Corenso.—On the Moa. 81 
killed the Moa at Te Wairere."* On his return to Hawaiki he related that 
** he had seen the land containing the green jade stone and the Moa." 
2. The Legend of the Destruction of the Moas by Fire, etc. 
A few years ago, while engaged in prosecuting my Maori etymological 
enquiries for the New Zealand Lexicon, I received the following from an 
old intelligent chief of the East Coast respecting the Moa :— 
** Anciently the land was burnt up by the fire of Tamatea ; then it was 
that the big living things, together with the Moas, were all burnt. Two Moas, 
however, survived with difficulty that destruction—but only two; one of 
these lived at Te Whaiiti, and one at Whakapunake.t The feather of this 
one at Whakapunake has been seen and found ; it was preserved as a plume 
decoration for the heads of dead chiefs of note, when their bodies were laid 
out on a sumptuous bier for the funeral obsequies. The name given to that 
feather was ko-te-rau-o-piopio (= the special plume of Piopio). The fore- 
fathers of the Maoris heard of the Moa, but they never saw its body, only 
its bones." 
Falling-in lately with an old chief of the Ngatiporou tribe, from Toko- 
maru, near the East Cape, and enquiring of him, if he knew anything of 
-the Moa? He replied, “ No; all that was known by them was the old 
tradition from their forefathers, that the Moas all perished through the fire 
of Tamatea, save one which escaped to the mountain Whakapunake; where 
it was said to sit in its cave with its mouth open, and hence to live on air." 
Here I would observe, that Tamatea is a very ancient name in the New 
Zealand mythological history, and is frequently mentioned both in their 
proverbs and songs. It occurs, also, several times with varying suffixes full 
of meaning in their old astronomical lore (of which more anon). Tamatea 
is said to be one of the sons (or grandson) of Tato, who, according to some 
genealogies, was the fifth lineal descendant from the first man Rangi — 
the sky ; their names are thus given together in one of their old genealo- 
gies :—“ Now I will begin to rehearse the coming hither of Tamatea, his 
fathers, and elders ; these are the names of his children, Rongokako, ete. ; 
these are all the children of Tato."! And these are also said to have come 
hither in the waka (‘ canoe”) Takitimu. While another genealogy (that 
of the Hawke’s Bay tribe—Ngatikahungunu), commencing also with Tato, 
* Probably the cliff and waterfall of that name near the river Waihou, between 
Tauranga and Matamata. 
t Vide Part I., pp. 64-68. 
f I give also the Maori of this, on account of some of the names :—“ Ka timata tenei 
i te haerenga mai o Tamatea ratau ko ona matua; ko nga ingoa enei o ana tamariki,—ko 
Rongokako, ko Hikutapuae, ko Hikitaketake, ko Rongoiamoa, ko Taihopi, ko Taihapoa, 
ko Kahutuá, ko Motoro, ko Te Angi, ko Kupe, ko Ngake, ko Paikea, ko Uenuku,—ko nga 
tamariki enei a Tato.” 6 
