MYTHOLOGY. 
51 
Formerly, there was a formidable monster of this kind at 
Orawaro, near Pakerau; he was of an enormous length and 
size; he swallowed two children at a meal, with their green 
stone ornaments. On another occasion, as a woman was 
passing near his den, he suddenly crawled out and seized her, 
compelling her to become his wife; and lest she should escape, he 
kept her tied with a rope; she 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 ; and 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 ko or spades, 
determined to kill him, or perish in the attempt. When they 
reached his cave, they all went behind it, and there laid in 
ambush, sending only one of their number in front, as the poa 
poa. Taraka-piri-piri, when he saw the man, crawled a little 
way from his abode; the man stepped forward a few paces, 
until he had succeeded in drawing him completely out of his 
den ; the fifty men then rushed all at once upon him, and soon 
dispatched him, thrusting their sharp ko into his body. They 
then cut him open, and found all the green stone ornaments 
of the poor children in his stomach, and the woman’s girdle in 
the cave. 
In fact, at one period New Zealand appears to have been 
as dreadfully plagued with Ngararas 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 
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