192 Transactions. 



of these birds are albinos, and are tipua, inasmuch as they 

 give notice of the fruitfulness or otherwise of the approaching 

 season. When a person who has an ancestral right to those 

 lands enters the forest thereof he knows whether or not it will 

 be a plentiful season. If when he commences to set his snares 

 those two white owls appear, that is a sign that it will be a tau 

 kai, or fruitful season. If when the first-snared bird is taken 

 and prepared the owls have not appeared, then it is known 

 that a tau hiroki, a lean season, is at hand. 



The place from which the Wairau district of Wai-kare Moana 

 derived its name was a pond or small lake. This pond was a 

 tipua. Around it were many fine trees, much frequented by 

 birds, and on which quantities were snared. Even the hiwi 

 (permanently fixed rods on which the poles with set snares are 

 suspended) on those trees were adorned with carving. Once 

 upon a time a chief engaged in bird-snaring at that place told 

 his wife to be very careful to never pass before him when carry- 

 ing food. Unfortunately she did so on one occasion, with the 

 result that no one has ever been able to find that lakelet since ; 

 both it and the prolific trees adjacent thereto have passed from 

 human ken. The term tipua is sometimes applied to fairies and 

 other forest- or mountain-dwelling beings supposed to possess 

 strange powers. 



Many of the rocks which stand in the entrance to the Whaka- 

 tane River, inside the bar, are tipua. The names of those 

 rocks are Arai-awa, Toka-mauku, Toka-roa, Himoki, Hoaki. 

 and Ira-kewa. 



Uruuru Whenua. 

 The custom known as uruuru whenua, or " entering the 

 Land," is a peculiar one. Scattered about the tribal lands are 

 certain trees, stones, &c, which are viewed as though they 

 represented the spirits of the land, which must be placated by 

 all persons who pass by such tree or stone for the first time, if 

 not on every occasion. The ceremony is but brief. The way- 

 farer plucks a branchlet, or frond of fern, or handful of grass, 

 and casts it down at the base of the tree or rock, repeating at 

 the same time a brief charm, such as, — 



Tuhituhi o tauhou 



Mau e kai te manawa o tauhou 



\\ li.ikapii-i ki tautohito. 



This performance is evidently to placate the spirits of the land, 

 and is performed at many of the tipua trees, &c. described above. 

 It was absolutely necessary for a person to do this when passing 

 such a place for the first time, or trouble would be his lot. After 

 the first passage it did not matter so much, but still the offering 

 -<M us to have generally been made. If travellers were overtaken 



