296 



NATURE 



[July 26, 1888 



belief that my work does not throw any light upon the causes of 

 variation. There are however many zoologists who believe that 

 it has such a bearing, and indeed it seems only natural that 

 writers (such as Dr. Romanes himself) who retain the Lamarckian 

 conception of the direct influence of surroundings in causing the 

 variations of the higher animals, should believe (as I ihink 

 wrongly) that they see evidence for the soundness of their views in 

 the results of experiments in which the colours of insects have 

 been completely modified in a single generation by the action of 

 environment. Edward B. Poulton 



Oxford, July 15. 



The Thunder-Axe. 



Those who are interested in the study of anthropology need 

 no reminder as to the European belief in a connection between 

 ancient stone weapons and thunder. It would be mere waste of 

 time if I quoted instances of this connection ; but it may not be 

 devoid of interest to some of your readers if I bring to their 

 notice a modern account of the thunder-weapon, as described 

 to-day by a New Zealander. The account may also be of 

 service to those studying another branch of anthropology — that 

 concerning the influence and value of ancient and modern 

 creeds warring in the minds of semi-civilized peoples. I shall 

 make no comment of my own, but proceed to give a translation 

 of a tale printed (in Maori only) in the pages of the native 

 newspaper, the Korimako. The few words in it which were 

 not understood by those acquainted with the ordinary Maori 

 speech, I referred to old men well versed in the dialect of that 

 part of New Zealand. 



" The finding of Te Awhiorangi. 



"The tribes of this island have hitherto only heard of Te 

 Awhiorangi, but have not seen it. We, Ngarauru — that is, the 

 people descended from Rangitaupea, our ancestor who hid the 

 axe — have never seen it until now . . . One of our settlements, 

 called Okutuku, is near Waitotara. Twenty natives from this 

 settlement proceeded in a party for the purpose of gathering 

 the edible fungus (Hakekakeka) for the purpose of sale. With 

 the party went a young woman whose name was Tomairangi 

 (Dew of Heaven), the wife of Te Potonga Kaiawha. This girl 

 was a perfect stranger in the district : she did not know where 

 the sacred (tapu) places were ; she belonging to the Ngaitahu 

 (a South Island tribe), but her father was of us, the Ngarauru. 

 The girl wandered away by herself, looking here and there, 

 searching for trees on which the fungus grew. She saw a tree 

 on which there was fungus, and laid her hand on it, but suddenly 

 there came the flash of the Axe. Following with her eyes the 

 direction of the flash, she saw the Axe close against the foot of a 

 Pukatea tree ; a cry of terror broke from her, and she fled 

 screaming. At the same time the thunder roared, the lightning 

 flashed, and blinding hail burst forth in sudden storm, increasing 

 her terror almost to madness. Her husband heard her cries as 

 she flew along : but an old man, called Te Rangi Whakairione, 

 directly he heard her shrieks, understood the reason of the out- 

 cry, so he began to chant an incantation, and the fury of the 

 storm abated. When the parly had assembled together in the 

 open land, the old priest asked which of them had been to 

 Tieke ; whereupon the girl asked ' Where is Tieke ? ' The 

 old man answered that it was beyond the turn at Waione. 

 Tomairangi replied, ' I have been there, but I did not know it 

 was a sacred place : I saw something that looked like a spirit, 

 and I am full of great fear.' Then all the party went to 

 ascertain what it was, and then they found that it was indeed 

 the lost sacred Axe, Te Awhiorangi. After Te Rangi 

 Whakairione had chanted another incantation over it, they all 

 took hold of the Axe, and wailed over it. When the crying had 

 ceased, they brought the Axe back to the settlement. All the 

 tribe knew that the Axe was somewhere in that vicinity, for our 

 ancestor Rangitaupea had passed the secret on to his children in 

 the words, ' Te Awhiorangi is at Tieke on the plain close above 

 the Cave of the Dead.' Until now that place has been unvisited, 

 being entirely sacred till this day, the 10th of December, 1887. 

 Then gathered all Ngarauru and some of the Whanganui and 

 Ngatiapa tribes, in number 300 persons, and at dawn the next 

 day the sacred thing was hung up on a tree that all might see it. 

