396 NATIVE CUSTOM. [PART II. 



in these hostilities has been to obtain possession of 

 Tauranga, which is a better harbour than Muketu. 



It is known that in many of the islands of the 

 Great Southern Ocean the curious custom exists 

 of changing arbitrarily words of the language, and 

 of making others " tapu," or forbidden; nay, in 

 the Sandwich Islands an attempt was made to in- 

 troduce an entirely new language in place of the 

 old one. I found the traces of a similar custom 

 amongst the natives of Rotu-rua. Wai (water) has 

 been changed into ngongi ; kai (food) into tami, or 

 kami. The name of a place near Tauranga, where 

 a great fight took place, and many of the natives 

 were killed and eaten, is Waikeriri, but they call 

 it Ngongi-Keriri. The cause of this singular inno- 

 vation is, that the old word becomes sacred, either 

 from a chief adopting it for his name, or from some 

 other event sanctifying it. 



On questioning the natives, as I usually did, re- 

 lative to the natural history of their country, I 

 heard a curious tradition connected with a totara- 

 tree in the neighbourhood. Near this tree, they 

 said, their forefathers killed the last moa. From 

 the few remains of the moa that have been found, 

 it has been declared by Mr. Richard Owen to be 

 a struthious bird, and of very large size. 



I was assured by Mr. Chapman that there are 

 some native rats still to be found in the district ; 

 but although I took the greatest trouble, I could 

 not obtain one to determine the species. 



