T. H. Smith. — On Maori Im^plements and Weapons. 427 



There is a legend told as to how the art of net-making 

 became known to the Maori people : it was obtained or sur- 

 prised from the patupaiarehe, or fairies. The legend is to be 

 found at page 178, Sir G. Grey's " Polynesian Mythology " 

 (1858 edition). 



" Once upon a time a man of the name of Kahukura wished 

 to pay a visit to Eangiaowhia, a place lying far to the north- 

 ward, near the country of the tribe called Te Earawa. Whilst 

 he lived at his own village he was continually haunted by a 

 desire to visit that place. At length he started on his journey 

 and reached Eangiaowhia, and as he was on his road he 

 passed a place where some people had been cleaning mackerel, 

 and he saw the inside of the fish lying all about the sand on the 

 sea-shore. Surprised at this, he looked about at the marks, 

 and said to himself, ' Oh ! this must have been done by some 

 of the people of the district.' But when he came to look a 

 little more narrowly at the footmarks he saw that the people 

 who had been fishing had made them in the night-time, not 

 that morning nor in that day ; and he said to himself, ' These 

 are no mortals who have been fishing here — spirits must have 

 done this ; had they been men some of the reeds and grass 

 which they sat on in their canoe would have been lying about.' 

 He felt sure, from several circumstances, that spirits or fairies 

 had been there ; and, after observing everything well, he re- 

 turned to the house where he was stopping. He, however, 

 held fast in his heart what he had seen, as something very 

 striking to tell all his friends in every direction, and as likely 

 to be the means of gaining knowledge which might enable him 

 to find out something new. So that night he returned to the 

 place where he had seen all these things ; and just as he 

 reached the spot back had come the fairies too to haul their 

 net for mackerel; and some of them were shouting out, ' The net 

 here ! The net here ! ' Then a canoe paddled off to fetch the 

 other one in which the net was laid ; and as they dropped the 

 net into the water they began to cry out, ' Drop the net in 

 the sea at Eangiaowhia, and haul it at Mamaku ! ' These 

 words were sung out by the fairies as an encouragement in 

 their work, and from the joy of their hearts at their sport in 

 fishing. As the fairies were dragging the net to the shore 

 Kahukura managed to mix amongst them, and hauled away 

 at the rope. He happened to be a very fair man, so that his 

 skin was almost as white as that of these fairies, and from 

 that cause he was not observed by them. As the net came 

 close in to the shore the fairies began to cheer and shout, ' Go 

 out into the sea, some of you, in front of the rock, lest the 

 nets should be entangled in Tawatawa-uia-a-Tevv-etewe-uia ! ' 

 for that was the name of a rugged rock standing out from the 

 sandy shore. The main body of the fairies kept hauling at 



