CoLENSO. — Memorabilia of certain Anivial Prodigies. 89 



Bay, and close by the Maori pa (village) Awapuni. One 

 morning there was a great outcry, and a big movenieut of a 

 bodv of natives from the village on to the beach. I went 

 thither to see what was the matter, and I found they had 

 captured a large greyish-blue hairy seal, and this in a peculiar 

 way. Some children were playing on the beach, and they 

 saw at a little distance what they supposed to be a woman 

 asleep on the warm and dry shingle, a short distance above 

 high-water mark. By-and-by they went towards her, when 

 they soon found out their mistake, and immediately raised a 

 cry, not knowing what it was. The chief, Karaitiana,'" who 

 happened to be walking on the beach not far off, ran up and 

 saw the big seal ; and now the creature, alarmed, was scuttling 

 away fast towards the sea. Karaitiana had nothing in his 

 hands with which to bar its progress, while the animal, turn- 

 ing its head from side to side, snapped its jaws fiercely ; so he 

 threw himself down flat on the beach" and grasped the seal 

 with his two hands just above the tail and held on firmly, 

 and, being a tall and stout man, the seal could not draw him 

 along the beach, but in its exertions threw up stones and 

 gravel with its flippers, and knocked Karaitiana about pretty 

 considerably. In a little while, however, other Maoris came 

 running up to the spot armed with axes, hatchets, and clubs, 

 and soon put an end to the struggle, carrying oS the seal in 

 triumph to their village ; and some time after, while the earth- 

 ovens were being prepared for cooking the animal, I was 

 astonished at seeing its jaws open and snap loudly several 

 times, although its skull had been broken into with axes and 

 brains protruding, the head not yet being severed from the 

 body. I was also struck with the appearance of its large and 

 formidable 3-cuspidate molar teeth in both jaws, which also 

 regularly locked into each other. I obtained the head as my 

 perquisite, and buried it in my garden pro tern, as a step 

 towards preserving the bones ; but long after, when I fre- 

 quently sought it, after submerging floods, I never could find it. 

 On several occasions I have had the dried skins of these 

 animals (taken on the outer coast, as at Waimarama, near 

 Cape Kidnappers, and further south) brought to me for sale, 

 but, not having any use for them, I only purchased one. They 

 were all nearly alike in general appearance as to size, hairi- 

 ness, and colour of their hair, quite dry and hard, having been 

 carefully flayed from the animal, and stretched out and dried 

 on a hollow frame of sticks, according to the ancient Maori 

 manner of drying their dog and other skins. Of course, they 

 were all captured by the Maoris when on shore. 



* Karaitiana, in after years, became an elected Maori member of the 

 House of Representatives. 



