ANGLING ANECDOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20217, 30 March 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

ANGLING ANECDOTES.

FISH AND FAIRY TALES.

BY IE KAiiA.

I shall not dissemble nor cloak the fact that I have been addicted to angling from mv vouth up. Further to this confession I must make a preliminary protest against the unjust manner in which the veracity of the fisherman is singled out for suspicion in these unimaginative days. The law of the land allows advertisers, within limits, to " puff " their goods, poets enjoy something known as poet licence, and I even golfers are a peculiar people, privileged to say all sorts of things. It is not at all fair, and Izaak Walton did well to point out that four fishermen had the " priority of nomination in the catalogue " of the twelve apostles, and i;o remark that most anglers are men of mild, and sweet, and peaceable spirits." His words give me the courage to assert mv conviction that the first fisherman was the father of all story-tellers, and that the tendency of anglers to improve their anecdotes is a natural survival ironi days when no distinction was made between those who caught fish and those who told " fairy tales. ' At all evS'.ltS, both fish and fairy stories are often alike in that they demand for their acceptance a simple and child-like faith, lake, for example, the story cf Tutaeporoporo, a very evil taniwha, which once dwelt in the Wanganui River. A Maori Jonah. The monster one day swallowed a chief named Aokehu, but fortunately this Mao -i Jonah had with him an enchanted staff. Breathing on his staff, the prisoner begin ceremonial incantations, which caused the taniwha to writhe in agony and to lash it.s tail from bank to bank. Aokehu chanted on, driving his magic staff through and through the sides of his captor until lie was able to escape through the holeThus was Tutaeporoporo killed and the waters ot Wanganui made safe for navigation. Maori mythology is full of similar talcs of monsters inhabiting river, lake and I sea. A giant reptile name Koromatangi lived in Lake Taupo, and had as a sort of help-companion a human taniwha named At'iamuri, who used to act as a decoy for him. The mana of Horomatangi is still such that Maoris do not care to pass close to certain spots. I recollect a launch with Maoris aboard passing Karangahape Cliff a few years ago, en route to Tokaanu. One of the Maoris remonstrated with- the pakeha launch-man for keeping too close to this haunt of Horomatangi, and predicted trouble. A heavy southerly wind sprang up, and the boat received a severe buffeting, a result, according to the passengers, of the taniwha's anger. Horomatangi has not been reported, however, as rising to a fly cast by any of the anglers who now flock to Taupo. At Te Awahou, in the Rotorua district, a similar monster dwelt in a pooL and took toll of the unwary. A party of hunters prepared a great basket-work trap and twisted ropes to snare the tanivvha, whose name was Pekehaua. The trap was lowered and spells were recited, which caused the spines and crest of Pekehaua to become soft and harmless. Then one of the hunters dived down, bound a rope round tlis beast while it was hypnotised by the incantations, and gave the signal to his comrades to haul away. The karakia or spells, for hauling up and for lightening heavy weights were recited, and up came Pekehaua to his death. When th© carcase was cut up th© remains ot

human bodies, mats and weapons were found inside. In the details of these and similar tale,, related both by Maoris and other Polynesians. are perhaps to be discerned the age-dimmed memories of lands where ancestors of the Pacific were acquainted with the. crocodile. One tradition even relates that, a dog was made to bark to entice a taniwha forth, as in crocodilehaunted lands dogs are known to have been used. Some Ancient Methods. In. these days, although many methods of taking fish are directly forbidden by rule and regulation, yet controversies of a hair-splitting nature often arise as to which ut the legally allowable methods one should and should not, use. But it was not always thus, and the slogan of the ancient was, in the words of the cookery book, " First catch, your fish." In Sicily the goatherds were wont, in hot weather, to drive their flocks into some cool shallow of the sea., and they believed that the presence of shoals of ii fish called the parens was due to the fact that, the male sargus came, iri the words of a poet quoted by Izaak Walton, I'mittin; she stoats on the shore Hormnz their husbands, that had horns before. Oppi.iri relates that the method of catching this remarkable fish was for the goatherd to disguise lumselc in the skin of a nanny-goat, when on entering 'he water he was able to despatch large numbers of the infatuated fish. The scolopendra is (or was) another exceedingly curious fish, for no less an authority than Aristotle declares that after swallowing tho hook it " turns itself inside out until it ejects it, anil then it again turns itself outside in." The silurus was a fish found once upon a time iri rivers, such as the Danube and the Volga, and was reputed to have been caught weighing over 4001b. and exceeding 12ft. in length. The angler of those days, according to Aelian, provided himself with a pair of oxen or horses, anil a yoke to which he attached a rope with a strong hook baited with the lungs of a wild bull. On the fish perceiving the tasty bait, he would rush greedily upon it, when ensued a mighty contest between the monster and the yoked animals of the ingenious sportsman. What tales might, be heard at a meeting 'twixt an old Volga boatman and a Bay of Islands launch-man 1 An ancient variant of " bobbing " for eels is also described by Aeiian. The fisherman affixed a hollow reed to one end of the intestines of a sheep, and let down into the stream the other end thereof. When an eel was felt trying to drag away the bait, the fisher blew into his tube-like rod. thus inflating the bait. The eel, receiving the sir m his mouth, also swelled, was unable to extricate his teeth, and w"as hauled out willy-nilly.

A Grim Jest. Thf old-time Maori had more prosaic methods of capturing eels, commonly usinij a. hinaki, an eel-hasket, rot unlike ones" used in England for the same purpose- Tn the lore of a race to whom fish were as important as they were to the Maori, it is natural to find not only much relating to the technique of fishing, but also many metaphors and customs based thereon. A grim jest sometimes played by ; chief was to take on a, fishing trip the dried head of an enemy. This was affixed to the side of the canoe, and a fishing line tied to an ear, so that when the fish tusised at the bait the head would nod freely, a most diverting spectacle to those privileged to see it. An old Maori angler of such a school, though he might differ iu methods, would doubtless agree in essentials with Sir Henry Wotton, who said that angling was " a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, and begat habits of peace and patience in those that practised it.,'.'-