CoLENSo. — On Moas and Moa-hunters. 511 



me, having long and carefully considered the whole matter in 

 its various phases and bearings, and having no pet theory of 

 my own to support or vamp up, both are alike preposterous 

 and void of true literal foundation. At the same time, there is 

 concealed within them a deep esoteric meaning hidden and 

 masked ; not dissimilar, however, to, and possibly more rea- 

 sonable than, what has obtained among other ancient and 

 highly- civilised people concerning their origins. Much as 

 Max Miiller has truly and eloquently expressed it: "Lan- 

 guage threw its web of metaphors around the truths of 

 which it spoke, and by a natural mistake men came to take 

 the metaphors for facts."''' But on this deep recondite subject 

 I cannot at present enter. 



Lastly, I may observe that, in my long and exhaustive 

 article on the Moa (so often referred to by me in this paper), 

 I concluded it with the words of the celebrated Eoman his- 

 torian Tacitus, when waiting on the Phoenix, a bird of great 

 antiquity, which had given him, and other philosophers before 

 him, an immense amount of labour. Tacitus, after recounting 

 the many old stories respecting it, including recent tales, says, 

 " The accounts of antiquity concerning this bird are enveloped 

 in doubt and obscurity. . . . These accounts are not en- 

 titled to unqualified credit, and their uncertainty is increased 

 by the admixture of matter palpably fabulous ; but that this 

 bird has been at some time seen in Eygpt is not questioned."! 

 That conclusion, made nearly 2,000 years ago, still recom- 

 mends itself to us as a fair and a rational one. And yet T 

 find, on lately reading in an ancient Eoman author of note 

 contemporary with Tacitus, just the very opposite remarks 

 and conclusions respecting this same fabulous bird. And as 

 such may be little known to this audience, the work contain- 

 ing it being scarce, and the subject somewhat analogous to 

 this one of the extinct Moa and its age, I will briefly quote 

 it:— 



" There is a certain bird called a Phosnix. Of this there is 

 never but one at a time, and that lives 500 years. And when 

 the time of its dissolution draws near that it must die, it 

 makes itself a nest of frankincense and myrrh and other 

 spices, into which, when its time is fulfilled, it enters and 

 dies ; but its flesh putrifying breeds a certain worm, which, 

 being nourished with the juice of the dead bird, brings forth 

 feathers ; and when it is grown to a perfect state it takes up 

 the nest in which the bones of its parent lie and carries it 

 from Arabia into Egypt, to a city called Heliopolis ; and, 

 flying in open day in the sight of all men, lays it upon the 



* "Science of Thought," p. 328. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xii., p. 101 ; " Annals," lib. vi., c. 28. 



