GIANTS IN THE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 244, 15 October 1929, Page 6

GIANTS IN THE LAND.

That cabled story of the gigantic human footprint in ancient rock at Limpopo, in South Africa, recalls sundry tales, transmitted per Maori tradition, of fearsomely tall warriors of old New Zealand. The legends do not mention the dimensions of the Maori feet, but it is to be assumed that they would compare passing well with those ■of the huge rovers of the African stone age. What our New Zealand traditions do lay stress on is the great reach with a weapon, especially the taiaha, or its predecessor, a kind of two-handed sword, which made the big chieftains of old such formidable foes in battle. The numerous stories, though obviously exaggerated in some particulars, all go to show that a marvellous pitch of physical development was attained by some of the ancestors of the present Maori. There is the story of Kiharoa, the giant of the Ngati-Raiikawa and Ngati-Whakatere tribes, about a hundred and fifty years ago. His stronghold was Tokanui pa, on the middle hill of the "Three Sisters," the. conical hills which are seen close to the present motor road through the King Country a couple of miles south of the Puniu River. The story has it that lie was twice the height of an ordinary man, and he wielded a hardwood taiaha of unusual length and weight. Ho was killed at last when he slipped on some karaka leaves as he fought in a battle just outside his pai, His enormous head presently decorated the palisades of Totorewa, a pa of the NgatiManiapoto. An excavation for an oven to cook the hugo body was made where he fell, and when present writer was'a boy in those parts the "Giant's Grave," as. it was called, in the fern, was pointed out by the Maoris; the spot is close to where the Tokanui Hall how stands at. the cross-roads. Two fathoms long and a foot over, is the native word-of-mouth record of Kiharoa's height. It may be.a trifle over the odds, but let us be generous and allow that he was .at least eight feet. There was another giant of these parts long ago, one Matau; like Kiharoa., he was a man of the Ngati-Raukawa tribe, and, like Kiharoa, his favourite weapon was the taiaha. He lived on a hill above the Wairaka River, a few miles beyond Orakau. Maori accounts aver that he was eleven feet high. Whose feet made the standard for those measurements, however, is not mentioned. Either Matau or Kiharoa could have stood up well to that prehistoric footprint maker of South Africa.

In the Kotorua country, too, there are stories, no doubt based on fact, of great fellows of the past who could have played havoc with any team of All Blacks to-day. There, was the chief Tuhourangi, for one; he lived three centuries ago. He. was niiie feet high, according to tradition, and was six feet up to his armpits. His bones. were buried on the east side of Pukurahi pa, on Mokoia Island, above the present little settlement on the flat. The old man.Tamati Hapimana told me, at Mokoia in 1896, that Tuhourangi's bones were still there, deep in the ground, enclosed in stono slabs. His story was that Sir George Grey, during his first Governorship '• of New Zealand, visited Mokoia and, hearing about the bones, of a man of enormous size, obtained the consent of the chiefs to dig for the skeleton. The Maoris whom he employed purposely dug in the wrong place and so the relics were' never brought to light. This long-gone warrior's . bones, in olden times, were disinterred at kumara planting time and were set up on the edge of- the cultivations on Mokoia, while the priest recited the prayers for a bountiful harvest. The presence of the sacred bones was supposed to promote the fertility of the crop.- ....... In other parts there are old-time giant tales, and the ancestors of certain families were said to have been famed for their size—such families as Kaihau of Waikato, Walianui of the King Country, Haupapa of Rotorua, Tareha. of the Bay of Islands. They are big men to-day, some of them, but I do not recall any eight-footers among them. —j.c.