84 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



length, and in its ocellated appearance ; its great beauty altogether was 

 exactly that of the feather of the Peacock." 



3. (July 18, 1879.) " This is in answer to yoiu- new and repeated 



questions to Hawea concerning the said feather called Te rau-o-piopio (=the 



plume of Piopio) and Te Kowhakaroro ; this is what he says : — I will first 



speak of the body whence came that feather. I have heard formerly the old 



men talking and saying that the Moa fed on air (or wind) ; that it never 



walked about, but kept its head always turning. The Moa race was killed 



through the overturning of the Earth by (or in the time of) Mataoho ; 



therefore it is that only the bones are now found. Another saying of 



theirs, that one Moa only escaped from that destruction, and this one 



dwells within the cave at the mountain Whakapunake ; but this (saying) 



perhaps is false, and this is my reason for saying so : — In my time (early 



days) a travelhng party went thither, and I saw how they were teased about 



it on their return. A feather, however, was found stuck fast on a white 



pine tree (Kahika), which was brought back. When Matawhaiti died, (the 



ancestor of Tukuwaru,*) this said feather was stuck in his hair, and it was 



afterwards reserved for that purpose of decorating the heads of deceased 



chiefs when laid in state upon the bier. I, myself, saw that feather on that 



occasion ; and so did (many of) the men of Te Wairoa and of Te Whakakii 



(in Hawke's Bay), they also saw it. That one feather bore two names — Te 



rau-o-piopio, and Te Kowhakaroro. It was like the feather of the Peacock, 



that is in its ocellated appearance ; very likely if that bird, the Peacock, had 



been a native of this island, then that feather would be certainly said to be 



a Peacock's feather. All those are Hawea's words." 



4. (July 21, 1879.) " Shortly after my last letter to you was written, 

 a visiting party arrived here from the neighbourhood of the mountain Wha- 

 kapunake, and we again talked about the Moa, on account of your enquiries. 

 Those men say, in addition to what I have already informed you, — that the 

 famed Moa of Whakapunake bore twelve of those beautiful round-eyed 

 feathers, resembling those of the Peacock. From (signed) Hawea. "f 



II. Peoveebs. 

 1. He koromiko te waliie i taona ai te Moa. 

 The firewood with which the Moa was baked was of Koromilco (Ve^vnica 

 salicif&liaj. 



* An aged chief still living here in Hawke's Bay. 

 t I have been careful to be exact in making those translations of, and extracts from, 

 Hawea's letters to me, even to the repeating of some portions, as I wished to give them as 

 I received them ; — it may be for future reference. I had purposed the giving them also 

 in their original Maori, in the Appendix to this paper. Hawea, being aged, very rarely 

 writes himself, but employs constantly a middle-aged Maori, named Hamuera, to write 

 for him ; who, I know, is to be relied on for accuracy : hence it is that Hawea is generally 

 spoken of in the third person. 



