Cotenso.—On a better Knowledge of the Maori Race. 123 
TV. Against BLANDER, Lyine, Srory-TELLING, ETC. 
57. He pata ua ki runga, he ngutu tangata ki raro. 
Dropping water wears away the soil, so frequent slander a good 
name. 
Lit. A rain-drop above, a human lip below. Resembling some of Solo- 
mon’s Proverbs. 
58. He tao rakau e karohia atu ka hemo ; te tao kii, werohia mai, tu tonu. 
A thrown wooden spear, if warded off, passes away; the spoken 
spear, when spoken, wounds deeply. 
Another rendering of the same proverb :-~ 
59. He tao kii ekore e taea te karo, he tao rakau ka taea ano te karo, 
A spoken spear cannot be warded off, a wooden spear can easily be 
warded. 
60. Ka katokato au i te rau pororua ! 
I am going about gathering, bit by bit, the bitter leaves of the sow- 
thistle. 
Meaning : I hear nothing but bitter words against me everywhere. 
N.B.—The pororua was the old New Zealand indigenous variety (or 
species) of sow-thistle, which is much more bitter than the introduced 
variety commonly called puwha. 
61. Te whakangungu nei ki nga tara a whai o Araiteuru ! 
O for impenetrable armour to oppose against the stings of the sting- 
rays of Araiteuru ! 
Used by a chief in defending his own tribe against slander. I believe 
Araiteuru is a large shoal off the West Coast, near Taranaki; in such places, 
as also on shoals and mud-flats in harbours, as at Ahuriri, Whangarei, etc., 
large sting-rays abound. 
N.B.—Here again there is much in the very name of that shoal which 
is lost in translation, viz.: Barrier-against-the-western-blast. (Psalm 
EYN. 
62. Kia eke au ki runga ki te puna o Tinirau ! 
I may just as well attempt to climb up and sit on the blow-hole of a 
land Province (Mr. J. Williamson) sought to have an interview with a Maori chief of note 
on political matters ; this, however, the chief paepe not grant, ending with saying, “ You 
and I shall never meet € we meet in the reinga." This, of course, was made much of. 
The dreadful bitt i ** never until we meet in hell Km intensified and 
dwelt upon hoidan with much Christian feeling, but all through ignorance on the 
part of the Christian Europeans. The New Zealander had no such thoughts, and only 
made use of an old saying, the English having chosen this word (reinga) as the equiva- 
lent for hell ; a meaning, however, which it does not possess. 
