68 Tr ansae tions. — Miscellaneous . 



of the rangiora and so cooked, the leaves being plucked two 

 on a stalk for the wrapping or binding (kopekope) process, 

 which is cleverly done, no tying being necessary. In this 

 style of cooking the eel is cleaned, and the entrails cooked in a 

 small separate kopaki. In the tapora they are not cleaned. 

 To cook in a liangi food wrapped up in leaves is denoted 

 by the generic term konao. 



Eels are preserved for future use by means of drying over 

 a fire termed an ahi rcird tuna. They are split open, cleaned, 

 skinned, the backbone taken out, and the head and end of tail 

 cut off, and then laid on a staging of green sticks over a fire, 

 which dries and half cooks them. They are then packed in 

 baskets in layers (this packing process is termed whakamatd) , 

 or sometimes simply hung up in a shed. These dried eels are 

 cooked in a hangi when required . 



Natives state that eels when in pain, as in being speared t 

 make a peculiar sound (ka keke te waha). 



One Hine-i-wharona is said by the Ngati-Manawa Tribe to 

 be a sort of patron taniwha (demon, monster) of eels. This 

 demon dwells in a lagoon at Te Puta-kotare, near Galatea, or 

 used to do so. The eels which bear the tannvha's mark,, 

 a stripe or band, when caught, must be cooked in a separate 

 oven and eaten by one person only, otherwise luck in eel- 

 fishing will desert the tribe. 



A huge eel which lived in a deep hole of the Whakatane 

 River, at Ruatoki, used to come and help itself from the 

 natives' nets when they were catching upokororo. Another 

 famed great eel was Karitake, at Hana-mahihi ; it was even- 

 tually caught with a large iron hook. Wondrous stories are 

 told of some of these monster eels. 



When in days of yore Tu-tamure and his daughter were 

 crossing a range near Te Wera they fell athirst, whereupon 

 Tu plucked a hair from his leg, and, casting it upon the 

 ground, repeated so potent an invocation that a spring of 

 water at once gushed forth from the spot. This legend is 

 doubtless true, because my informant tells me that the spring 

 still flows, and in it dwells an eel with eight tails. This 

 spring is called Tangiwai andEoto-nui-a-wai. Another version 

 says that it was Tamatea-nukuroa, a Nukutere migrant, who 

 performed the above act, to assuage the thirst of his daughter 

 Rangiwaka. 



A curious custom obtained in regard to eels moving up 

 stream. In order to prevent them from going up beyond the 

 boundaries of the tribal lands a certain rite of the black art 

 was performed, and a material token of the spell or ban was 

 set up at the edge of or in the river, such as a pole. Such a 

 one used to be at Puke-toatoa, on the lower Rangitaiki River. 

 Another was a moving totara log, named Tangi-auraki, a 



