Names of Power.

A correspondent writing from Hataitai, Wellington, has asked “Tohunga” to supply him with thirty Maori names with their meanings—“Each word to start with the letter ‘K,’ and be significant of something big, powerful, or an important event. It does not matter whether they are place-names, or of great chiefs, as long as the meaning relates to something important, especially denoting power.”

A rather large contract; however, “Tohunga” obliges with this list of words which are or have been used as personal names, and some of them as place-names, and which will fulfil the conditions specified:

Ka, meaning to burn (ahi-ka-roa is the term for continuously burning home fires or ancestral fires). Kaha, strong. Kaeaea, the sparrowhawk. Kawhaki, to carry away by force. Kaharoa, a large seine or drag-net. Kahu, the hawk; also a chief. Kahukura, the god of the rainbow, or the god whose aria or visible presence is the rainbow. Kahurangi, precious, a prized possession; treasure, also one of the most valuable kinds of greenstone. Kaitaua, warlike, army-destroying. Katoa, all, the whole (Te Ao-katoa, “The Whole World,” was a Ngati-Raukawa chief and tohunga in the King Country). Kanapu, lightning. Kapakapa-nui, repeated great flashes of lightning (there is a “lightning-omen mountain” of this name on the Western side of the Tararua ranges, overlooking Waikanae). Kiharoa, a long sigh or breath (there was a famous chief of that name on the Tauranga coast, and another at Rotorua, and a gigantic warrior named Kiharoa is mentioned in King Country traditions). Koiwi, strength, intensity (also bone). Kokiri, to charge, to dash; also a storming party. Kotiri, a meteor. Kawanga, the tapu-lifting ceremonial for a new carved house. Kotuku, the white heron, symbolical for an honoured guest (when H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester visits New Zealand presently he will be greeted by the Maoris as “Te Kotuku rerenga-tahi,” meaning the rarely-seen guest, the visitor who comes but once, the lone-flying heron). Karawhiu, to whirl about, drive, swing around. Karo, to ward off a blow. Kauhanganui, a council or parliament of tribes. Kaumatua, elder, old chief. Kawau, the shag, cormorant. Kawaumaro, a war-party in fighting formation, ready to charge. Kopu, the planet Jupiter. Kumi, a huge fabulous reptile, a kind of taniwha. Kura, precious, a treasured thing; sacred knowledge, etc. Kumea, to pull, haul away. Koraha, a large open plain. Kauri, the greatest of timber trees. Kopi, shut tightly; a gorge or narrow pass. Kopuwai, a legendary monster who could swallow a river, and whose den was near the exit of the Kawarau River from Lake Wakatipu.