54 Transactions. 



Other places at which kanakana might be caught were Te Rere-o-Kaihiku 

 (Kaihiku Falls), Hehetu a small fall where the Orawia runs into the 

 Waiau, Waipapa-o-Karetai, on the Silverstream, and elsewhere. 



It must not be thought that persons entitled to take the lampreys from 

 a certain section of rock could proceed to do so at haphazard. It was a 

 matter that had to be gone about with karakia (incantations) and due 

 observance of time-honoured customs. Each of the falls was protected 

 bv a guardian taepo* (spectre), and if a person offended against- tradition, 

 woe betide him. The taepo of the Mataura Falls was a magic dog. It was 

 explained to me as a rock which stuck out of the water about where the 

 Mataura Freezing- works are, and, although it looked like a rock at ordinary- 

 times, to one who was guilty of desecration it would miraculously change, 

 and appear as an ogre possessing a dog's head, paws, and body, but with 

 a fish's tail. The luckless wight who saw it thus was doomed to disaster 

 unless he could invoke powerful charms to ward off the evil. 



The taepo of the Pomahaka Falls was also an uncanny thing to provoke. 

 It frequented the tiny island known as Patu-moana, and took the shape 

 of a giant eel. These spectres did not trouble those who proceeded to 

 take the kanakana in the correct manner as prescribed by ancestral usage. 



To supplement what the Maori told me about the kanakana, I may add 

 that the late Mr. N. Chalmers, of Fiji, wi'iting to me in 1910, said, "" I 

 reached Tuturau in September, 1853. This was in the kanakana season, 

 and I was much interested in the way in which the Natives caught the 

 lampreys. On the top of the falls there are — or were at that time — three 

 large potholes about 6 ft. deep, and full of stones. These were cleared 

 out and strong stakes put in each ; then as the kanakana came crawling 

 up and .clinging to the rocky wall of the falls the Maori, leaning on the 

 stakes, reached out their hands and, grasping the fish, put them in the 

 korari eel-pots handy. It took them only about ten minutes to fill one 

 pot, when another took its place. The superstition of the Maori is very 

 marked, for Reko told me that if an enemy or any one threw a firestick 

 into the falls, then the kanakana would desert the locality ; so, needless to 

 say, I was very careful to avoid hurting their feelings. . , . When 

 I was at Hokanui in 1858 I had a stockman called George, a Sussex man, 

 who came to the house one afternoon with a face as white as a sheet and 

 swearing he had seen an eel at least a mule long at the Longford (now Gore). 

 I. got on my horse and went with him, and when I saw the phenomenon I 

 was not surprised at his statement ; for I saw a colunan of kanakana more 

 than a mile long, swimming in a round mass exactly like a large eel, so 

 beautifully were they keeping a circular shape." Mr. F. L. Mieville, who 

 stayed at Tuturau in 1854, writes, " The natives were very good to us 

 and supplied us with potatoes, also kanakanas much resembling leather 

 with a strong flavour of train-oil — they were dried and very hard." 



The Maori Dog. 

 The question of who introduced the Maori -dog to New Zealand has 

 aroused discussion at various times. Maori tradition says that some of 

 the canoes which came here from Hawaiki a.d. 1350 brought dogs ; but 

 some people consider that the inhabitants of New Zealand before that 

 time had dogs. Thus in the story of Kopuwai (one of the oldest legends 

 in the South Island annals — it must be much over a thousand years 



* V 



taijM. Williams says taepo is not used by the Maori. — Ed. 



