CoLENSo. — Traditions of the Maoris. 5S 



his mother. Then he said to the huia, "This is the cry for thee to utter, 

 ' The fire does not burn brightly ; dark, dark, darkness prevails ;' " and to 

 the liotulni he also said, " This is thy cry, ' The fire does not blaze ; it is very 

 dark all around.' " And thus the lad taught those two birds in the little 

 bush where he dwelt. On a certain night when it was dark the lad went to 

 the place where the big house of the chief was, to reconnoitre, and when he 

 got there he found all the inmates were fast asleep and snoring loudly. 

 Then he returned to the little bush, and, taking his two birds, carried them 

 off to the big house. Arriving there in the porch he opened the closed door, 

 sliding it back carefully. Then he entered the house, and took inside also 

 his birds and set them down, placing their supplejack cages among the ashes 

 of the fireplace. Suddenly the huia cried out, " The fire does not burn ; dark, 

 dark, darkness prevails;" and then the hotuku cried, " (There is) no blazing 

 of this fire ; smouldering, dark ! " The sleepers were all now well aroused 

 at those shrill cries and human words, and, sitting up, looked on with feel- 

 ings of wonder and admiration, which they expressed. Then it was that 

 Tautini's father arose and stood, and, after observing closely for some time, 

 exclaimed, "Verily, this lad is my own son, for those were the very birds 

 which his mother longed for ! " and, embracing his son, he wept over him 

 rejoicing ; and when it was daylight he took him away to the water, and 

 there performed the usual and proper lustration and ceremonial service 

 fitting for a chief's son. 



[Highly curious, as showing, among other things, the general vulgar 

 European belief in the powers of the moral affections of the mother over her 

 unborn offspring, extending to New Zealand. — W.C.] 



9. A Story of Old, of a certain Drowned Boy, whose Spirit returned 



TO TROUBLE THE LiVING. 



This lad went with the water-calabash to fetch water to drink, being sent by his 

 parents. He went, he got to the place where the water was, and on his pressing 

 down his big light calabash under the water in the deep pool to fill it, it 

 slipped suddenly away out of his hands. He then (as it was supposed), went 

 into the water after his calabash, which was being carried away floating 

 before him, and in doing so he sunk, and his belly was filled with water. 

 After some time his parents went to look for him, but though they found 

 the calabash floating they did not readily find him, because all over the 

 surface of that water was overspread with spiders' webs ; at last, however, 

 they found the body and dragged it to the shore, and carried it to their 

 village and mourned over it, and when the usual funeral lamentations were 

 over they buried it in the earth. Then the spirit (wairtia) of that boy ap- 

 peared here in this habitable sphere, bewildering the living, and (it) dwelt 



