306 [PART n. 



CHAPTER II. 



SPECIMENS OF THE NEW ZEALAND LANGUAGE. 



I COULD have wished to have given more copious 

 specimens of the New Zealand language a greater 

 number of original pieces of composition than I 

 have done. There exist numerous songs, of various 

 character, in the mouths of the people ; and I have 

 no doubt that a large collection of Indian lore could 

 be formed. I have myself made such a collection of 

 about eighty pieces, principally of a lyric, erotic, or 

 mystic character, which were written down on the 

 spot from the mouths of the natives, and often by 

 the natives themselves who had acquired the art of 

 writing. But in attempting to translate them I 

 have found difficulties which to me were almost in- 

 surmountable* although I had the aid of intelligent 

 natives. One of the chief of these difficulties was, 

 that many of their songs, especially those of a reli- 

 gious character, contain numerous words which 

 would seem to be now lost, or, at least, their mean- 

 ing is no longer understood. They are, perhaps, the 

 ruins of an ancient tongue, which was either the 



