380 Transactions. 



But this apparently was only a toy compared with the manukaahu (hawk- 

 bird) and the manuwhara (sail-bird), on the description of which he waxes 

 picturesque. Unfortunately, he does not give the dimensions, but they 

 must have been immense machines, even allowing for exaggeration in the 

 statement that it took " from five men to ten men, to twenty men to thirty 

 men " to send them up, and, including the men holding the line — -which 

 might be anything to 1,200 yards, or even 2,200 yards in the case of an 

 extra-large one — it took no less than seventy men to manipulate the kite. 

 The head of the " man in the kite," as he terms it, was ornamented with 

 feathers, " requiring perhaps the plucking of twenty pigeons." This in- 

 cludes, no doubt, the decoration of the horns which he mentions afterwards. 

 There were also plumes from the albatross (toroa) on the head, as well as 

 tufts of albatross-down attached to the ears. And " there were also young 

 birds inside the head, to make a rattling or a rumbling noise as the kite was 

 lifted up by the wind. About twelve was the number of these young ones, 

 which were merely skeletons without any flesh." 



It was a difficult as well as a dangerous thing to get the manuwhara 

 launched in the air, on account of the straining of the huge wings under the 

 pressure of the wind. For if a false start were made, and the kite struck a 

 man as it swooped over the ground, the horns would pierce his body — " he 

 would be driven into the earth ; he would never rise again." " This is what 

 caused such fear," continues the writer, "when the manuwhara swooped 

 about like a hawk skimmimg over the earth ; and that is why it required 

 such a number of men to hold it." 



The flying of such a kite was, of course, a great event, and would no 

 doubt attract a large concourse of spectators, including probably the in- 

 habitants of adjacent villages, and possibly parties of visitors from other 

 tribes, many of whom would perhaps bring their own kites to join in a 

 flying match. It is easy to picture the scene as the " great games " are 

 being held on some breezy upland, or perhaps a broad beach, when the fine- 

 weather wind is blowing in strong from the sea. There are the kaumatuas, 

 or tribal elders, sitting with their more distinguished visitors on some rising 

 ground whence they can obtain a good view of the proceedings. The chief 

 women also, sitting in a body apart, with the general public in the back- 

 ground, and a host of children running all over the place. All are in ani- 

 mated discussion as to the respective merits of their favourite kites, or the 

 potentiality of some new manu which is going to break the record, while a 

 steamy haze in the distance reveals the presence of the haangis, or earth-ovens, 

 where the food to be eaten when the play is over is in process of cooking. 



Meanwhile the big kite is brought out, not without difiiculty, and held 

 up by a number of men facing the wind, while a party of young athletes, in 

 their feathers and war-paint, are squatting down in a compact body at a 

 convenient distance in front, ready to spring up and salute the kite with a 

 haka as it starts on its flight. 



And now the excitement rises to fever-heat. " The men who were hold- 

 ing up the kite," continues Te Rangi, " were as if they were mad, owing to 

 the straining of the wings and the blowing of the wind as the men at the 

 string were taking up their position." " It was not yet proper," he says, 

 that these men should be more than 100 yards away " — doubtless so as to be 

 able to keep the kite under control in case of a false start. " As they held 

 it in their hands," he goes on to say, " a man came running forth from the 

 front rank of the haka, quivering his hands," like the challenger of a war- 

 party — doubtless with rolling eye-balls and protruding tongue and all the 

 gestures proper on such occasions. At last the kite is let off. Soaring up 



