“I exhibit at the same time, from the museum, an ancient Japanese bronze, without doubt a vessel for burning incense, representing also a bird, the character of which is in many respects not unlike the specimen carved from stone. In both, the feathers on the back are rounded, with a central line from which smaller lines slope downwards on both sides; while the wing-feathers are more pointed, and have a similar ornamentation.

“To my mind there is no doubt that both have a somewhat similar origin, and come either from the same eastern country, or, if from two different countries, that the latter are nearly related to each other, and where for many centuries, if not thousands of years, industrial art has been practised.”

The Maoris assert that they brought the Korotangi with them from Hawaiki, and that it came in the canoe called “Tainui,” which first landed on the east coast; but it was dragged over the Tamaki portage into Manukau, thence navigated to Aotea, on the west coast, between Raglan and Kawhia.

It is a curious fact that the Korotangi was found in a rua, or hole, in which was growing a large kahikatoa-tree (manuka), very old. The tree had been blown down, and the bird was found in the roots by a Maori. It is owing altogether to this fortuitous circumstance that we know anything of this interesting relic of native antiquity. Mr. Albert Walker procured the stone bird, and left it for a short time with Major Drummond Hay, in Cambridge. It was in his house that an old chieftainess saw it, and on hearing where it was discovered she bowed herself, and then sang the song relating to it which Te Ngakau (usually called the King's Secretary) afterwards wrote for me. This song is known in all parts of the country. I received a copy even from Rotorua. In this manner, then, was this made known. The knowledge of its having been found caused much excitement amongst the natives. Tawhiao, the Maori King, came to see it, and Rewi took it away with him, and rose several times through the night to tangi, or cry, over it.

We now give the song relating to the Korotangi in Maori, and a translation by the late C. O. Davis, the well-known native scholar:—

“Kaore te aroha
Ki taku nei manu,
Titoko tonu ake,
I te ahiahi
Ka tomo ki te whare,
Taku ate noa ai.
He rangi au ka tatari,
Apopo (akuanei)
Awhea ano te hiki mai ai?

Kei hea Korotangi
Ka ngaro nei?
Tena ka riro kei te katokato,
I te rau powhata.
Nga whakataine
Tu mai ko te Po ko te Ao,
Ka oho au, tirohia Iho e hine ma;
Nga parera e tere ake na;
Ehara anake
He parera Maori Waiho me titiro
Ki te huruhuru,
Whakairoiro mai,
No tawhiti, e waiho Ana koe hei tiaki-hanga,
Hei korero taua
Ki tona taumata.
I puea koe, I te huahua,
Koewaewa wai
Ki Rotorua
E ai te ui ake
Ki a Kawatepuarangi.”

Translation By The Late C. O. Davis.

“Keen is the sorrow, O my bird, for thee!
And, when the evening closes in, I look
Around in vain for thee, then turn
Into my dwelling. Oh! the pang
Of heart I feel when there! I wait the live-long day
In restlessness; I wait another day,
And morrow comes! When, when wilt thou return
To me? Where is Korotangi absent?
Ah! how long he has gone to feast on leaves
Of kale!—gone, gone to, his amusements.
I wake when time divides in twain the day
And night. My daughters, look ye on the ducks
Down in the distance floating. Ah! these are
Not like him; that is the common bird.
Let us gaze upon the feathers carved
In lands remote. Ah! thou wert rudely thrust
From fish preserved in unrich fluid
Taken from Rotorua's lake. Thou wert
The guardian of our treasures, and the theme
Of many conversations on many heights
Of numerous village homes. Now what remains?
We'll ask for thee of Kawatepuarangi.”

Kawatepuarangi was an ancestor of the Ngatipikiao Trib—most likely a notable tohunga or priest.

Te Ngakau has written, in the song, “Ehara tena he manu Maori waiho, me titiro ki te huruhuru whakairoiro mai, no tawhiti; “which we translate, “This not a Maori bird. Consider—look at the carved feathers thereof. It (evidently) comes from a distance—a foreign country, or over the sea.”

Here is another song, as furnished by Te Ngakau:—

Waiata Korotangi.

“Kaore taku raru,
I pongia au ki te haere,
Te ata whakake,
Ko a te hua pea,
Parewhakaika. Ka kore
I te tinana, ko te
Numanga, ko te kanohi,
Te ahoaho nunui,
No Tokoahu kihai
Rawa i tirohia atanga
Tu noa, ho ake te reo
Kia puaki, e kore ra,
E matea nei roto
Kei te ake taku rangi
Te haumaruru; Na Koro i homai,
Ka kite au i a Te Hiku;
Mau hikuhiku ai,
Te napenga o te reo;
He rau tahuritanga,
Kia horomia te huwhare,
I‘kai-a-kawhi kau,
Ki te tauranga,
Ka tuku atu atu, e, i.”

