Taramoa, Tātara-a-moa

Rubus australis. R. cissoides & R. schmidelioides "Bush lawyer" (Rosaceae)

ETYMOLOGY:
From Proto Polynesian *Tara-qa-moa, Caesalpinia sp., esp. C. bonduc (Caesalpinaceae)

COGNATE WORDS IN SOME OTHER POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES
Tongan: talatala'āmoa (Caesalpinia bonduc, Caesalpinaceae)
Niuean: talamoa (Caesalpinia major, Caesalpinaceae; Achyranthes aspera "Devil's horsewhip", Amaranthaceae)
West Futuna: taramoa, " bramble"
Hawaiian: ['ākala (Rubus hawaiensis & R. macraei, Rosaceae); kākalaioa (Caesalpinia bonduc, Caesalpinaceae)]
Tahitian: tataraamoa (Caesalpinia bonduc,Caesalpinaceae)
Rarotongan: tātarāmoa (Caesalpinia major, Caesalpinaceae)

RELATED MĀORI PLANT NAMES
Tōtara, the Tahitian name for a puffer fish, is the name given in Aotearoa to a tree (Podocarpus totara) with spine-like leaves. Like taramoa and the alternative forms listed below, this name also incorporates the Proto-Polynesian root *tara, "spike, spine, sharp protruberance".

ALTERNATIVE MĀORI PLANT NAMES
Akatātaramoa, a generic name for all Aotearoa native Rubus species, the "bush lawyers", stressing their vine-like attributes.
Tātaramoa-turuhunga, another alternative generic name, in reference to the abundance of fruit the plants produce in due season, which are highly palatable to birds and appreciated too by people. "Turuhunga" is a term applied to a plant, especially a tree, with fruit on which birds will feast until they get very fat.
Taraheke, tātaraheke, alternative names for Rubus australis and R. cissoides.

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Tātara-a-Moa in poetry and proverbs
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There are varying reports about taste of the fruit (some people find it generally a little on the tart side), but it is certainly edible, and was made into jam by the early European settlers. There is a recipe in Andrew Crowe's Field Guide. The stems of the vine yield a liquid which is very pleasant to drink. Most species flourish best within the shelter of a forest habitat; in the open, Rubus cissoides assumes the form of a tangled mass of brambles with the leaves reduced to bare midribs, and does not flower. In a favourable environment it will produce large panicles of heavily scented flowers, as in the illustration on the left, and abundant fruit (hence the epiphet turuhunga). The species differ from each other in habit, although they are all well-equipped with hooked spikes to provide secure anchorage; it is these which are responsible for the English name for the plants -- "bush lawyers". R. parvus does not climb, forming instead an impressive but well-spiked ground cover, R. australis is a vigorous climber from the outset with the largest leaves and most profuse flowering habit; R. schimelioides doesn't become a serious climber until the final adult stage, but R. cissoides is superbly equipped for climbing from the outset, with its multi-spiked leaves and well as stems. The juvenile form of R. squarrosus is like the exposed form of R. cissoides -- a tangled mass of prickly stems with bare midribs for leaves. The leaves reappear when the forest canopy is reached and the plant matures. Rubus cissoides has the stoutest stems of all the Aotearoan species, up to 10 cm or more in diameter.

Rubus schimelioides and R. cissoides have red hooks; those of R. squarrosus are yellow. In addition to being annoying as well as painful if your skin comes directly into contact with them, these hooks may also be dangerous. According to Alan Clark (The Great Sacred forest of Tāne, p. 183), "several people have died from contact with its grim barbs, perhaps because they were alergic to it". Medicinally, its leaves and stems seem to have featured in remedies for a variety of ills, from upset stomachs to toothaches.

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Tātara-a-Moa in poetry and proverbs
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Tātara-a-Moa in poetry and proverbs.

The theme of tātarāmoa as representative of formidable obstacles is echoed in poetry and proverbs. In "He tangi mō Te Karae" (NM #89), a lament by the Ngati Ruanui chief Tarawha for the death of his son, Te Karae, in a battle with the Taranaki iwi around the turn of the 18th Century, the tātarāmoa symbolizes the obstacles that prevented the father's avenging his son's death. According to the notes accompanying the song, there is another plant reference in the verse quoted, the matuku, a club moss (Lycopodium sp.), symbolic of danger when pointed to by a rainbow.

Moe mai, e tama, te moenga mātao;
Kia moe atu au te moenga i āhuru.
E kore e puta atu,
I runga te tūturihunga,
I roto te tātarāmoa,
Ngā heihei o Matuku.
[Sleep on, O son, on a cold couch;
Whilst I do lie on a couch so warm.
Unable, alas, to come to your aid
Because of crouching hostile foes,
Among the prickly thickets,
And the entangling shrubs of Matuku.] NM #89, Vol 1, pp. 404-5.

