Best. — Maori Forest Lore. 197 



song has been preserved by our people even unto the present 

 day. I think you had better write that song down, that you 

 may know what the songs of those wild folk are like." 



The patu-parehe, or patu-paiarehe, were another mythical 

 folk. They were supposed to enter houses at night and to 

 smite the people sleeping therein nigh unto death. The Maori 

 was apparently not aware of the evil effects of charcoal fires in 

 carefully closed earth-covered huts. 



The tutumaiao were weird-looking creatures seen on sandy 

 ocean-beaches by travellers. They looked like spirits of human 

 beings, and disappeared as the observer approached. 



In Maori myths dealing with ancient times, prior to the 

 colonising of New Zealand by the Polynesians, we often en- 

 counter the names of certain fairies, or forest folk, known as 

 Te Tini o te Hakuturi and Te Tini o te Mahoihoi. They appeared 

 to be guardians of the forest, and, in such legends as that of 

 Rata, they carefully guard and uphold the rights of Tane. In 

 several of these old legends a person goes into the forest to fell 

 a canoe, and neglects to perform the necessary rites to take the 

 tapu of Tane off the tree, or fells a tree that is the emblem of, 

 or peculiarly sacred to, Tane. Hence, when he returns to his 

 work in the morning he finds that the above-named forest folk 

 have caused his tree to stand upright on its stump once more, 

 and there he finds it growing as sturdily as of yore. The work- 

 man encounters the forest folk, and explains his dilemma, 

 whereupon they tell him that he has neglected the necessary 

 rites to placate Tane and take the tapu off the tree. After 

 this is done the fairy folk goodnaturedly make the desired canoe 

 themselves and hand it over to the erring woodsman. 



In the story of the making of the Matatua canoe, Toroa 

 seeks advice from Hine-tua-hoanga, who tells him to bring to her 

 the first chips of Tane-mahuta — that is, of the tree, for it was 

 over the first chips cut out by the axe that the ahi purakau rite 

 was performed. Toroa neglects to do so, hence the fairies 

 re-erect his tree. He returns to Hine for advice, and she sends 

 him to one Tuhoro-punga, who says, " Take the girdle from my 

 waist, and, when you fell your tree again, attach it to the trunk 

 thereof." Toroa does so, and the Hakuturi folk demur not, but 

 make his canoe for him. 



" Young man," said an old Native to me, " Let me tell you 

 something you do not know — the story about a certain tree. 

 That tree is the totara. All the trees of the forest assembled 

 once upon a time and discussed the matter as to whose legs 

 (limbs) would reach unto their ancestor, Rangi (the sky). The 

 totara persisted that his legs would reach to the sky. The rimu 

 said No, his were legs that would reach. The maire said his; 



