CoLENSO. — On Moas and Moa-hunters. 507 



also that of the West Coast Maoris to Dieffenbach (1841), of 

 the one Moa on Mount Egmont.-'- 



2. And so in that of Ngatihau, with the addition that the 

 Moa (flesh, I suppose) was collected into a calabash by Nga- 

 hue (evidently knowing nothing of the size of the Moa). 



3. And in both traditions the word " manii =^ bird" is 

 given, a modern addition, which is not in the older one of 

 Grey's. The syntax of these two Maori statements is not 

 that of an old Maori, but of a pakeha = foreigner, stranger, 

 and I believe to be John White's own peculiar diction. 



4. Be that as it may, two things are clear — (1) The 

 casual brief notice of the Moa as a thing of no importance in 

 the older Maori version ; and (2) the growth of the legend in 

 the two later Maori versions of the same story. 



5. And then the period {before the so-called migration 

 from Hawaiki) and also the place where the Moa was killed 

 (in the South Island) are the same in all three versions, 

 from which (their united narration) we may clearly gather — 

 (1) the great antiquity of the story, and (2) the one solitary 

 mountain Moa being only then met with in the South Island 

 together with the greenstone ; although Ngahue had also 

 travelled largely in the North one, both in going and in 

 returning. 



Again, note the peculiar use of this word "kai" in the 

 older version quoted. (See note, p. 505.) 



In a paper read before the flawke's Bay Philosophical 

 Institute! in July, 1883, in giving several meanings of the 

 word " kai," I have among them the following : — 



"A very old meaning of 'kai' as a noun is movable pro- 

 perty, possessions, goods, treasures, chattels — valuables in the 

 estimation of the ancient Maoris" {I.e., p. 97). And here we 

 have a good example of it. 



In comparing the two translations of M. de Quatrefages' 

 paper I find very little difference between them ; only to this 

 modern one there is a long concluding narration tacked on and 

 made a postscript to the older paper, written in May, 1889, and 

 supplied, as M. Quatrefages states, by Sir Walter Buller, who 

 bad sent him a copy of the New Zealand Times of November, 

 1888, containing that peculiar story of comparatively modern 

 Moa-hunting communicated by Colonel McDonnell. Strange 

 that only such additional information (" fresh evidence," as it is 

 called) should have become known to M. de Quatrefages after 

 all those years, and just as strange that Sir Walter Buller 

 should not have known of any other. 



* Vide Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xii., p. 102, 



t Entitled " Three Literary Papers." A copy I had sent to Profossor 

 J. von Haast with my letter of 31st March, 



