482 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
_ Again (p. 156)—* While they regarded the rainbow as a divinity, * * 
to their organ of sight it presented one characteristic tint, and that was ma 
(white), or allied to light.” 
This assertion I have already fully met in my paper (supra); but I 
would further ask—Why, then, was it so commonly called Kahukura— 
** searlet,”’ or red, garment ? 
Mr. Stack also _— the well-known passage in Asati i, 18, for 
“scarlet and crimson.” But the “scarlet” of King James’ days (the 
time of the translators of the English Bible) was not the same identical 
colour as the scarlet of to-day. Our modern scarlet was not then 
known. ; 
Again (p. 155), Mr. Stack says, ‘‘ Pownamu, or greenstone, * * * is 
sometimes used now as a colour-term. Karupownamu=green-eyed, is the 
term applied to persons with light-coloured hazel eyes, but I never heard | 
pounamu used to describe the colour of the sea.” 
I refer Mr. Stack to one of “the few standard works” which he quotes 
—Sir G. Grey’s “ Mythology,” pp. 158, 159 (or to his “‘ Poetry of the New 
Zealanders,” pp. xciii., xciv.), where he will find two sentences in excellent 
Maori, re the colour of the eyeball, and of the water, in both of which the 
pounamu is used as a simile.* Evidently, he has also overlooked the little 
bird called Titipounamu ( Acanthisitta chloris) ;+ the shark called Taha- 
pounamu ; the lizard called Pounamu-kakanorua ; the early winter potato of 
the Ngapuhi tribe called Pownamu; our northern lakes called Rotopounamu 
and the Aupounamu, the Waipounamu, etc., etc. Again, in my two editions 
of the Maori Bible (one in 12mo. and one in 8vo.), the passage in Esther : 
6, contains the word pounamu for green colour, and not that “ Maoricized 
abomination—karini—which Mr. Stack quotes. i 
Mr. Stack also says (p. 156), ‘+ At the suggestion of Europeans the indigo- 
blue plumage of the pakura (Porphyrio melanotus ) is sometimes employed to 
indicate the colour, which before intercourse with Europeans was wnrecog- 
nized.” These two statements (which I have italicized) I deny; and “ 
should not care to do so here, only to show that I had written to the 
contrary in 1865 (“Essay on the Maori Races,” § 33).t 
Further, Mr. Stack says (same page), “No words are found in the Maori 
language to express violet, brown, orange, and pink colours; but there are 
no less than three words to express pied or speckled objects.” This #8 
* See “Trans. N.Z. Inst. ” vol x, pp. 97 and 9, for my translation. 
_+ Observe here how Dr. Sparrmann (who mp ptain Cook to New Zeal” 
a oe HoT a — 
