LEGENDS OF THE NINETY-MILE BEACH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 290, 8 December 1931, Page 6

LEGENDS OF THE NINETY-MILE BEACH.

In a short while Mercury will be the epirit possessor of the Ninety-Mile Beach, but, according to old Maori legend, other spirits once haunted those glorious sands. As one stands upon this beach, listening spellbound to the open ocean breaking in huge waves ■with a thundering roar, it is easy to understand how the ancient Maori wove around this wild scene the strange and beautiful legend of the Spirit Dancers. "One moonlight night long years ago the Spirits of the Sea. ventured out of the deep to dance on the Ninety-Mile Beach; they found the sand at the -water's edge smooth and hard underneath their beautiful feet. 'At last,' they cried, 'we have found a beach where we can dance and dance forever! So long it i≤ that we cannot see it« beginning or its ending! Hear how the waves beat in rhythmic accompaniment to our movements! . The sound of their happy voices calling to each other was as the whistling music of the wind."

Every night afterwards the Spirits of the Sea came to dance upon the shore to the sea's music. Then the birds of the beach, the shags and the gulls, spread the strange news to the brown people, the Maoris, one of whom, a famous chief, determined to go and see for himself if the tale of the birds was true. So one night when the moon was so full that the sea and sands shone like silver, he hid himself in some bushes near the shore and waited. Soon lie saw emerging from the glistening waves the lovely Spirits of the Deep; of great a-nd rare beauty were these Maidens of the Sea, but one even surpassed her companions in grace and cbarm. The watching man became filled with a great longing to possess this beautiful spirit woman. On and on they danced, nearer and nearer, until the dance led them to where the chief lay in ambush; the most beautiful of all was by chance nearest to him. He jumped up, and, seizing her by the arm, led her away. He took her for his wife and she bore him many children, so that she became the "Hopera pana. karawa*' (Spirit Ancestress) of a great tribe. .After their companion was thus taken from them by violence, the Spirit Dancers were filled with great fear and never came again to dance upon the beach, but left it to the gulls and shags. who ever since have called and cried to the fair spirits to return and dance again in rapturous abandonment upon the shining sands. —A.L.R.