CoLENSO, — On a better Knowlech/e of the Maori Race. 133 



Meaning : Don't be too nice. 



127. Kai viata ivJmvhia, maoa riro kee ! 



Food underdone (is) your own (lit., possessed), fully-cooked goes 

 (with others). 

 Meaning : Be quick at your cooking and eating, or visitors may eat it 

 for you. 



128. Tunu huruhuru, kei ivawe tii ana a Puwhakaoho. 



Roast (your bird) with its feathers on ; (or your rat) with its fur, 

 lest you be suddenly surprised by an unwelcome visitor. — Here 

 figuratively named Startling-trumpet. 

 The meaning of this is the same as the last. 



129. Kakariki tunua, kakariki otaina. 



Eat up the green parrots whether roasted or raw. 

 Meaning : Be not over nice ; as a party travelling in the woods, or going 

 to fight, has no time for much cooking. 



130. Hohoro te kai ma tatoii ; akuenei tu ana Rae-7'oa, noho ana Rae-poto ! 



Hasten the food for us ; soon (the) Long-foreheads (will be) standing 

 (here, when) Short-foreheads (will have to) sit down. 

 Raeroa, or Long-forehead, is a name for chiefs ; while Raepoto, or Short- 

 forehead, is a name for the common men. I suspect this arose from the old 

 manner of dressing their hair,* in which that of the male chiefs was drawn 

 up tightly in front and secured at the top by a knot, or band ; while that of 

 the lower people hung loosely down. The New Zealanders, always a hard- 

 working people, were quite alive to the English proverb of " Quick at meat, 

 quick at work." 



X. Against Making Much of Small Matteks. 



131. Kei maaku toku. 



Do not wet my garment. 

 Lit. Let not mine be wetted : the passive being the more genteel, or 

 mannerly, way of expressing it. The whole saying is, perhaps, worthy of 

 notice : — 



Kei maaku toku kakahu! A, maaku noa atu? Kapaa, he wera ite ahi, ka 

 kino ; tena, he maaku i te ivai, — horahia atu hi te ra kua maroke ! — ■ 

 Don't wet my garment ! And yet, if it were wet, what then ? But 

 if, indeed, it were burnt by fire, that would be bad ; as it is, 

 however, merely wet with a little water, — just spread it in the 

 sun, and it is dry again in no time ! 

 Meaning : Don't complain of trifles. 



In the olden time, when no chief ever raised a cup, or calabash, of water 

 to his lips to drink, but slaves went round giving them water, by pouring 



* Vide plates, 13, 55, etc., in Cook ; and in Parkinson, 15, 16, 17, 21. 



