Williams. — Scientific Study of Maori Names. 361 



[Hikas cleaiiug) ; Te Pahi-o-Te-Rangi-tuanui (the camping-place of Te 

 Rangi-tuanui) ; Taionata - tvhakatangihanga - hoayiau-a - Tamatea-ki - tana- tahu 

 (the brow of the hill where Tamatea played the nose-flute to his lady love). 

 But in the vast majority of cases, while it might be quite possible to trans- 

 late the name, it would still remain inexplicable unless the circumstances 

 were known in which the name was given ; in fact, without that know- 

 ledge it is exceedingly unlikely that the translation given would be correct. 

 As in the case of the personal names, the incidents commemorated will in 

 many cases appear to us trivial or irrelevant. The Kaingaroa (long feeding) 

 plains are said in Maori tradition to take their name from the fact that a 

 body of travellers was delayed one morning in starting from the place by one 

 of the party, a lady named Haungaroa, taking rather long over her break- 

 fast. A place near the East Cape is called Kamokamo (winking) because 

 a celebrated chief, Porourangi* was murdered there, his companions adopt- 

 ing the highly original device of winking to one another as a signal that a 

 suitable opportunity for setting upon him had occurred. Tahu-tukua (ridge- 

 pole let down) marks the site of an old whare-puni in which during the 

 great epidemic of rewha-rewha a century or more ago some thirty persons 

 died in the night. Their friends, horror-stricken, chopped the main posts, 

 and let the ridge-pole fall, carrying the roof with it, and that was their 

 burial. We get a glimpse of the genial manners of the ancient Maori in 

 some of the names. In the East Coast district, as not infrequently hap- 

 pened, there was a feud between a clan living on a hill and their neighbours 

 in the valley below. In one of the skirmishes the latter were badly beaten, 

 and a chief of the name of Roia slain. As it was a stiff climb homewards, 

 Roia was quartered and served out to carriers, but, unfortunately, near the 

 top one of the carriers let go a hind-quarter, which rolled down the hill- 

 side : the place was accordingly named Te Takanga-o-te-huwha-o-Roia (the 

 place where Roia's thigh rolled down). A similar name comes from the 

 Urewera country, where a party was returning home with the body of an 

 enemy named Piki, and, wearying of the job, rolled him down a hill with a 

 steep homeward grade. The hill is now Te Whaka-takanga-o-Piki (the place 

 where Piki was rolled down). 



A good many of these names have reference to the doings of mythical 

 or semi-mythical heroes. Paoa, who came from the Waiapu district and 

 thence moved to several other parts of the North Island, accounts for quite 

 a number of these : more than one Waipaoa, or Waipawa, commemorates his 

 name. Then there was a gentleman named Rongokako who left a number 

 of footprints about— one near the Kidnappers, one at the Mahia, another 

 near Gisbome, another some twelve miles farther on, and yet another near 

 the East Cape. These are in some cases Tapuwae (footprints) and in others 

 Te Tapuwae-o-Rongokako {Rongokako' s footprint). Of course, it does not 

 follow that he did not put his foot to the ground between these points ; but 

 we need not be surprised should we find that it was so when we are informed 

 that a friend of his, wishing to set a trap [tawhiti) for him, placed the trap 

 on the hill Tawhiti, at Waipiro Bay, and stuck the wand used as a spring 

 (whana) for the trap in a mountain Arowhana, inland from Tokomaru Bay, 

 some twenty-five miles distant as the crow flies. 



There is another very large group of place-names — those beginning with 

 " 0" — which requires more investigat on than has hitherto been given to 

 it. I need hardly give instances of these names, as they are exceedingly 



* The grandfather of Te Ao-mihia mentioned above. 



