66 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



a Tipua, or fabulous mariBe monster. My own conjecture was that it was 

 meant to represent a seal. (Fig. 8.) 

 March 27, 1877. 



Appendix No. 3. 

 Note on the Tuna Tuoro. By the Eev. James W. Stack. 



The descriptions given of this eel vary so very much, that it would be 

 hard to believe that anything of the kind ever existed if it were not for the 

 general concurrence of native testimony both in the North and South 

 Islands to its existence. 



It seems to have combined some of the characteristics of the frog, the 

 electric eel, and the watersnake. It uttered croaking sounds, rendered 

 senseless anyone it touched, and pursued its prey with such rapidity that it 

 was next to impossible to escape from it. 



In 1853 I was told by Hoani Huki, a Waikato chief, and a catechist in 

 the employ of the Church Mission, that when he was a lad (that was about 

 thirty years before) he distinctly heard the tuna tuoro in the swamps in the 

 Upper Waikato, that at that time the older men often described their 

 encounters with it, and that they greatly dreaded it, for when wading about 

 eeliug in the shallow waters, which it frequented, there was a danger of its 

 gliding u]p imperceptibly and touching them, and anyone so touched was 

 instantly paralyzed and destroyed. It would even pursue its prey on to the 

 dry ground, and its progress could only be checked by setting fire to the 

 grass or fern, when the ash adhering to its slimy body rendered it helpless 

 and incapable of moving any further. 



Here in the South Island I have frequently heard of the existence of the 

 tuoro within recent times. Tainui and Pita Mutu informed me that they 

 once found on the beach near Greymouth, where they resided, what they 

 believed to be a portion of the body of a tuoro ; it was after a heavy fresh 

 in the river, and they supposed it had been carried down from some of the 

 lakes in the interior. The skin they described as scaly, employing a flax 

 plait of four to convey an idea of its appearance. Paora Taki, Native 

 Assessor at Eapaki, also informed me that it was commonly reported fifty 

 years ago that one existed near the source of the Purau stream in Lyttelton 

 harbour. 



Though I believe that there must be some foundation for reports so 

 common and so general regarding the recent existence of this strange 

 creature, I am not prepared at present to put forward any theory about it, 

 except that I think that it is highly probable that the Maoris have mixed 

 up the descriptions of two or three different things which existed a short 

 time back but are now extinct. 



