BOOK COMTEK

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 240, 9 October 1937, Page 13

BOOK COMTEK

MAN AND WOMAN (A Maori Legend.) Tane said: “I have made trees and the birds that sing in their branches: I have made insects and lizards that run between the rocks. I will now make something greater than these." He gathered red clay where earth had fallen from a cliff. “Earth," he said, “from which all things grow and flourish, and red, the sacred colour." He worked at the clay with his hands, kreading it and forming it into a shape like his own. When the shape was made he breathed into it his own breath. Life went into the shape, and it lay breathing as if in sleep. Tane stood over it, chanting a song of life. Slowly the eyes opened, the limbs began to move, the shape arose and walked. It was the first man, Tiki, whoso blood and inner parts were red as the clay from which ho had been made. With wondering gaze the man stared about him, the sky above him, the trees of the forest near. Tane, he saw not, for his eyes might not behold the gods. He wandered on the plain and into the shade where the birds were singing. Goddesses came floating from high and far to see the strange new creature made by Tane. "He is alone,’’ they said, "he must have a mate."

From sunshine that quivered on the plain and the echo that wandered through the forest the goddesses wove a fine mist, which limb by limb they shaped into a woman. When they had breathed the breath of life into her, they sent her out to meet the man, and he was lonely no more. The two lived together in the Earth Mother’s garden, and from them have come all the people in the world. The gods left the garden to the care of the man and woman. Tane went up to the heavens to live in the Land of tho Sunrise, beside the Lake of Glowing Light. Tu stayed unseen about the world, where he taught man the art of fighting. All the gods gave the man and • woman gifts: Tane from his trees gave them wood for boats and houses, and fibrous leaves for ropes and clothing; Kongo and Haumia gave them roots and fruits; Tangaroa gave them fish. Only Tu’s gift was evil, for he gave them war. Yet they worshipped him more than any god, and only now they are learning how dark a gift was his. ODDS AND ENDS. SMALL BOY’S CERTIFICATE FOR BRAVERY. When the name of Clive Eexton Joseph Whittaker was called at the awards presentation of the Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society, at the Sydney Town Hall recently, a small boy in short trousers stepped forward. Necks were craned to see him receive a certificate of merit for bravery. "You are a courageous lad, and we are all proud of you,” said the Lady Mayoress, Mrs G. A. Parkes. Bowing graciously the 12-year-old country boy walked away with this certificate, as if it had been merely a book awarded at a school prize distribution. A few months ago, at Windeyer, Whittaker saved a two-year-old boy from being horned to death by an in- ! furiated cow. Ho beat the beast off jin a second attack after the infant’s face had been ripped. SMALL BOY WRITES TO QUEEN Upset because his school wa3 to bo pulled down, Stanley Beton, 13-year-old scholar of St. Matthew’s School, Bayswater, London, wrote to the Queen. This was his letter:— Dear Queen Elizabeth, —Would you kindly use your influence for us? Builders have bought our site and we are to be thrown out next year. I have enclosed a newspaper cutting of our prize-giving. If you read it I am sure you will use your influence. Stanley received a reply from the Queen at Balmoral "regretting that she could not exercise any personal interference.” But Stanley is not finished. "I have now written to Lord Nuffield and I am going to write to the Lord Chamberlain,” he said. ''Perhaps they can help me.” . Asked why he was agitated, he replied, 44 Because the school is a good school. I am leaving at Easter but 1 have two little brothers here, and I want them to get all I’ve had—they can’t if they go elsewhere.” FAMOUS PEARL The "Magic Eye,” one of the world’s most extraordinary pearls, is in Melbourne. It is a freak of nature, a black pearl embedded in the centre of a white one. The pearl is owned by Mrs A. C. Lumley, who has taken several thousands of pearl to Melbourne from the Trobriands, a small group of islands near New Guinea. Found in 1926, the 4 ‘Magic Eye” has been twice to England. Exhibited at the last British Industries Fair, in 4 London, it caused a sensation. Apiti. Dear Hub, —It has been quite cold here to-day but it hasn’t rained. We have five lots of chickens, some arc little bantams and the rest are black chickens. Aren't tiny birds ugly? I think they are. I have a nest with three young ones in it. Some of our anemones are out in flower and our tulips have buds on them. Snow Queen. So you think young birds are ugly, Snow Queen? So do I—All except chickens—one couldn't wish for anything prettier. The tulips this year are lovely. Yesterday Aunt Jane saw about two hundred lovely red and gold ones. ALBERT PARK WILD LIFE The unusual sight of two New Zealand grey duck coming to rest in Albert Park was witnessed by officials of the parks department one afternoon recently. The duck busied themselves in* feeding from the lawns of the park, and came close towards a man seated on one of the benches. It was only when a vagrant dog came their way that they flapped into the air and flew away. Although the wild duck is not uncommonly seen flying above the outer suburbs, it is considered rare to find one so close to the heart of the city.