Beattie. — Nature-lore of the Southern Maori. 53 



Art. XIII. — Nature-lore of the- Southern Maori. 



By H. Beattie. 

 Communicated by H. D. Skinner. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 9th December, 1910 ; received by Editor, 31st December, 



1919 ; issued separately, 4th June, 1920.] 



In collecting the traditions and place-names of the Maori of Otago and 

 Southland I have gathered a great mass of information, some of which 

 has recently been published elsewhere. There remains, however, a con- 

 siderable quantity of material which has never been printed, and some of 

 this relating to nature may be of interest. It must be understood that 

 I am not trying to deal exhaustively with the various phases of this 

 extensive subject, but simply to record what the southern Maori have 

 occasionally said to me about it. The Maori gave me some nine hundred 

 place-names hitherto unrecorded by the pakeha, and it was while giving 

 these names that they mentioned tjie following facts. Where the terms 

 " North " and " South " are used, reference is made to the districts north or 

 south of Timaru, Canterbury. 



The Kanakana, or Lamprey. 



The general name for the lamprey is piharau in the North and kayia- 

 kana in the South. One of my informants said that there are at least 

 four different kinds of kanakana, or, if counted as all one species, the 

 Maori had names for them at four separate stages or at different sizes. 

 These names are — (1) Te-ika-tiikituki-wai ; (2) te-ika-totoe-ivai ; (3) matua- 

 iwi-papaho ; (4) te ru. Some rivers might have all four kinds, and other 

 rivers fewer. They went up certain rivers only, and they shunned others 

 ,for no apparent reason ; but evidently something in the water, either in 

 taste or in plant or animal life, or in .the situation of rocks, &c., attracted 

 or repelled them. My informant added that the kanakana 'would not 

 come up the Karoro Creek, but swarmed up the Molyneux River, whose 

 mouth is about two miles distant. They proceed up the rivers until 

 they find their passage barred by rocks, and to these rocks they cling with 

 their sucker-like mouths and are easily caught. One of my informants 

 combated the statement that the kanakana lived on whitebait, saying that 

 its food was the kohuwai, a green mossy growth which adheres to the rocks. 



The most famous of the spots where the Maori assembled every October 

 and November to catch the lampreys was Te Au-nui (Mataura Falls). 

 Only certain hapti (families) had the right to fish there, and each familv 

 had a strictly defined pa (fishing spot), the right to which had been handed 

 down from their ancestors. The names of some of these pa were (1) Wai- 

 kana, (2) 0-te-hakihaki, (3) Rerepari, (4) Mataniho-o-Hukou, (5) Mupuke- 

 a-Rahui (6) Otautari. The names of the others are forgotten. 



The falls on the Pomahaka River named Opurere were also a celebrated 

 kanakana fi.shery. An old man tells me that the people used to go there 

 every October and November, and after catching all they could they 

 would return to their homes to plant potatoes. There were six pa 

 (fishing-allotments) at Opurere, and, beginning from the south side, the 

 names were (1) Mataniho-o-Muka, (2) Tu-kutu-tahi, (3) Te-awa-inaka, 

 (4) Patu-moana (this is a small island), (5) Rau-tawhiri, (6) Te Rerewa. 



