428 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



the net, and Kahnkura pulled away in the midst of them. 

 When the first fish reached the shore, thrown up in the ripples 

 driven before the net as they hauled it in, the fairies had not 

 yet remarked Kahukura, for he was almost as fair as they 

 were. It was just at the very first peep of dawn that the fish 

 were all landed, and the fairies ran hastily to pick them up 

 from the sand, and to haul the net up on the beach. They 

 did not act with the fish as men do, dividing them into sepa- 

 rate loads for each, but every one took up what fish he liked, 

 and ran a twig through their gills ; and as they strung the fish 

 they continued calling out, ' Make haste, run here, all of you, 

 and finish the work before the sun rises ! ' Kahukura kept on 

 stringing his fish with the rest of them. He had only a very 

 short string, and, making a slip-knot at the end of it, when he 

 had covered the string with fish he lifted them ujp, but he had 

 hardly raised them from the ground when the slip-knot gave 

 way from the weight of the fish, and off they fell. Then some 

 of the fairies ran good-naturedly to help him to string his fish 

 again, and one of them tied the knot at the end of the string 

 for him ; but the fairy had hardly gone after knotting it before 

 Kahukura had unfastened it, and again tied a slip-knot at the 

 end. Then he began stringing his fish again, and when he 

 had got a great many on up he lifted them, and off they 

 slipped as before. This trick he repeated several times, and 

 delayed the fairies in their work by getting them to knot his 

 string for him and put his fish on it. At last full daylight 

 broke, so that there was light enough to distinguish a man's 

 face, and the fairies saw that Kahukura was a man. Then 

 they dispersed in confusion, leaving their fish and their net, 

 and abandoning their canoes, which were nothing but stems 

 of flax. In a moment the fairies started for their own abodes. 

 In their hurry, as has just been said, they abandoned their 

 net, which w^as made of rushes, and off the good people fled 

 as fast as they could go. 



" Now was first discovered the stitch for netting a net, for 

 they left theirs with Kahukura, and it became a pattern for 

 him. He thus taught his children to make nets, and by them 

 the Maori race were made acquainted with that art which 

 they have now known from very remote times." 



The Maori had no rope-walk or fibre manufactory. Such 

 taura, or rope, or cordage as he required — for his nets ; for 

 lashing on the ran awa (top-sides) to the body of his canoe, and 

 stone implements to their kakau, or wooden handles ; for rig- 

 ging and cable, and for a multitude of other purposes — had to 

 be made by lohiri (platting) undressed flax, which was con- 

 sidered stronger thaii the dressed flax, the gum not having 

 been removed. There were various whiri, or plats — square, 

 round, &c. — all'having different names. 



