MYTHOLOGY. 
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naturally became afraid of such a husband, and hit upon the 
following expedient to effect her escape : — complaining of 
great thirst, she induced him to let her go to the water, but 
the wary monster still kept her tied with the rope ; to make 
him think that she had no desire to escape, she left her girdle 
with him : he was thus deceived ; when she reached the 
water, she tied the rope to a tree, and ran off to her home, 
when the Taniwha thought she had stayed long enough to 
quench her thirst, he pulled the rope, and was amazed at the 
resistance ; thinking she was very strong and obstinate, he 
went out of his cave to see the cause, and then found out the 
trick which had been played off upon him. The woman went 
and told all her friends and relatives, and further suggested, 
that the best way of killing the monster, would be by a poa 
poa, or live bait. Fifty persons, therefore, immediately armed 
themselves with sharp kos or spades, determined to kill him, 
or perish in the attempt. When they reached his abode they 
all went behind it, and there laid in ambush, sending only 
one of their number in front, as the poa poa ; when Tara- 
ka-piri-piri saw him, he came out a little way from his den ; 
the man stepped forward a few paces, until he had succeeded 
in drawing him completely out; the fifty men then rushed 
at once upon him, and soon dispatched him, thrusting their 
sharp kos into his body ; they cut him open, and found all 
the green stone ornaments of the poor children in his 
stomach, and the womans girdle in the cave. 
In fact, at one period New Zealand appears to have been 
as dreadfully plagued with Ngarara and Taniwhas, as 
Europe was once with dragons ; and had it not been for a 
race of heroes who patriotically devoted themselves, like St. 
George of old, to the work of freeing their country from such 
fearful pests, there is no saying what would have become of 
it; it certainly would have been anything but a desirable 
field for colonization. At Wanganui, there was a dreadful 
monster, who lived below the cliff, at Taumahauti, called 
Tutai-poro-poro ; he was at last killed by Aukehu, whose 
canoe with all his party had been swallowed up by the 
monster, but fortunately Aukehu himself, being last, made 
