eT ee ee ee ee ee eT eT 
Cotenso.—Traditions of the Maoris. 27 
whake, and of the other Nini. The husband went out a long distance to 
fish, and having caught a plenty he paddled back to the shore; on landing 
he waited some time for his wife to come down to the canoe, to fetch the 
fish he had caught ;* but she did not come. At last he walked to their 
village, and said to his wife, ‘*O mother! mother! there was I on the 
beach long waiting for thee, but thou didst not come forth!” On hearing 
this, Houmea replied, ‘0, sir, it is entirely owing to the disobedience of 
these two children.” Then Houmea went down to the sea-shore to the 
sandy beach, to fetch the fish, and when she got to the canoe, she swallowed 
all the fish,—every one went into her own stomach, being devoured by her. 
This feat done, she went to pull up bushes of coarse sedgy plants, and of 
sow-thistles, which she brought on to the sands, and dragged and scattered 
them about; she also made big and small footsteps of her own footmarks, 
and trod all over the beach, and greatly trampled and tore it up, that it 
might be inferred a marauding-party had been there and stolen the fish. 
This done, she returned to the village, quite out of breath, sighing and 
panting ; and said to her husband, “0 sir, alas! there are no fish left, the 
fruits of thy fishing! have they been taken away (quietly) by men,—or by 
a marauding party,—or by thieves?” Then the husband said, ‘* Who, I 
should like to know, can that thievish people be? here residing near the 
dwellings of men.”’+ When Houmea rejoined, ‘‘ The numberless multitudes 
of imps.”} To this remark her husband replied, ‘Perhaps so.” Then 
they all went to rest. 
* Or, as the mistress, to superintend the taking them to the village; the distri- 
bution, ete. 
+ Meaning,—well able to protect their own property. 
} Many are the stories—curious, droll, and interesting—related of these little folks,— 
‘* imps,” elves, goblins, or fairies. I have never yet been able to decide, what particular 
English, German, or European term to give them as an equivalent. They are said to 
swarm in countless numbers ; (see Story of Uenuku (supra), and Tawheta’s figurative 
and proverbial expression respecting them (p.13); and to be just as ready to do 
good to men in difficulty, as to do mischief. Indeed it is said, in some of their old Myths, 
that it was from those ‘little cunning beings that the Maoris learnt the art of making 
nets. Their various relations concerning them have always served to remind me of 
Gulliver’s active Lilliputians. They were found, also, in the depths of the forests, as well 
as on the sea-sands,—though rarely ever seen by men. Mr. Locke tells me that when he 
was engaged in surveying for the Government at Portland Island anes Bay), the 
older Maoris residing there assured him that they had often in the early 
the countless footsteps of those imps on the sandy shore, by the sides of the deeuds wis 
streamlet, where they had been holding their night revels. They bore different names 
(family or generic) among the old Maoris; which may also mean a difference in kind, 
dispositions, powers, etc. 