Translation by C. O. Davis.

“Trouble has now o'ertaken me, for I
Had wandered far, on thy account, perhaps,
O Parewhakaika. I do not see
Thee now in person; nor did I see thee
Passing from my view, nor even was thy
Countenance in sight. The great ancestral
Line of Tokoahu has found no favour
Standing here; the voice was heard in loneliness.
Ah ! I will not show my inmost yearnings,
Lest I wear upon my aching brow
The griefs and care I feel. 'Twas Koro's gift
To me; and then Te Hiku I descried,
But glances only of him in the distance;
I toss and turn a hundred times, and strive
In vain to moisten my parched palate.
A passing glance was all I had of him
As he embarked, and then I let him leave.”

One cannot clearly observe the connection of this song with Korotangi, unless it be the lament of the original owner, who gave it to the departing emigrants. “'Twas Koro's gift to me,” he cries; Koro being, possibly, a great chief in Hawaiki. And again, “A passing glance was all I had of him as he embarked, and then I let him leave,” would almost point to our surmise.

The following is from Sir George Grey's collection of Maori poems published in 1853, and is entitled “He Tangi, na Rotorua.” There is no doubt that it refers to our subject, though the word “Korotau” is used instead of “Korotangi;” but the copy I have from Rotorua—” Na Ngatipikiao “—calls it Korotangi. Sir George Grey's book was published, it may be noted, some nineteen years before the bird was found.

The song as given by Sir George Grey, page 235, is as follows:—

“Kaore te aroha ki taku potiki,^*
Tuhana tonu ake, i te ahiahi,
Ka tomo ki te whare, taku ate kau ai:
Tirohia iho, e hine, ma ki te parera e tere atu na
Ehara tena he manu maori,
Me titiro ki te huruhuru whakairoiro mai no tawhiti,
Kei whea Korotau, ka ngaro nei?
Tena ka riro, kei te kato kai,
Ki te rau pohata, nga whakangaeore;:
Tunui me te po, ka oho au;
E waiho ana koe hei tiaki hanga,
Hei korero taua, ki tana taumata,
He oti te huri atu, ko Kawatapurangi.”

Maori poetry, unlike their prose, is often most difficult to understand, the meaning of many of their older poems being only well known to the aged tohungas. The difficulty here noted may be gathered from Dr. Maunsell's remarks on Maori poetry, as quoted by Sir George Grey. He writes: “In observing the construction of Maori poetry we shall see that it is not only abrupt and elliptical to an excess not allowed in English poetry, but that it also carries its license so far as to disregard rules of grammar that are strictly observed in prose; alters words so as to make them sound more poetically, deals more arbitrarily with the length of syllables, and sometimes even inverts their order or adds other syllables.”

Knowing Dr. Maunsell to be so exceptional in the ability to translate Maori poetry, we were particularly anxious to submit the foregoing songs for his criticism. He very kindly made the following translations, which differ considerably from those of C. O. Davis, who made the first and second already given:—

First Song.

“Great is the love
To my bird;
It moves in me
In the evening,
Into the house enters
My liver heedlessly.
A day I wait,
To-morrow, this day.
When will it lift [its foot] hither?
Where is Korotangi that has been missing?
It is gone to clip the leaf of the powhata.
The Whakataines [mountains?]
Stand before me day and night.
I stir myself; look, woman!
The ducks that swim below these
Are not it by any means—
They are Maori ducks.
Stop! we must look at the feathers
Brought here, carried
From a distance. You are left
To take charge of property
As a subject of talk for the [hostile] band.
On its hill-brow
You rose above
The huahua
For mixing water
In Rotorua,
So that one may ask
For Kawatepuarangi.”

Third Song. (From Sir George Grey's Collection.)

“Great is the love to my babe
That glows within, in the evening.
I enter the house myself alone.
Look, girl, at the duck that swims there.
It is naught. It is a Maori duck.
We must look at the feathers that
Have been carved and brought from a distance.
Where is Korotau who is missing?
He is gone. He is clipping food
From the leaf of the powhata.
The Whakangaeroes [mountains?] stand large
As night.
I stir up.
You have been left to take care of property
As a subject-talk perhaps for
The [hostile] band on the hillside.
I turn away—here is Kawatapurangi.”

