birds of each 

 person are counted, it is these bills that are tallied off. They also serve 

 to show the species of bird — no one can palm off an inferior bird as a pigeon. 

 People used to collect for this bird-potting work at some hamlet decided 



