OK, here it is:
"2. “Description of the Extinct Gigantic Bird of Prey Hokioi,” by a Maori; communicated by Sir G. Grey, K.C.B., Hon. Mem. N.Z. Inst.
(Translation.)
This bird, the Hokioi, was seen by our ancestors. We (of the present day) have not seen it—that bird has disappeared now-a-days. The statement of our ancestor was that it was a powerful bird, a very powerful bird. It was a very large hawk. Its resting place was on the top of the mountains; it did not rest on the plains. On the days in which it was on the wing our ancestors saw it; it was not seen every day as its abiding place was on the mountains. Its colour was red and black and white. It was a bird of (black) feathers, tinged with yellow and green; it had a bunch of red feathers on the top of its head. It was a large bird, as large as the Moa. Its rival was the hawk. The hawk said that it could reach the heavens; the hokioi said it could reach the heavens; there was a contention between them. The hokioi said to the hawk, “what shall be your sign?” The hawk replied, “kei” (the peculiar cry of the hawk). Then the hawk asked, “what is to be your sign?” The hokioi replied, “hokioi-hokioi-hu-u.” These were their words. They then flew and approached the heavens. The winds and the clouds came. The hawk called out “kei” and descended, it could go no further on account of the winds and the clouds, but the hokioi disappeared into the heavens.
“Kei” is the cry of the hawk. “Hokioi-hokioi” is the cry of the hokioi. “Hu-u” is the noise caused by the wings of the hokioi. It was recognized by the noise of its wings when it descends to the earth."
Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, vol.5
rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_05/rsnz_05_00_003370.pdfAlso this (On a Maori Waiata. By R. C. Bruce, M.H.R., "Transactions" vol. 25):
Grey's source was supposedly the "Ngatiapa Tribe" (Ngāti Apa iwi). Their present-day location does not seem to match up with the known distribution of Haast's Eagle, but their history is themselves enigmatic. The Ngāti Apa iwi is a fairly recent composite; they did not exist as a group before 1800. But the localities mentioned in the waiata are North Island.
Thus, the people on whose descriptions the hokioi is supposedly based
cannot ever have seen Haast's Eagle, except maybe (it was not a good long-distance flyer) the occasional straggler.
The waiata is about Te Rara-o-te-rangi, son of legendary Ngāti Apa chief Te Hakeke. In it, Te Hakeke beckons him to reconquer the lands lost to the alliance of Te Rauparaha, saying,
"Aro nui te haere ki roto Horowhenua,
Kia pohiri mai koe ia o whaia
E rau a te Waka ki paoa te rangi;
Te rau o te Huia e noa te tinana tera to piki te Hokioi i runga."
("Go steadfastly on into Horowhenua,
The shades of your mothers beckoning you forward, the daughters of Waka, undegraded by blows.
Feather of Huia too mean for your person;
Your head-ornament a feather of Hokioi, the bird of mystery, unseen by the multitude.")
rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_25/rsnz_25_00_004750.pdfIn addition:
- There have been attempts to identify the hokioi with frigatebirds. (Cheeseman, T., "Transactions" Volume 40). See below.
- "Hokioi" is the name of a stream in the Wellington area of North Island (G. Leslie Adkin, "Transactions" 81)
- It is also gave its name to name of a tract of land somewhere in NZ, as related by Frederick Edward Maning (via T. Cockburn-Hood, "Transactions" vol.7). Maning at that time was judge at the Native Land Court, whereever that was located. Maning says,
"That it was called in song, 'Hokioi of the resounding wing'; that it inhabited the mountain peaks; that its appearance, under certain circumstances, was considered ominous; that it came often accompanied by thunder and lightning, probably driven to the low grounds by the storm, and, where I now sit writing, I can see a tract of land which has been for many generations called ‘The wing of the Hokioi,’ from the tradition of the appearance of the great bird at that place. When the Moa became extinct the destroyer died also, having nothing left to feed on, and so both these great creatures have disappeared, to be seen no more.”
rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_07/rsnz_07_00_007720.pdfJ. Cowan., Notes on some South Island Birds, and Maori Associations connected therewith ("Transactions" 38) is interesting, as it seems to confirm that the hokioi is based on the hakuai (today written hakawai). Read for yourself:
rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_38/rsnz_38_00_004920.pdfThis is apparently the "frigate bird" identification mentioned above.
About the hokioi, it gives a waiata translated as:
"Two fathoms long are its pinions;
Its wings make a booming noise.
It lives in the open space of heaven,
The companion of the crashing thunder."
Then there is:
Elsdon Best.: Maori Forest Lore: Being some Account of Native Forest Lore and Woodcraft, as also of many Myths, Rites, Customs, and Superstitions connected with the Flora and Fauna of the Tuhoe or Ure-wera District.—Part II. ("Transactions" vol.41)
rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_41/rsnz_41_00_003410.pdfwhich has more on the "hakuai"
A Maori proverb was supposedly:
"Pekapeka rere ahiahi, hokioi rere po”
("A bat flies at twilight, a hokioi by night").
What this means is:
- the hokioi is an exclusively North Island legend. It is not based on the eagle but on the hakawai. Any description is fanciful, based on the imagination how a demigod-like bird would have looked like, by people who never had seen a Haast's Eagle. and nearly certainly their ancestors didn't either.
- the hakawai is a South Island legend about a bird that was never seen, only heard. It is indirectly based on the eagle, its extinction must predate the emergence of the hakawai myth as presented (the hokioi myth antedates the hakawai myth in turn; it cannot be much older than say 1500-1600). In fact, the eagle
already being extinct is essential for the hakawai myth to work as it did: a bird that lived high up in the sky, never was seen, only most rarely descended to earth, but when it did it was invariably in dark, damp nights - which incidentially is the time for the snipes' courtship flights - and the call of the hakawai was a bad omen.
To conclude: the hokioi legend is entirely fictional and nothing in it can be assumed to relate to Haast's Eagle (see below). The hakawai legend was based on folk memory of the eagle, which had gone extinct.
As for the pouakai, check
rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/search/results.html?text=pouakai(Nature-lore of the Southern Maori, Sketch of the Traditional History of the South Island Maoris, The Extinction of the Moa, Myths of Observation). Anything that has a place named "the pouakai's nest" where moa bones are strewn about smells of the real deal. The last thing that disappeared of Haast's Eagle's life were the nests (some sites are barely recognizable as what they were even now; eagle nests last for decades if not centuries), and there is no "hokioi nest" whatsoever - indeed, there is no indication of the hokioi's reproduction, but an active eagle's nest is something that one won't forget quickly, from the smell alone. And we're talking about a HUGE eagle's nest here. Where Golden Eagles have rotting rabits strewn about, Haast's Eagle had meter-long moa necks.
Note: that some "facts" about the hokioi seem to fit the eagle is meaningless. There is a loose description of Sauzier's Teal (Anas theodori) in a book titled "The Isle of Pines" by one George Pine, about the adventures of him and his companions on Mauritius. The description is brief, but entirely plausible... unfortunately, the book is a hoax composed by Sir Henry Neville. and the description, no matter how plausible it may seem, is
utter invention.
