86 Transactions,— Miscellaneous, 
not straight, as if to represent it wriggling or living, and not dead. It was 
many yards in length, and of corresponding width and thickness, and by no 
means badly executed. On two occasions, in particular, in travelling that 
way, as we generally rested there on the banks of the stream, the old Maori 
chiefs with me would diligently use their tomahawks and wooden spades in 
clearing away the coarse grass and low bushes growing on it in its more 
salient parts, so as to keep its outline tolerably clear, reminding me of what 
has been said of the periodical scouring in the Vale of the White Horse. 
The natural vegetation of the place was well suited for the purpose of pre- 
serving it, being mostly composed of our (Hawke Bay) common carpet or 
mat grass (Microlena stipoides) and a low-growing Muhlenbeckia (M. 
axillaris )*, but in those days no foot of man trod on it, and of beasts there 
were none ! 
This curious earth-work was called Te Ika-a-Rangitauira, that is, that 
that Saurian outline was made or formed by a chief whose name was 
Rangitauira. He was an ancestor of the chief Karaitiana (M.H.R.), and 
of several other chiefs and sub-tribes now living here in Hawke Bay ; he 
lived nineteen generations back ; one of his residences was a large pa called 
Te Mingi, on the Tutaekuri river. He formed this design, or earth-work 
(which originally consisted of three Saurian outlines) in remembrance of his 
having returned from that spot with his fighting party. They had left their 
own pa to attack another on the east side of the Tukituki river, but being 
here overtaken by daylight abandoned their design. First, however, forming 
and leaving there those three monsters, to indicate to the people of the pa 
they had set out to attack, how they had intended to serve (i.e. devour) 
them. This chief subsequently met with his death in returning from the 
Patea country in the interior, through being overtaken by a violent snow- 
storm, and taking refuge in a cave called Te Reporoa (on the lower passes of 
the Ruahine mountain range) where he and those with him miserably 
perished in the snow ! His younger brother, who persevered and kept on 
his journey, escaped. Consequently for many years this chief's huge earth- 
work was attended to and kept clear of coarse weeds by his descendants in 
commemoration of him. 
I now proceed to give you some of those old legendary tales, for which 
I have been preparing the way, premising that these are all fair translations 
from the original Maori as I received them, and without any addition. Like 
most translations, however, they lose much of their striking original 
character and beauty iu attempting to clothe them in a foreign dress. 
* It was here that I discovered that pretty little and very scarce plant, Stackhousia 
minima. 
