18 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Ah ! this animal Mokoroa has 

 Thrust his teeth into my flesh, and 

 Grasped my body with his numerous 

 Teeth, and thus I am being eaten up. 

 The pain that wracks mv body is like 

 An army passing on, each wounding 

 As he passes. 



Aye, there's little 

 Hope of my recovery ; I'm hastening to the dust 

 To appease the gods, who haunt my spirit hence. 



If a traveller should see a lizard in the path before him, 

 he would know the creature did not come there of its own 

 accord, but had been pent by an enemy as an aitua (evil 

 omen) for him to cause his death. He therefore at once 

 kills the reptile, and gets a woman to step over it as it lies in 

 the path. By this means the evil omen is averted. And 

 he will also probably try to find out who sent this dread 

 object to bring sickness or death to him. Then he will say, 

 " May so-and-so eat you ' Thus he will transfer the aitui 

 ■to that person so named. 



Eipia, the grandmother of the grand old chief Patuone, 

 who died at Auckland in 1872, had a child stillborn, to whom 

 was given the name Te Tuhi. He frequently troubled his 

 tribe, appearing to them in the form of a lizard. His visita- 

 tions caused great dismay, and many members of the tribe 

 fell victims to his supernatural power. Tapua, the priesl 

 ottered prayers, and various incantations and divinations were 

 resorted to in the hope of laying the troublesome spirit. It is 

 stated that Patuone was urged repeatedly by the lizard spirit 

 to become the medium of communication between the beings 

 of the two worlds, but no amount of persuasion could induce 

 Patuone to become the medium of the atua, and in process 

 of time Te Tuhi's ghost discontinued to trouble his earthly 

 friendsA 



The Urewera natives thus account for their dread of 

 lizards: Puuga, the parent of all lizards, spiders, insects, &c, 

 was also the origin of the ktimukuma (gurnard), winch elected 

 to take up its abode m the ocean. As it went to the ocean 

 fchi lizard sons of Punga said, -'Soon we shall hear of you 

 being roasted at a common tire." Said the fatmukumu, "Ere 

 long I shall hear of you being roasted in a fern fire." "Not 

 so," replied the lizards, " for all will fear our ugly appear- 

 ance." Hence, for all time, men have feared to look upon 

 ill" lizard. 



The aria, or form of incarnation of Taniarau. the Tuhoe 

 chief, is a lizard Known as the leueo. which resides in a ti tree 

 at Rua-toki. It is the size of a tuatara, and bears whitish 

 marks. Should any one approach its resting-place a loud 



* " The Life and Times of Patuone," C. 0. Davis, 1876, p. 15. 



