A MAGAZINE MYTH

Evening Star, Issue 16782, 10 July 1918, Page 7

A MAGAZINE MYTH

:noPvTii island taitooed pocks.

''SPIRALS AKD HOBGOBLIX FACES."

.Aluch akin to the spirit of incredulitysvlitch opposed Mr Pickwiek'2 immortal contribution to antiouariai, research was the light and bantering mooel in which the Otago Institute met a irmjrazine article jilued before them last niglit, announeir;; the existcnc" of rode psintwps or 01 spirals ami Jiobtroblin fates incised on the hard jjrw bouldere out-skle the havbuv of Rau'lyn, near Xesv Plymouth, nnd desciiued j.j tlie strange writings of an unknown race. Just as some unkin-d taitie decinliered the Pickwickian inscription as " Li!] Stunip-s—His Mark" I)r Beaham attritmt-e<J th*.; North Island find to the mischievous knives of Maori youths. Pr l-'ulbjn introduced the matter by layiiiL r before meiTibevs a munber of Arthur Met's ' Ms- Matjozin--},' containing a. short article with photographs of the tracing.; taken by Ti.rannk: -aches v.-ho had chalked the incisions so that the camera could repnxluc"; then;. Th:? doctor had little to say except that he "rather fancied it was a faiiv tale."'

Pr Benhani said it ss-.oe quite perroissibie for these ladies to chalk the stones in order to pet the photographs-.; the method svas common. It seemed to him that the woik was quite recent, and likely to 00 that of mischievous boys—Maoris probably. The tracings were absolutely different from the rock paintings found -'n the South Island, and the fact that there were spiraU and faces, n:ch as the Maoris carved on their slabs, reemed to indicate that they were quite recent.