FISHING RITES

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 34, 9 August 1934, Page 15

FISHING RITES

MAGIC OF. THE MOURI >

BAIT THAT NEVER FAILS

Possibly of importanco to Wellington anglers is a statcmont in the "New Zealand Bailways Magazine" by "Tohunga," who refers to fish-bringing ', talismans of thcV Maori. In Taranaki there is belief in "the efficacy of cor- : tain sacred stones which have been ''handed down for centuries among tho : tohunga families of tho tribes. The old . warrior chief Tu-patca to Kongo, of i South Taranaki, told me of his firm belief in the inouri, which ensured an ; abundance of lamprey eels, a great delicacy of the Maoris. "Tu-patea said that he possessed one of those mouri, or whatu-kura, perhaps the most sacred of all. 'I hold it,' ho said, 'because I am now tho chief keeper among the Pakakohi people, of the ancient knowledge handed down by. . our ancestors. This inouri-wai (talisman of the waters) is hidden, away in a certain spot not far from where wo are sitting now.' (I was visiting Tu-patea at his homo, Te Takere-nui-o-Aotea, at . Taumaha). 'This stone is not large, , but it is heavy; it is circular in shape, with a hollow in the centre. At tho ' spot where I conceal it in the ground ; there is a lizard, and this lizard lives in tho hole in the stone. It is, in fact, 'the guardian (kai-tiald) of the stone; it is the personification of a deity. Tho peculiar mana of tho stone is made manifest in tho water. When the seasoli comes for catching the piharau

(lampreys) in the Patea Biver, I unearth, the stone, and take it down to the < liver yonder, below my farm, and I place it in tho water at a certain rock, " reciting the ancient prayer. " 'The efficacy of the mouri is there demonstrated by the great abundance 'of piharau. They aro attracted to the'spot in very great numbers and are ' in good fat condition, and our catch is •large, season after season. "We are particularly fond of this kind of riverfish because o fthe absence of bonus. 1 Our mouri-wai never fails us. It is of great antiquity; it is called The Great AVhatu of Turi—who was our ancestral chief, twenty-four generations ago; he commanded the canoe Aotca which voyaged to this country from Tahiti. This is not the only sacred whatu of the fisheries used in Taranaki today. There * is a similar stono kept near tho mouth of the Tangahoo Biver; it is revered by tho people there, and is placed in the 1 water, with invocations to the atua, the fishing time comes round.' So spoke grey old Tu-patea, a thoroughgoing type of the conservative iaee, who fought the pakeha strenuously in his day. He was always delighted to recall the past, and we went .over some of the old battlefields to-

i.'. g'other and ho described events of the ■i, 1868-69 campaign on the spot from the . Maori standpoint, or rather shooting • i point. He has gone to the Kcinga now, but all his curious lore has not perished with him. There are still certain elders in the West Coast tribes who treasure some of the' ancient ways."