90 Transactions, — Miscellaneous. 
again it is said, the question was asked, * What is the name of yonder 
mountain ? and they answered, That is Otawa. And the young girl asked 
again, Is the country of that mountain rich in food ? and they replied, Oh, 
there are found kiores, and kiwis, and wekas, and pigeons, and tuis; why, 
that mountain is famed for the variety and number of birds that inhabit 
wor 
2. Further : with reference to the very great use of feathers as ornaments: 
for the hair, which were greatly prized by the chiefs of olden days, there is 
also no mention, no allusion, however distant, to any feathers of the Moa 
in any of their legends ; although there are plenty to the feathers of other 
birds, sea and land,—both as head decorations and as forming cloaks, for 
which latter purpose those of the Kiwi were commonly used. And from the 
now known fact, of the Moa being also a struthious bird and a congener of 
the Kiwi, and its common body feathers equally as well if not better adapted, 
being stronger and tougher, for the feather-cloaks of the ancient Maoris. 
How are those omissions to be accounted for if the Moa were known ? 
Especially if (as Hawea says) that one feather he had seen was so sur- 
passingly handsome! In the old Legend of Marutuahu we read of the 
killing of birds for food in the interior, and of the young chief, who had 
been out hunting and spearing birds, dressing himself finely in his cloaks 
and feathers, when, “after combing his hair he tied it up in a knot, and 
stuck fifty red Kaaka (= Parrot) feathers in his head, and amongst them 
he placed the plume of a white heron, and the tail of a huia as ornaments ; 
he thus looked extremely handsome, and said to his slave, Now let us go: 
for he now appeared as handsome as the large-crested cormorant.” + 
9. Their proverbs, too,—many of which are very old—contain no other 
allusion to the Moa than those few very meagre and misty mythical ones I 
have already quoted ; and yet they deal largely with all Nature, animate 
and inanimate, known to the New Zealander; the various animals, parti- 
cularly birds, coming in for a full share of notice ; of those drawn from 
birds alone—their natural habits, powers, feathers, appearance, uses, etc., 
I have collected nearly 70. Here, too, we find proverbs in plenty relating 
to food and delicacies,—especially to what, being wild, was obtained by 
hunting and snaring :—e.g.— 
** Haere i muri i te tuara o Te Whapuku, 
Kia kai ai koe i te kai whakairo o te rangi." 
* « Polynesian Mythology," pp. 262, 264, 
t “ Polynesian Mythology," p. 250. And, also, that Cook, with his band of Scientific 
men with him, while they often speak of the quantity and variety of feathers with which 
the New Zealanders ornamented their hair, mention them as belonging to New Zealand 
birds they had seen or secured: and those chiefs dressed themselves in their very best 
