OoLENSO. — On a better Knuwledge of the Maori Race. 123 



IV. Ag-ainst Slander, Lying, Stoky-telling, etc. 



57. He pata ua ki runga, he ngutu tangata ki raro. 



Dropping water wears away the soil, so frequent slander a good 

 name. 

 Lit. A rain-drop above, a human lip below. EesembLuig some of Solo- 

 mon's Proverbs. 



58. He tao rakau e karohia atu ka hemo ; te tao kii, werohia mai, tu tonu, 



A thrown wooden spear, if warded off, passes away ; the spoken 

 spear, when spoken, womids deeply. 

 Another rendering of the same proverb :— 



59. He tao kii ekore e taea te karo, he tao rakau ka taea ano te karo. 



A spoken spear cannot be warded off, a wooden spear can easily be 

 warded. 



60. Ka katokato au i te rau pororua ! 



I am going about gathering, bit by bit, the bitter leaves of the sow- 

 thistle. 

 Meaning : I hear nothing but bitter words against me everywhere. 

 N.B. — The pororua was the old New Zealand indigenous variety (or 

 species) of sow-thistle, which is much more bitter than the introduced 

 variety commonly called puicha. 



61. Te ivhakangungu nei ki nga tar a a ivhai o Araiteuru ! 



for impenetrable armour to oppose against the stings of the sting- 



rays of Araiteuru ! 



Used by a chief in defending his own tribe against slander. I believe 

 Araiteuru is a large shoal off the West Coast, near Taranaki ; in such places, 

 as also on shoals and mud-flats in harbours, as at Ahuriri, Whangarei, etc., 

 large sting-rays abound. 



N.B. — Here again there is much in the very name of that shoal which 

 is lost in translation, viz. : Barrier-against-the-western-blast. (Psalm 

 LVII., 4). 



62. Kia eke ait, ki 7-imga ki te puna o Tmirau ! 



1 may just as well attempt to climb up and sit on the blow-hole of a 



whale ! 



land Province (Mr. J. Williamson) sought to have an interview with a Maori chief of note 

 on political matters ; this, however, the chief would not grant, ending with saying, " You 

 and I shall never meet until we meet in the reinga." This, of course, was made much of. 

 The dreadful bitterness of expression — " never until. we meet in hell ! — was intensified and 

 dwelt upon shudderingly with much Christian feeling, hut all through ignorance on the 

 part of the Christian Europeans. The New Zealander had no such thoughts, and only 

 made use of an old saying, the English having chosen this word [reinga] as the equiva- 

 lent for hell; a meaning, however, which it does not possess, 



