452 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



she was able to fasten Iris hair, the flax being so strong. Hence the 

 proverb, " Putiki-wharanu a Kahungunu a Tamatea i Mahue atu i Tauranga." 



(The flax-binding of Kahungunu, a Tamatea left behind at Tauranga. 

 Wharanui is a variety of Phormium tenax.) 



Kahungunu then left his wife and journeyed on to Nukutauroa (Table 

 Cape), to Tawapata (near Portland Island) where Eongornaiwahiue was 

 living with her mother, Kapa, who had repeated the proverb regarding him. . 

 Eongomaiwahine was with her husband, Tamatakutai, the chief of the 

 place, who occupied most of his time in carving. Kahungunu stayed and 

 watched the manners of the people, their food was paua (Haliotis) and pupu 

 (limpets). 



• At night Kahungunu commenced his jokes, for the purpose of causing a 

 quarrel between Eongomaiwahine and her husband. Shortly after tins 

 Kahungunu proposed to the others that they should all go and dig fern- 

 roots, to which they agreed. When a great quantity had been obtained, 

 the friends suggested they should tie it up and carry it home, to which he 

 objected and sent them away. So soon as they were out of sight, he 

 collected it all together and carried it himself. "When his friends looked 

 back, they beheld him bringing the fernroot on his shoulder. On his arrival 

 at the precipice named Tawapata, just above the village, he let down the 

 fernroot and undid the fastenings, so that it fell scattered into the village. 

 It was such a large mass that the place was filled even to all the enclosures 

 round the houses. All the men, women, and children collected and pre- 

 pared it for food by the fire, at the same time praising Kahungunu, saying, 

 "Now we have got a strong and able man, who can work and collect 

 food." 



The children of Maringaringamai were at the fishing grounds, so Ka- 

 hungunu proposed to his friends to collect paua. He sent the men to 

 collect flax and to make paua baskets and nets, and ropes, also to prepare 

 sticks to ward off the fish from the rocks. He then ascended a hill whence 

 he watched the kawau — shags — {Graculus varius) diving for fish, and 

 then tried if he could hold his breath as long as they could. His way of 

 trying was thus : — When the kawau dived, he commenced to count thus : 

 Pepe tahi, pipi rua, and so on up to ten (fuangahuru) ; then commenced 

 again at pepe tahi, etc. This he did without drawing breath while the 

 kawau dived three times ; he therefore thought he could remain some 

 length of time under the water, so he took the net at ebb tide and entered 

 tbe water and swam to the first rock, then to the second, and so on to the 

 fourth, and passed the rocks where people usually swam to, for only a canoe 

 could go so far. He then dived and set to work filling his nets and kits. 

 He pressed the pauas together and filled to bursting all his kits, He then 