After rain has passed by and and the rainbow has appeared by the margin of swampy land, it indicates the place where it will be found growing. It is a sign that there are difficulties and dangers in the way. (NM Vol 1, pp. 406-407)

This is an interesting take on the ambiguity of the word "matuku", which also denotes an avian denizen of the swamp, the bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus). These birds are known as "ngā heihei o Matuku-tangotango", (the hens of Matuku-tangotango, the demonic being who killed Wahieroa's father, and is later snared and killed by Wahieroa's son, the culture hero Rata, whereupon he turned into a bittern). This too is a metaphor for well-concealed enemies lying in wait. Combined with the "prickly thickets" of tātarāmoa, the difficulties would be insuperable.

The proverbial reference in the compilation by Hirini Moko Mead and Neil Grove is indirect, but underlines the association of tātarāmoa with other obstructions to easy passage which reappears also in Biblical translations:

Ngā taero o Kupe, e, ngā rōrī o te whare o Uenuku.
[The obstructions which Kupe found were the knots which Uenuku used to fasten his door.] (M&G #2043, p. 329.)

... is understood to refer to the supplejacks (kareao), brambles or bush lawyer (tātarāmoa), spear grass (tūmatakuru), and stinging nettles (ongaonga) which made overland travel so difficult when Kupe arrived. They are now understood to symbolise mental difficulties and obstructions. (Ibid.)

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Tātara-a-Moa in Biblical translations.

He tataramoa ano hoki, he tumtakuru ana e whakatupuake ai mau; a ka kai koe i te otaota o te parae. (Kenehi 3:18)
Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. (Genesis 3:18 NRSV)

Kahore hoki he tataramoa ngau a muri ake ki te whare o Iharaira, kahore he tumatakuru whakamaemae a te hunga katoa i tetahi taha o ratou, i tetahi taha, a te hunga ra i whakahawea ki a ratou ....
The House of Israel shall no longer find a pricking brier or a piercing thorn among all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt ....

Mo reira tenei ahau te tutaki nei i tou ara ki te tataramoa, te hanga nei i te taiepa e kore ai ia e kite i ona ara. (PT Hohea 2:6)
Therefore I will hedge her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. (NRSV)

Nā ka mea ngā rākau katoa ki te taraheke, Haere mai hei kingi mō mātou. (PT Kaiwhakariterite 9:14)
So all the trees said to the bramble, "You come and reign over us." (NRSV Judges 9:14)

A nā ka oti tētahi karauna tatarāmoa te whiri, ka pōtaea ki tōna matenga, me te kākaho ki tōna ringa matau .... PT Matiu:27:29
And after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand .... (NRSV, Matthew 27:29)

He tataramoa i mua, ka puta ake he kauri; he tumatakuru i mua, ka puta ake he ramarama .... (PT Ihaia 55:13)
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle .... (NRSV Isaiah 55:13)
E tupu ae le perosi e sui a'i le laau tuitui; e tupu le atasi e sui a'i le ogogo .... (TP Isaia 55:13)

There are four sets of species sometimes translated by tātarāmoa, and at other times by tūmatakuru. There is a lot of semantic overlap in many of the Biblical names -- the particular species designated can often be identified only through knowledge of the environment in which the plant referred to is likely to have been growing, and the era in which the particular passage of scripture was written. Often the plant names are simply symbolic -- of obstacles and misfortunes, in the case of these thorny plants. The four sets of plants with names translated occasionally by tātarāmoa are:

(1) Three species of thistles collectively called barkarim -- the Syrian thistle, Notobasis syriaca (pictured on the right), the globe thistle (Echinops viscosus),  and the Holy Thistle, Silybum marianum, all members of the daisy family, Asteraceae, a.k.a. the Compositae. One or all of these may be the "thorns" referred to in the English version of this verse:

Na ka mea a Kiriona, mo reira kia homai e Ihowa a Tepa raua ko Taramuna ki toku ringa, ka haehaea e ahau o koutou kikokiko ki nga tataramoa o te koraha, ki te tumatakuru. (Kaiwhakariterite 8:7)
Gideon replied, 'Well then, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I shall trample your flesh on the thorns of the wilderness, and on briers.' (NRSV Judges 8:7)

(2) The Grey Nightshade, Solanum incanum (Solanaceae; Hebrew hedek, photograph on left), another thorny hedge plant used to keep out stray animals and unauthorized fruit pickers. This word occurs twice in the Bible, in the quoted passage, and in the Book of Micah.

Ko te ara o te tangata mangere, ano he taiepa tataramoa; he ara nui ia to te tangata tika. (PT Whakatauaki 15:19)
The way of the lazy is overgrown with thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway. (NRSV Proverbs 15:19)

Ki te mea i kainga e ahau ona hua, he mea kihai i utua, a naku ranei ona ariki i mate ai, na, kia riro pu te witi i te tataramoa, te parei i te taro kino. (PT Hopa 31:39-40)
If I have eaten its yield without payment, and caused the death of its owners: let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley. (NRSV)

He tataramoa, he mahanga kei te ara o te whanoke; ko te tangata ia e tiaki ana i tona wairua, ka matara atu i ena. (PT Whakatauaki 22:5)
Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; the cautious will keep far from them. (NRSV)

Tātarāmoa thus stands in for a considerable variety of thorny plants in Biblical translations, but conveys well the overall impression intended by the text, an excellent example of a name with a specific referent being used for a more general purpose.

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