96 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Moai = peaceful, qiiiet — as the land in time of peace. 



*Maimoa {v. and n.), = a decoy-bird — as a tame parrot, kept solely for 

 that purpose ; to decoy by means of a tame bird, or bait. 



This is another highly peculiar word, deserving of notice. The term is 

 composed of two words, mai = hither, towards, hitherwards ; and moa = the 

 name of the extinct animal. Is it possible that this word is derived fi-om 

 its very old original use as a term for the decoy for the living Moa ? 

 Nothing could have better expressed it. Maimoa ^= (come) hither Moa ; or 

 the means (whatever that originally was) of making the Moa to come towards 

 its hunter or his snares, or the better to secure it. 



Some forty years ago I found the word largely and comprehensively in 

 use among the scattered Urewera tribes in the mountainous interior ; it is 

 also a general word. 



*Taniwha-moawhango = a monster having a hollow cry like a hoarse 

 Moa ; or, a monster-like Moa with a deep, hoarse, grating cry. 



Another very peculiar proper name, a relic of the olden time, carrying 

 almost its own interpretation ! At all events I can get no more. I have found 

 only one old chief who had ever heard of the word, and that in his boyhood, 

 but who could not explain it, save that that was the name of the creatm-e, 

 which was much feared (superstitiously). It is said that its hoarse, re]Dulsive 

 cry was heard always beneath in the earth (not unhkely some subterranean 

 noise caused by volcanic action). Curiously enough, there is a river in the 

 Patea country (interior) named Moawhangof (=: hoarse-soundmg Moa). 

 This river runs in some places very deep below in the earth far beyond the 

 light of day, and there, perhaps, may have a hoarse, hollow murmuring. 

 Thirty-five years ago I crossed this river more than once on long poles 

 thrown across the narrow surface chasm ; I could not see the water below 

 in looking down through the rift ! 



(5.) As reduplicated, and also with the causative particle prefixed ; e.g. : 



Moamoa, ) Small spherical shinmg mineral balls, the size of marbles, 



Hamoamoa, j found in the earth in various places ; as (by myself) 

 near Cape Turnagain ; perhaps iron pyrites. | 



t Vide names of places, ante. 

 I I cannot resist venturing a remark here on these peculiar terms for those round 

 shining stones : (1) Note the two words ; here we have moa reduplicated, meaning, com- 

 monly, less than moa (whatever moa may here mean), and, at the same time, having a 

 frequentative tendency ; (2) then we have the prefix ha, which means, to resemble, to look 

 like, to remind of ; can there be any aUusion hers to the metalhc shining eyes, the 

 ocellated appearance, of that one feather, wliich Hawea said was a feather of the Moa, 

 and which closely resembled a peacock's tail-feather ? Jlfoa, too, as we have seen, seems 

 to be a kind of generic term for something round, spherical — e.g., the round twirling drill, 

 and the round flowering-headed Spinifex. 



