86 Transactions, —M iscellaneous. 
4. Kua ngaro i te ngaro o te Moa! 
All have wholly disappeared, perished, just as the Moas perished ; none 
left! (A saying similar to the foregoing, and used under similar circum- 
stances). 
5. Na te Moa i takahi te raataa. 
The Raataa tree / Metrosideros robusta ) was trampled down, when young, 
by the Moa—hence its irregular growth. (The meaning being, early evil 
habits are not to be afterwards overcome. “Just as the twig is bent, the 
tree’s inelined.") 
6. Ko te Moa kai hau! 
Even as the Moa feeding on air ! 
This saying, which is also very anciént, arose from the belief of the 
myth that the Moa (the one that had escaped from the universal fiery 
destruction) resided in a cave on the top of the mountain Whakapunake, 
with its mouth wide open ; hence it is said to feed on the wind, or air. 
7. He Moa oti koe, ina ka kore koe e kai ? 
Art thou, indeed, a Moa, that thou dost not eat ? 
8. He Moa kai hau! 
A Moa living on air ! 
9. He puku Moa! 
A Moa’s stomach, or appetite ! 
Those last four proverbial sayings, nearly alike in meaning, are used—(1) 
in banter of a man in health who has no appetite for food; and (2) of a woman 
who at meal times cares not to eat, through being very deeply in love—her 
lover being absent, or his person not agreeable to her tribe and family, and 
so her affections are crossed, etc., etc. 
Of this latter we have a notable instance in Hinemoa, the woman whose 
name is handed down in a tradition of the olden time, as having swum in 
the night from the mainland at Rotorua to Mokoia, the island in the large 
lake there, to meet her lover, Tutanekai, the object of her desire. Hence, 
too, as her people suspected her, seeing she did not care to eat, ete., she 
got the provisional name of Hinemoa, which subsequently stuck to her ; like 
many other names of very frequent occurrence among the Maoris, through 
derision, accident, fault, war, ete. Hine—young lady, daughter of rank ; 
and Moa—the mythical animal—i.e., the young lady who left her food, or 
lived on air (just as the Moa), on aecount of her love for her sweetheart. 
Her name has been given to the Colonial Government steamer * Hinemoa.' 
There is still, however, another meaning belonging to the words “ He 
kai hau ;" namely, that it is the name of an ancient malediction or curse 
used by sorcerers; in which death is invoked on him who makes a practice 
of receiving gifts without giving any in return, so that he pines away and 
dies, This, in connection with the mythical ereature the Moa, might some- 
