CoLENSO. — On the Moa. 93 



one is led to enquire, — Why, seeing we have such a long Une of testimony 

 from the earliest times as to pets among this people, why is it there is 

 nothing said or handed down concerning the Moa ?* 



8. Lastly, there remain to be considered the several usages, or mean- 

 ings, of this word — Moa, in the Maori language — exclusive of the term as 

 apphed to the extinct bird, or rather (by the old Maoris) to its fossil bones ; 

 those may thus be classed : — 1. Simply as a common noun for other things. 

 2. (still in its simple form) as an abbreviation of the proper names of other 

 things, or of states of natm-e, or of persons. 3. As a name for places, and 

 for men of the olden time, having also a word either prefixed or suf&xed. 

 4. As a compound word used for names of things. 5. As reduphcated, and 

 also with the causative particle prefixed. 



(1.) The word Moa is also used for — 1. That peculiar kind of boring 

 instrument or diilli with which the old Maoris quickly bored the hardest 

 substances known to them, as the green jade-stone, the thick part of a com- 

 mon black bottle, etc. (this Httle instrument was also by some tribes called 

 a, pirori) ; 2. For a raised iDlot, or long ridge for cultivation in a garden or 

 plantation (a northern word) ; 3. For a coarse -growing sea-side grass 

 (Spinifex Jdrsutus), which is also called turikakoa,\ though this last term 

 more properly belongs to its globular involucrate heads of female flowers, 

 from the old use made of them ; 4. For a certain kind of stone ; or, for a 

 layer or stratum of stone. 



(2.) As an abbreviation ; mostly, however, in poetry, and in colloquial 

 language : e.g. — 



1. " Horahia mai ano kia takoto i te aio 

 Moa' i rokiroki."§ 

 (speaking of a very great calm). 



2. For a person : — 



" Hua atu, e Moa, 

 Ka wareware ano 

 Ka' te hapai mai." || 



* See infra, p. 96. 

 t See "Trans. N.Z. Inst.," Vol. I., ^^ Essay on the Maori Eaces," p. 15 of Essay; and 

 Cook's Voyages, 1st Voy., Vol. III., p. 464. 



\ The term " turikakoa,"— Zii. glad, or nimble knees — arises from the use formerly 

 made of this globular head of flowers when travelling by the sea- side, in going before the 

 wind over sandy beaches, or flats, when the tide is low; one, or more, of them were 

 gathered and pursued with agility and merriment ! such a simple device has often served 

 to beguile many a wearisome journey on foot, with me and my party. 



§ Sir George Grey's " Poetry of the New Zealanders," p. 41. 

 II Grey's Poetry of New Zealanders, p. 15. 



