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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 3 (June 1, 1934.)

[section]

In the great store of proverbial sayings embodied in Maori literature, written and unwritten, there are many expressions peculiar to certain districts; of these are the olden pepeha or local slogans, which may often be heard to-day when ceremonious speeches are made. The following are additional examples of proverbs in general use given in this section of the magazine; these are some typical sayings:—

Ki te hamama popoia te tangata, e kore e mau te ika. (If a man yawns when he is fishing he will not catch any fish. If a person wearies of his work it will never be completed.)

Ehara he urunga tangata, he urunga pahekeheke. (Do not lean upon man, he is a pillow that slips; unreliable.)

Mata rere puku, rite tonu ki te makutu, mata rakau, e taea te karo. (A bullet strikes unseen, like a curse of witchcraft; a blow from a wooden weapon can be parried.)

I kinitia i roto i te matikuku pango. (It was pinched within the black end of the finger nail; a saying for a narrow escape from death or capture. Te Kooti quoted this saying when he met his old adversary, Captain Gilbert Mair, at Matata, after the war, in allusion to his narrow escape from Mair's shots in the Urewera Country in 1871.)