66 Transactions, — Miscellaneous. 



It was owing to their quick and correct perception of the several hues of 

 red that they often saved themselves from loss and disaster, and from much 

 extra and dangerous lahour. As, for instance, in their knowing from the 

 peculiar red of the clouds and sky before sunrise of the coming change in the 

 weather, and so postponed their deep-sea fishing, or voyage hy sea, and 

 sometimes their journey also by land ; as they always commenced their 

 expeditions very early in the morning : and, just so, again, at sunset, they 

 knew by the red hue of the clouds, etc., what weather was at hand, and if 

 stormy, then they drew up their canoes, and collected their nets, and arranged 

 their matters accordingly. Indeed, a whole paper might be written on 

 their descriptive powers and opinions concerning the colours of the clouds, 

 their changes, and their portents, and the speedy alterations in the 

 approaching wind and weather (exclusive of their many superstitious 

 notions), of all which they had evidently made a long natural and 

 useful study, in which their remarkably tenacious memory assisted 

 them greatly ; every variety in colour (as well as of form, though 

 in a much less degree), was critically scanned, and bore its own 

 proper name. For my part, I confess, I never could learn those 

 nice differences; though I had always found the old Maoris to be 

 correct in their weather prognostications. Also, in the climbing of the high 

 white pine (kahikatea), totara and rimu trees in the forests, to obtain their 

 fruit (a work always attended with more or less of danger), for they readily 

 discerned from below whether the fruits were quite ripe, though very small, 

 from their shade of red colour ; and so with the karaka, jooroporo, kawakaiva, 

 rohutu, kohia, and other fruits, which are orange-coloured when fully ripe. 

 This last, being a high-climber, was only found bearing fruit on the tops of 

 their highest trees ; from its seeds they obtained one of their choicest 

 anointing oils. And here, in speaking of orange -colours, I may also 

 mention the discussions I have known among the old Maoris relative to the 

 proper hue or colour of the wattles of some of their birds {e.g. the Jiuia, and 

 the kokako), which led me to believe that their wattles varied in the 

 intensity of their colour owing to the season of the year, or that those of 

 the male birds were of a different shade of orange from those of the 

 females. 



The various sorts of the red-skinned kumara tubers,* — light-red, dark- 

 red, purple-red, reddish, etc., — were also all well-known and accurately dis- 

 tinguished. Their experienced eye also saw, at a glance, the difference in 

 the two shades of red exhibited in the flower and the fruit of the puriri 

 tree [Vitex littoralis), and accurately described them. And the planet Mars 



* See, " Trans. N.Z. Inst,," Vol. XIII., p. 34- 



