_Ki au te mataika_--I have the _mataika_. The first man killed in a battle was called the _mataika_. To kill the _mataika_, or first man, was counted a very high honour, and the most extraordinary exertions were made to obtain it. The writer once saw a young warrior, when rushing with his tribe against the enemy, rendered almost frantic by perceiving that another section of the tribe would, in spite of all his efforts, be engaged first, and gain the honour of killing the _mataika_. In this emergency he, as he rushed on, cut down with a furious blow of his tomahawk, a sapling which stood in his way, and gave the cry which claims the _mataika_. After the battle, the circumstances of this question in Maori chivalry having been fully considered by the elder warriors, it was decided that the sapling tree should, in this case, be held to be the true _mataika_, and that the young man who cut it down should always claim, without question, to have killed, or as the natives say "caught," the _mataika_ of that battle. PAGE 152. _Toa_--A warrior of preëminent courage; a hero. PAGE 171. _Kia Kotahi ki te ao! Kia kotahi ki te po!_--A close translation would not give the meaning to the English reader. By these words the dying person is conjured to cling to life, but as they are never spoken until the person to whom they are addressed is actually expiring, they seemed to me to contain a horrid mockery, though to the native they no doubt appear the promptings of an affectionate and anxious solicitude. They are also supposed to contain a certain mystical meaning.