88 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
With the chief Kahun 
So that the bird’s plume un present, 
That is to say of the Moa 
Shall be stuck into the hair of my principal chief (or beloved one). 
Meaning, the principal one spoken of, or being now bewailed. 
I should say (1) that this song is not a very ancient one; (2) that it 
must have been sung by some of the Maoris of the East Coast, descendants 
of Kahungunu; (3) that Hawea’s statement throws great light on it; (4) 
that such a song would be highly suitable, and wholly in keeping with what 
would be sure to take place, as preliminaries, on the assembling together 
at the death of a chief,—say, the first day or evening of meeting; (5) that 
on such occasions the assemblage would begin with their tribal progenitor 
(Kahungunu) and come down gradatim to the one lately deceased (lying 
before them), who would thus have the last word; (6) that it is more parti- 
cularly applicable (from the last two words) as a lament over a young person 
of high rank 
4. Another song from the East Coast concludes with this stanza:— 
“ Tu tonu Puhirake, ko te Moa kai hau, 
He whakareinga rimu ki o pou, raia."* 
Which, as the song is a peculiarly taunting one, may be thus translated :— 
Poor betrothed beauty, there thou art alone and forlorn, standing con- 
tinually in the midst of the dense thicket, even as the Moa feeding on air, 
thy posts (supports or fences) are only for the long, shaggy, ash-coloured, 
lichen to fly and adhere to, nothing more! : 
To the Maori those two lines possess a whole multitude of suitable 
images and ideas. 
5. In an ancient dirge-like song, or chaunt,+ of great poetical depth 
and beauty, and very carefully composed,—often used in times of heavy 
disaster and death, the old and common proverbial saying already noticed, { 
(** Kua ngaro i te ngaro o te Moa!’’), is brought in with thrilling effect at the 
end of the third stanza. 
Here I may mention that, in 1852, at a season of extraordinary calamity 
here in Hawke’s Bay, I both re-wrote (a-la-Maori) with variations, and 
translated into English, this composition ; and on my reciting it, in Maori, 
before several chiefs who were assembled here from several places in the 
southern portion of this North Island (one of whom was the late Karai- 
tiana), I was not a little surprised to find they could all join in many of its 
parts, including the ending of all its stanzas. I then discovered that it had 
long been a truly national poem (so to speak), and, like very many others 
* ** Poetry of the New Zealanders,” p. 96. t“ Poetry of the New Zealanders,” p. 9. 
1 Vide ** Proverbs” (ante), p. 86, 
