Beattie. — Nature-lore of the Southern Maori. 55 



old) we are tx)ld he had a pack of ten two-headed dogs. Be that as it may, 

 we know that when the pakeha came to New Zealand they found Maori 

 dogs extant. In Otago and Southland these dogs roamed the interior, 

 living on the countless flocks of native birds that thronged everywhere. 

 The animals made inroads into the runholders' flocks and were hunted 

 down and exterminated. Some white men considered that these dogs 

 were descendants of ones liberated by Captain Cook or of those that had 

 got away fronq. the whalers, but there is no doubt whatever that they were 

 genuine Maori dogs. They had woolly hair, sharp-pointed noses, pointed 

 ears, and never barked, the noise they made being a long, melancholy howl. 

 According to European observers, some of these dogs were pure white, others 

 black-and-white, arid others fawn. The Maori called them kuri, and several 

 places in Otago and on Stewart Island bear names reminiscent of these 

 animals. Asked concerning these dogs, two of the old Maori said the 

 huri was usually of a black-and-white colour, and another old man said 

 they were often reddish -tan. One said, " It had long hair, a bushy tail, 

 a short, sharp nose, and a small head. They were very wary, but could 

 be caught by tying up a bitch (uha) and leaving it, when the wild ones 

 would come round it. These dogs were in New Zealand long before 

 Captain Cook came, as our traditions show ; but when they began to run 

 wild I cannot say." 



Another said, " The kuri was the Maori dog. The reason why one lot 

 of Maori came to New Zealand was because some of them who were not 

 high-class people stole a dog and dte it. Through this they were forced 

 to leave Hawaiki. Before the pakeha came our people used to sometimes 

 castrate (ivhakapoka) these dogs and then fatten and eat them. They 

 had long hair, and their skins made fine mats called tr>pu7ii, and rugs. When 



1 was a boy I remember a fine kuri belonging to a native called Koati in 

 Westland. It had a big body and short legs A man named McDonald 

 bought it as a curio for £2 ; but he tied it up and it jumped the fence and 

 was strangled." 



Another said, " I never heard how the kuri came to New Zealand. 

 The skins were cut into strips and made into rugs. I once saw a kakahu 

 (garment) made of them — it was a taniko cloak. Its colour was white 

 and black, and some of the hair had been stained red with dye from a 

 tree like the miro but whose name I forget." 



A shepherd speaking of wild dogs on Knapdale Run in 1858 said, 

 " A family of red ones seemed to frequent the lower flat, while those on the 

 upper flat were yellow." 



The question of the kuri, or Maori dog,. still requires much investigation. 



Lizards and Tuatara. 



Having read that the Maori had a superstitious awe of lizards, I asked 

 about them, but got little satisfaction. One old man said, " I know three 

 kinds of lizards. The one which lives in the cracks in rocks is karara- 

 papani, the greenish one is called kakariki, and the common one is karara- 

 toro-pakihi. I know nothing of the tuatara." Another said, " The kind 

 of lizard known as mokakdriki was perhaps so called because its colour was 

 like the plumage of a parrakeet. The general name was karara. I have 

 never seen or heard of tuatara down here, but I have seen a lizard about 



2 ft. long. It was on top of one of the Hokanui Hills and, because I had 

 had a bad dream the night before, I killed the karara with a big stone, lit 

 a fire, and burnt it. It was the biggest lizard I ever saw. A wise old 



