90 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



again it is said, the question was asked, "What is the name of yonder 

 mountain ? and they answered. That is Otawa. And the young girl asked 

 again, Is the country of that mountain rich in food ? and they replied, Oh, 

 there are found Mores, and kiwis, and wekas, and pigeons, and tuis ; why, 

 that mountain is famed for the variety and number of birds that inhabit 

 it."* 



2. Further : with reference to the very great use of feathers as ornaments 

 for the hair, which were greatly prized by the chiefs of olden days, there is 

 also no mention, no allusion, however distant, to any feathers of the Moa 

 in any of their legends ; although there are plenty to the feathers of other 

 birds, sea and land, — both as head decorations and as forming cloaks, for 

 which latter purpose those of the Kitvi were commonly used. And from the 

 now known fact, of the Moa being also a struthious bird and a congener of 

 the Kiivi, and its common body feathers equally as well if not better adapted, 

 being stronger and tougher, for the feather-cloaks of the ancient Maoris. 

 How are those omissions to be accounted for if the Moa were known ? 

 Especially if (as Hawea says) that one feather he had seen was so sur- 

 passingly handsome ! In the old Legend of Marutuahu we read of the 

 killing of birds for food in the interior, and of the young chief, who had 

 been out hunting and spearing birds, dressing himself finely in his cloaks 

 and feathers, when, " after combing his hair he tied it up in a knot, and 

 stuck fifty red Kaaka (= Parrot) feathers in his head, and amongst them 

 he placed the plume of a white heron, and the tail of a huia as ornaments ; 

 he thus looked extremely handsome, and said to his slave. Now let us go : 

 for he now appeared as handsome as the large-crested cormorant."! 



3. Their proverbs, too, — many of which are very old — contam no other 

 allusion to the Moa than those few very meagre and misty mythical ones I 

 have abeady quoted ; and yet they deal largely with all Nature, animate 

 and inanimate, known to the New Zealander; the various animals, parti- 

 cularly birds, coming in for a full share of notice ; of those drawn from 

 birds alone — their natural habits, powers, feathers, appearance, uses, etc., 

 I have collected nearly 70. Here, too, we find proverbs in plenty relating 

 to food and delicacies, — especially to what, being wild, was obtained by 

 hunting and snaring : — e.g. — 



" Haere i muri i te tuara o Te Whapuku, 

 Kia kai ai koe i te kai whakairo o te rangi." 



* " Polynesian Mythology," pp. 262, 264. 

 t " Polynesian Mythology," p. 250. And, also, that Cook, with his band of scientific 

 men with him, while they often speak of the quantity and variety of feathers with which 

 the New Zealanders ornamented their hair, mention them as belonging to New Zealand 

 birds they had seen or secured : and those chiefs dressed themselves in their very best 

 finery. 



