Tkegeak. — Myths of Observation. 589 



underneath. In the Chinese Encyclopaedia of Kang-hi 

 it is described as like " a rat in shape, but as big as an 

 elephant ; it dwells in dark caverns, and shuns the light." 

 Ehinoceros horns brought to Europe by ancient travellers 

 were supposed to be claws of griffins, those great four-footed 

 birds with claws like lions, spoken of by Herodotus and 

 Ctesias. The Siberians also think that the fossil horns of 

 the rhinoceros are the claws of an enormous bird, and thence 

 has grown a myth that monstrous birds in olden times fought 

 with the ancestors of men. " One story tells how the country 

 was wasted by one of them, till a wise man fixed a pointed 

 iron spear on the top of a pine-tree, and the bird alighted 

 there and skewered itself upon the lance."* This legend 

 is especially interesting, because it suggests the origin of some 

 of our New Zealand stories concerning the great man-eating 

 bird. The Eev. Mr. Stack relates a legend from the South 

 Island, stating that a gigantic bird of prey had " built its nest 

 on a spur of Mount Tarawera, and, darting down from thence, 

 it seized and carried off men, women, and children, as food 

 for itself and its young ; for, though its wings made a loud 

 noise as it flew through the air, it rushed with such rapidity 

 upon its prey that none could escape from its talons. At 

 length a brave man called Te Hau-o-Tawera came on a visit 

 to the neighbourhood, and finding that the people were being 

 destroyed, and that they were so paralysed with fear as to be 

 incapable of adopting any means for their own protection, 

 he volunteered to capture and kill this rapacious bird, pro- 

 vided they would do what he told them. This they willingly 

 promised, and, having procured a quantity of manuka sap- 

 lings, he went one night with fifty men to the foot of the hill, 

 where there was a pool 60ft. in diameter. This he com- 

 pletely covered over with a network of saplings, and under 

 this he placed fifty armed men armed with spears and thrust- 

 ing-weapons, while he himself, as soon as it was light, went 

 out to lure the pouakai from its nest. He did not go far 

 before that destroyer espied him, and swooped down upon 

 him. Hautere had now to run for his life, and just suc- 

 ceeded in reaching the shelter of the network when the 

 bird pounced upon him, and, in its violent efforts to reach 

 its prey, forced its legs through the meshes, and, becom- 

 ing entangled, the fifty men plunged their spears into its 

 body, and, after a desperate encounter, succeeded in kill- 

 ing it.' 't White also relates that the fairy people, the 

 Nuku-mai-tore, were greatly troubled by the visits of a huge 

 flesh -eating bird. It was killed by the hero Pungarehu; 



* Tylor's " Early History of Mankind," p. 310. Sc&sS CA / X 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. x., p. G4. ..^^ A 



luu ! L I B R 



