CoLENSo. — On a better Knowledge of the Maori Race. 109 



(as in the case of the New Zealanders) the nation has no literature, or, 

 rather, no ivritten records and books. It has been dehberately affirmed by 

 a learned modern writer well acquainted with his subject, that there are 

 20,000 proverbs among the nations of Europe alone. Many of these have 

 been handed down from ancient times ; not a few from the Greeks, who also 

 borrowed largely from the Eastern nations. Such proverbs were long con- 

 fined to oral tradition (just like these of the New Zealanders) ; for, as it has 

 been truly observed, " Proverbs were before books." The most ancient, as 

 well as the most refined and civilized of nations, have ever used them, and 

 that effectively. We find them pervading all classes of literature — religious, 

 moral, scientific, historical, domestic, social, and humorous ; we find them 

 made use of in the Old Testament from before the beginning of the Hebrew 

 nation ; we find their wisest king (with his wise men) compiling a book of 

 Proverbs ; we find the Great Teacher himself several times using them in his 

 discourses, and after him Paul and Peter— as is recorded in the New 

 Testament — borrowing them, too, fi-om an alien people. And, in more 

 modern times, Shakespeare, John Bunyan, Swift, "Walter Scott, and other 

 British standard writers, have also used them to great advantage. We all 

 know what was Lord Chesterfield's opinion concerning them, viz., " Never 

 to be used by a man of taste or fashion ;" and possibly that statement may 

 have served to drive them out of polite conversation — in England, at least ; 

 but such was not the Com't belief in the reigns of Ehzabeth, James, and 

 Charles. The Chinese, the Japanese, and the Hindoos abound in many 

 wise and pithy sayings. The Itahans and the Spaniards are still greatly 

 addicted to the use of proverbs, especially the latter ; witness Cervantes, 

 the writer of "Don Quixote." How, indeed, could the famous Governor of 

 Barataria have possibly succeeded without them ? Proverbs of all nations 

 in common use are not only " the philosoxjhy of the vulgar," but they con- 

 tain fragments of wisdom, they are true to nature, and are suited to the 

 people in general by whom they are used. They reveal to us then- ancient 

 ways of thinking, and consequently their manner of acting. I have little 

 doubt that not a few of the mottoes of our old nobility may be well 

 accounted for in this manner — something of note in act or word that 

 originated with, or in the times of, the founder. 



To the ancient New Zealanders, however, the great value of then* pro- 

 verbs and proverbial sayings appeared in their oratory, of which they were 

 passionately fond, and in which they excelled. At such times (as I myself 

 have heard them with delight some 40-45 years ago !) then* orators, by some 

 well-chosen, some fitting proverb, carried everything before them, winning 

 over their attentive auditory as if they were but one man ! In which, no 



