Cotenso.—On a better Knowledge of the Maori Race. 125 
71. I haere mai pea koe i te kaainga i a Te Arahori ? 
Perhaps thou camest hither from the village of Mr. False-way ? 
72. Korua pea ko Te Tangokorero i haere tahi mai ? 
Perhaps thou and Take-up-talk travelled hither together? 
73. Na Tangokorero pea koe i tono mai ki konei ? 
Perhaps thou wert sent hither by Take-up-talk ? 
Those last five proverbs are very nearly alike in meaning, though used 
by different tribes. They were made use of when visitors should arrive 
bringing strange tales, or slanderous ones. I bring them here together to 
show how largely the ancient New Zealanders dealt with fictitious and 
figurative characters, to whom they gave highly appropriate names, just 
as Bunyan, already mentioned. 
74. Ka mahi te tamariki wawahi taahaa ! 
Bravo! children, smashing your (mothers’) calabashes ! 
This saying is often. applied to a man who is defaming his own relations, 
or tribe. r 
V. Against Trustine to PROMISES, APPEARANCES, ETC. 
75. Nga korero o era rangi, mahue noa ake ! 
Promises of other days, wholly left behind ! 
** Never trust to fine promises.” 
76. He marama koia kia hoki rua ki Taitai ? 
If indeed thou wert like the moon to return a second time to its 
place of shining ? 
Lit. A moon indeed! to return twice to one place (or to Taitai — name 
of place) ? 
- Baid to a person who promises to give you something at the next time 
of meeting. 
77. Poroaki tutata, whakahoro ki tau kee! 
Last words at parting stand close at hand, deferred by slips to 
another year! 
Said of a person too ready in promising. 
N.B.—The word ‘‘ whakahoro’’—which I have rendered deferred by 
slips—is here very expressive; it means to fall by degrees, or to slip, slide, 
or crumble down, as clayey cliffs, ete. ; or to be levelled, as mounds, dykes, 
etc. 
78. Hohoro i aku ngutu, e mau ana te tinana, 
My lips were quick (to move), the body being fixed. 
Meaning: Promises were quickly made, but the body is slow to BERRE 
N.B.—“ Body,” with the old Maoris, meant more than with us; viz., 
the whole man, the entirety, the substance, as against the mere lips. Just a 
