122 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
occasion to call the mother, his daughter-in-law, to come quickly and take 
the baby away, and to wipe his knees. The mother did both, and laughed. 
This had been observed by others, who talked about it, till it grew into a 
tale of indecencies. "When old Whiro heard of that, he was so vexed, that 
he resolved to emigrate. For that purpose he made a canoe, and when the 
planks on the upper rim were lashed on, the string got round the neck of 
the man who was pulling on the other side, and, at the same time, Whiro 
pulled on his side, and the man was killed, if by accident or with intention, 
is not clear. Whiro-buried him under the chips, and said nothing about it. 
The man was missed and sought, but not found till the time when the 
canoe was being dragged to the sea. Then, while the people were dragging, 
their feet moved the chips, and the dead man was found. Then the people 
said that Whiro had killed him. This made him still more gloomy, and he 
now resolved to sail away on the wide sea to death. He persuaded a man 
named Tura to accompany him, but did not tell him that it was a voyage to 
death. Tura left his wife and a son named Iraturoto at home. 
When they were sailing along, they met Tutatahou and Rokotakawhiu. 
These seem to have been some sort of spiritual beings. Tutatahou called, 
‘“‘ Whose canoe is that?’’ One of the crew answered, ‘* A canoe of super- 
natural beings ;”’ and for that presumption he was killed, as by lightning. 
Again Tutatahou called, ‘‘ Whose canoe is that ?’’ and again one of the men 
answered, ‘‘ A canoe of supernatural beings”’ (atua). He also was killed. 
Then, being asked the third time, Tura said, ‘‘It is Whiro’s canoe,” adding 
some explanation (the meaning of which I do not understand, nor could the 
wise men explain). Then they were allowed to pass on. 
Now Tura began to have misgivings as to how their voyage would end, 
and he suspected Whiro to mean to sail out of the world. When they 
came to a place called Otea, they passed so near the land that Tura could 
lay hold of some overhanging branches of the bushes. He held fast and 
let Whiro go on with his canoe, to death. Tura climbed up the bushes; 
but the place was not inhabited. He went on travelling in the direction 
homeward, and after many days he came to a settlement, but it was 
inhabited by a strange race of people, called the generation of Nukumaitore. 
Their heads, arms, and legs were so short and so much shrunken into 
their bodies, that they seemed to have no limbs at all. They were sitting 
on the tuwhara fruit of the kiekie tree, slowly waving their hands on their 
short arms. Tura claimed the hospitality of an old woman (always a good 
policy when one comes among savages), and she befriended him. By and 
by she also gave him a wife. The people there lived on raw food; they 
did not know the fire. When Tura made a fire, they all ran away into 
