310 LANGUAGE OF NEW ZEALAND. [PART II. 



as if it had been, There is a fat salmon for you : but 

 you turn away your back ; how can you eat it ? 



7. Ki tata ki tau ke. 

 To approach in a year. 



This is another of their favourite antitheses : You 

 say you will come soon yes, in a year. 



8. Ta raua he kaka kau akitahaki tena titiro 

 For them the fibres only throw down that look 



Iho ka puehuehu ma tana waiaro tenaka. 

 Down it is mealy before himself put that. 



This saying is used by a free man who discovers 

 his slaves eating the best (i.e. the mealy) fern-root, 

 and leaving for their master that which is stringy. 

 The sense is easy, if we bear in mind that only the 

 mealy fern-root is eatable, and the stringy and 

 fibrous unfit for food. The master, therefore, says : 

 For fellows like you, the fibrous ; well, the stringy 

 parts (unfit for eating) fling down, slave, to the 

 ground (ironically) : they are mealy ; pick them up, 

 and put them before your mouth and eat them." 



The following He Waiata Aroha, or Love-Song, 

 expresses loneliness and despair. A woman com- 

 plains in it of the faithlessness and desertion of her 

 lover. It is sung, without action, in a low, plain- 

 tive, and not unpleasing tune : 



He Waiata Aroha. 



Tera te wetu tutaki ata 



There (at a distance) the star meeting morning 



