CoLenso.—On the Moa. 98 
one is led to enquire, —Why, seeing we have such a long line of testimony 
from the earliest times as to pets among this people, why is it there is 
nothing said or handed down concerning the Moa ?* 
8. Lastly, there remain to be considered the several usages, or mean- 
ings, of this word—Moa, in the Maori language—exclusive of the term as 
applied to the extinct bird, or rather (by the old Maoris) to its fossil bones ; 
those may thus be classed :—1. Simply as a common noun for other things. 
2. (still in its simple form) as an abbreviation of the proper names of other 
things, or of states of nature, or of persons. 8. As a name for places, and 
for men of the olden time, having also a word either prefixed or suflixed. 
4. As a compound word used for names of things. 5. Asreduplicated, and 
also with the causative particle prefixed. 
(1.) The word Moa is also used for—1. That peculiar kind of boring 
instrument or drill} with which the old Maoris quickly bored the hardest 
substances known to them, as the green jade-stone, the thick part of a com- 
mon black bottle, ete. (this little instrument was also by some tribes called 
a pirori); 2. For a raised plot, or long ridge for cultivation in a garden or 
plantation (a northern word); 8. For a coarse-growing sea-side grass 
(Spinifer hirsutus), which is also called turikakoa,] though this last term 
more properly belongs to its globular involucrate heads of female flowers, 
from the old use made of them; 4. For a certain kind of stone; or, for a 
layer or stratum of stone. 
(2.) As an abbreviation ; mostly, however, in poetry, and in colloquial 
language: e.g.— 
1. ** Horahia mai ano kia takoto i te aio 
Moa’ i rokiroki."$ 
(speaking of a very great calm). 
2. For a person :— 
‘* Hua atu, e Moa, 
* See infra, p. 96. 
t See “ Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Voll, “ Essay on the Maori Races," p. 15 of Essay; and 
Cook's Voyages, Ist Voy., Vol. IIL., p. 464. 
1 The term *'turikakoa,"—/it. glad, or nimble knees—arises from the use formerly . 
made of this globular head of flowers when travelling by the sea-side, in going before the 
wind over sandy beaches, or flats, when the tide is low; one, or more, of them were 
gathered and pursued with agility and merriment! such a simple device has often served 
to ile many à wearisome journey on foot, with me and my party. 
§ Sir George Grey's “ Poetry of the New Zealanders,” p. 41. 
|| Grey's Poetry of New Zealanders, p. 15. 
