Clothes maketh the man
A Ngāti Kahungunu story tells how a warrior party waited for their chief, Tamaterangi, to recite an incantation before they set off. When the chief did not move, his younger brother Makoro then asked him to stand and perform the rite. Tamaterangi’s reply has become a proverb, ‘He ao te rangi ka uhia a ma te huruhuru te manu ka rere ai’ (It requires clouds to clothe heaven and feathers to make a bird fly). Makoro understood that his brother felt he did not have clothing befitting this ceremony, so he took off his own cloak to place on him.