 The priests, Kapua Tautahi and Werahiko Taipuhi were at the 

 head of the procession as they approached the place : they 

 reciting charms and incantations as they moved along with the 

 people following. All the people carried gieen branches in 



their hands as an offering to Te Awhiorangi. When the con- 

 course drew near the place, successive peals of thunder and 

 flashes of lightning rent the air; then came down a dense fog, 

 making it dark as night. The Tohunga (priests) stopped the 

 thunder and dispersed the darkness by their incantations. When 

 the light again appeared, the people offered the green branches, 

 together with a number of Maori mats, &c. ; then they made 

 lamentations, and sang the old songs in which the ancient Axe 

 was spoken of by their forefathers." 



Thus far the native account. Then follows an enumeration 

 of the articles offered up as propitiation ; then a description of 

 the axe, which appears to be a huge and beautiful specimen of 

 the stone weapon, so highly polished that the face of the be- 

 holder may be seen reflected in it. Afterwards, the pedigree, or 

 rather the mythological history, of the axe, showing how (name 

 by name) it had been handed down from the first Maori chief 

 who came to New Zealand (Turi), and that it had descended to 

 him, through the great god Tane, from the primaeval pair, 

 Heaven and Earth (Rangi and Papa). But our chief interest 

 in it is the thunder heralding its finding. 



Edward Tregear. 



Wellington, N.Z., June 11. 



The Dispersion of Seeds and Plants. 



I have read with much interest Mr. Morris's communication 

 on the above subject (Nature, vol. xxxvii. p. 466), and can 

 corroborate most of what he states from personal observation. 

 I can also remove his doubt respecting the germination of the 

 seeds of the Guava and Passiflora, to which may also be added 

 the Tomato. 



I have adopted the " earth system " in my w.c, and from the 

 place where the earth is deposited may always be gathered fine 

 young plants of the three genera named above. 



Thousands of acres of pasturage have been destroyed in this 

 island by the distribution by birds of the Lantana, which was 

 unfortunately introduced here by the first Roman Catholic 

 missionaries, to form a hedge for their property at St. Louis or 

 Conception. The " Gendarme plant " (an Asclepiad) was brought 

 here in a pillow by a gendarme from Tahiti. It was a seed at- 

 tached to a wing of silk cotton. The gendarme shook out his 

 pillow ; the wind carried the seed to a suitable spot, and now it 

 vies with the Lantana in destroying our pastures. 



I have shot the Great Fruit Pigeons of Fiji and this island 

 with several seeds of the Canarium (?) in their crops, as Mr. 

 Morris says, as big as hen's eggs. The seeds of water-plants 

 are conveyed, with the eggs of fresh-water Mollusca, to vast 

 distances, adhering to the hairs and feathers of the legs of 

 water birds — ducks, herons, and waders of all sorts. In London 

 the basins of the fountains in Trafalgar Square were peopled 

 by Lymnea brought thither from the Serpentine, attached to the 

 feathers of the sparrows who bathed, first in one, and then in the 

 other. 



Another plant which occurs to me as being largely indebted 



i to man for its distribution, is that known as the " Cape Goose- 



I berry," which is a native of South America (I forget its botanical 



I name). The Kaffirs call it the " White man's plant," and say it 



follows the white man everywhere. I know it is found in India, 



Ceylon, Africa, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Hebrides. I 



really believe boiling it into jam does not destroy the vitality 



of the seeds. We have just got a plant here, bearing a lovely 



flower, but whence it comes no one knows. It has hard wooden 



seed capsules, each furnished with two hooks as hard as steel 



and as sharp as needles, this size and shape. These, hooking 



into the hide of any animal, would be carried for days unt 

 forcibly dislodged. 



The " Bathurst burr " (Xanthium spinosum) was introduc 

 into the Cape in a cargo of wool wrecked at Cape Lagulha 

 and spread out to dry, first there, and then at Simon's Town, 

 both of which places the "burr" sprang up. I believe 

 hope I destroyed the first and last plant of it that sprang up 

 New Zealand some twenty-five years ago. The seed had bee 



