96 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
Moai = peaceful, quiet—as the land in time of peace. 
*Maimoa (v. and n.), — a decoy-bird—as a tame parrot, kept solely for 
that purpose ; to decoy by means of a tame bird, or bait. 
This is another highly peculiar word, deserving of notice. The term is 
composed of two words, mai — hither, towards, hitherwards; and moa — the 
name of the extinct animal. Is it possible that this word is derived from 
its very old original use as a term for the decoy for the living Moa? 
Nothing could have better expressed it. Maimoa — (come) hither Moa; or 
the means (whatever that originally was) of making the Moa to come towards 
its hunter or his snares, or the better to secure it. 
Some forty years ago I found the word largely and comprehensively in 
use among the scattered Urewera tribes in the mountainous interior ; itis 
also a general word. 
*Taniwha-moawhango — a monster having a hollow cry like a hoarse 
Moa ; or, a monster-like Moa with a deep, hoarse, grating cry. 
Another very peculiar proper name, a relic of the olden time, carrying 
almost its own interpretation! At all events I can get no more. I have found 
only one old chief who had ever heard of the word, and that in his boyhood, 
but who could not explain it, save that that was the name of the creature, 
which was much feared (superstitiously). It is said that its hoarse, repulsive 
cry was heard always beneath in the earth (not unlikely some subterranean 
noise caused by volcanic action). Curiously enough, there is a river in the 
Patea country (interior) named Moawhangot (= hoarse-sounding Moa). 
This river runs in some places very deep below in the earth far beyond the 
light of day, and there, perhaps, may have a hoarse, hollow murmuring. — 
Thirty-five years ago I crossed this river more than once on long poles 
thrown across the narrow surface chasm; I could not see the water below 
in looking down through the rift ! 
(5.) As reduplicated, and also with the causative particle prefixed ; e.g. : 
Moamoa, | Small spherical shining mineral balls, the size of marbles, 
Hamoamoa, found in the earth in various places ; as (by myself) 
near Cape Turnagain ; perhaps iron pyrites. 1 
: t Vide names of places, ante. 
ocellated appearance, of that one feather, which Hawea said was a feather of the Moa, 
and which closely resembled a peacock's tail-feather ? Moa, too, as we have seen, seems 
to be a kind of generic term for something round, spherical—e.g., the round twirling drill, 
and the round flowering-headed Spinifer,  - 
