SrAcx.— Traditional History of the South Island Maoris. 63 
Having ascertained from some women whom he questioned that the robber 
chieftain was asleep in a cave hard by, he quietly approached the spot, 
where he found him lying asleep on a mat, all unconscious of danger. But 
like a true knight he scorned to strike his sleeping foe, and raising his 
voice he uttered the following challenge : 
‘‘Tutewaimate *T, Tutewaimate 
Tutewaimate a Popotahi Tutewaimate, son of Popotahi, 
Te hau tuku maiiroto Rakaia Swift as the wind from the Rakaia 
Gorge 
Te mahea te hauku o te ata.” Have forestalled the drying of the 
morning dew.” 
The startled robber, raising himself to a sitting posture, replied : 
* Ho, Moko * Ho Moko, 
Moko a Hautere Moko, son of Hautere, 
Te hau tuku mai runga maunga The wind rushing down from Mt. 
tere Tere, 
Te tangata i whangai nga ki te The man fed upon uncooked 
mango mata.” S 
As he uttered the last word the treacherous Moko, by a sudden and 
unexpected thrust, felled his generous foe to the ground, and soon put an 
end to his existence. 
It is from the Waitaha that the following account of the destruction of a 
gigantic bird of prey has been handed down. The event occurred in times 
preceding Tutewaimate and the period referred to in the scraps of Waitaha 
history which have survived. The story possesses peculiar interest when 
considered in connection with the discovery of the Harpagornis moorei at 
Glenmark. Does it prove that the Maoris knew that bird, or is it to be 
classed with the Taniwha stories common in the north, is it an imported, 
and localized tradition ? . 
A Pouakai had built its nest on a spur of Mount Tawera, and darting 
down from thence it seized and carried off men, women, and children, as 
food for itself and its young. For, though its wings made a loud noise 
as it flew through the air, it rushed with such rapidity upon its prey 
that none could escape from its talons. At length a brave man called 
Te Hau o Tawera came on a visit to the neighbourhood, and finding that 
the people were being destroyed, and that they were so paralyzed with fear 
as to be incapable of adopting any means for their own protection, he 
volunteered to capture and kill this rapacious bird, provided they would 
do what he told them. This they willingly promised, and having procured 
a quantity of manuka saplings he went one night with fifty men to the foot 
of the hill, where there was a pool, sixty feetin diameter. This he completely 