Archdeacon Maunsell adds, in a note, “I have translated literally the first and third songs; they are particularly interesting to me as illustrating the causes of coincidences and variations of some of the Psalms in the Bible.” “A very intelligent Maori,” he continues, “to whom I submitted the second song, gave it up in despair. It is a question whether it

has been correctly written…. Line 20, ‘He e au,’ has some error in it.” Here, however, Dr. Maunsell misread our writing. We wrote “He rau” (a hundred), not “He e au”—a hundred turnings, or tossings (in the night), being the correct reading. No wonder, then, the intelligent Maori “gave it up in despair.”

The allusion to Rotorua in the song first given is better understood when the assertion of the natives, notably that of Rewi and Te Ngakau, is considered, that the Korotangi was stolen ages ago, and, presumably, carried to Rotorua.

To our mind there is no doubt that the bird was hidden or deposited where it was found; placed there possibly for safekeeping much in the same way that the bodies of renowned chieftains were conveyed out of the ken of the vulgar, and known only to the old tohungas appointed to the service. It would have been considered a calamity if such a famous relic as this should have fallen into the hands of aliens. Indeed, the Korotangi was nearly being placed in the same position as the bronze Bacchus recently rescued from the bed of the Tiber, where it had lain for centuries.

Mrs. Wilson, the owner of the stone bird, was strongly urged by Te Ngakau to cast it into the depths of the Waikato River for fear she would suffer makutu—or bewitchment—at the instance of envious persons, who themselves wished to become possessed of the treasure, the chief Rewi being particularly feared in this direction. Indeed, her death is, by some, ascribed to makutu on this account. We can very well, then, judge of the anxiety to have the Korotangi placed where there would be little likelihood of its falling into obnoxious hands, and can understand the rumour set afloat of its having been stolen and spirited away to Rotorua or elsewhere. Many famous tribal heirlooms are thus hidden and lost to posterity. The Rev. Mr. Buller mentions a famous taiaha, of great mana, as having been buried and lost in this way lest it should fall into the power of opposing tribes and cause disaster to the original owner.

Mr. Colenso has a Tamil bell, discovered buried at Taupo, which must have arrived in much the same circuitous manner as our subject, clearly pointing to a similar eastern origin.^*

In the first migrations of the Maoris hither, they, like their more civilized brethren, doubtless brought all they could with them of their “household gods,” of their mokai or pets. Mr. C. O. Davis writes, “If tradition is to be relied on, each vessel of the fleet brought to these shores some lasting monuments of ancient art.” We note in this direction the two stone images, rudely enough formed, which were brought

posed or tampered with in modern times, the singer states, after noticing the gathering-together of the animals in couples and their entry with the chosen men into the life-saving vessel, the destruction of the whole visible world by water, the Lord Ocean commanding the dry land to appear:

“Returned is the north wind with the …
Not found is a place whereon to alight.”

Unfortunately, the missing word at the end of the first line (in Marquesan hafa), has found no translator, but, from the allusion to no place having been found whereon to alight, it is probably connected with the sending-forth of the dove or raven as “the traveller of Tangaroa.” In Samoan legend, Tangaroa sent his daughter (in the shape of a bird) down from heaven. She returned to him, and reported that she could find nothing but breaking waves. She was sent again and again, till at last the land appeared. Next, it will be remembered that, although the Fijians are not members of the fair Polynesian race, yet their speech has preserved many Polynesian words in great purity, and that it is believed by Fornander and other authorities that the Polynesians inhabited Fiji before their dispersion to the different islands. From the work of the Rev. Thomas Williams (“Fiji and the Fijians,” p. 196) I make the following quotation:—

“They speak of a deluge, which according to some of their accounts was partial, but in others is stated to have been universal. The cause of this great flood was the killing of Turukawa—a favourite bird belonging to Ndengei—by two mischievous lads, the grandsons of the god. These, instead of apologizing for their offence, added insolent language to the outrage, and, fortifying, with the assistance of their friends, the town in which they lived, defied Ndengei to do his worst. It is said that, although the angry god took three months to collect his forces, he was unable to subdue the rebels, and, disbanding his army, resolved on more efficient revenge. At his command the dark cloud gathered and burst, pouring streams on the devoted earth. Towns, hills, mountains, were successively submerged; but the rebels, secure in the superior height of their own dwelling-place, looked on without concern. But when at last the terrible surges invaded their fortress they cried for direction to a god, who, according to one account, instructed them to form a float of the fruit of the shaddock; according to another, sent two canoes for their use; or, says a third, taught them how to build a canoe and thus secure their own safety. All agree that the highest places were covered, and the remnant of the human family saved in some kind of vessel, which was at last left by the subsiding waters on Mbenga: hence the Mbengans draw their claim to stand