90 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



As seals are known by us to be of gregarious habits, a 

 peculiar proverbial saying of the ancient Maoris respecting 

 these animals may be fitly adduced here as showing their also 

 having had some knowledge of that kind: " Na to tamahine 

 kapai i takina viai ai tend kekeno ki konei "=" It was thy ex- 

 ceedingly pretty and willing daughter which drew this seal to 

 land here." "This speaks for itself, and would be doubly suit- 

 able for such a chief to say coming by sea — along the coast : 

 in the olden times nearly all peaceful visits w^ere made by 

 water." " N.B. — The verb taki (pass, takina), here used, 

 means to forcibly draw a captured fish to land out of the 

 water."''' 



To return to the taniwha, or ngaraya (water-monster), or 

 crocodile and dragon : During my long residence in this 

 country (now considerably more than half a century) I have 

 repeatedly heard from old Maoris of somewhat similar, though 

 much more marvellous, occurrences ; I have also been shown 

 the lairs and "bones" (calcitc), and the remains and signs 

 of the wonderful doings of such monstrous creatures = nga- 

 taniivha (in the big slips of earth from the hill- and moun- 

 tain-sides, caused by their sudden throes and emergence from 

 beneath or within the solid earth) ; but of the creatures them- 

 selves I have found nothing, not even the slightest remains. 



And here, I think, I may properly call your attention to 

 those transcendent Maori stories and legends of the olden 

 time, in which the taking and destroying of several huge and 

 hideous animals of tbe reptilian class and of the saurian (or 

 crocodile) order by some of their valorous and skilful ancestors 

 is graphically and clearly related. To them I would refer you, 

 my audience, this night ; I have faithfully translated them, 

 and you will find them recorded in the Transactions of our 

 Institute f ; and I assure you they are well worthy your perusal, 

 and in reading them it should ever be borne in mind that the 

 Maoris firmly believed in their truth ; hence, too, it was that 

 they did not care to venture into strange, unfrequented places, 

 from fear of those immense ngarara infesting them : this is 

 nicely shown by Dieffenbach, in his quaint relation of the 

 opposition made by the Maoris against his ascendmg Mount 

 Egmont, lest he should be destroyed by the ngararas.\ 



But, while those ancient Maori stories partake so very 

 largely of the marvellous, and are also mere relations, orally 

 handed down from generation to generation — 



Till their own tales at length deceive 'em, 

 And oft repeating they believe 'em§ 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xii, p. 144. : " Maori Proverbs," No. 207. 



t Vol. xi., pp. 82-100. 



X Dieffenbach's "New Zealand," vol. i., p. 140. 



§ Prior. 



