Glowing Lights.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20567, 19 March 1935, Page 6

Glowing Lights.

Nature Notes

By

James Drummond,

F.L.S.. F.Z.S.

T? I DING HOME one night close to the Waikato River, Mr G. Palmer was attracted by a glow so brilliant that he stopped and looked at it in astonishment. He rode tip to itl and saw on a dead willow tree row upon row, tier above tier, of fungi, hundreds of them, all producing luminosity like moonlight, and making a combined effect that he considered one of the most wonderful sights in the world. The stalks were not luminous. Each fungus, seen from above, had a dark centre that did not glow. Together, they resembled a group of beautiful flowers. They were still more beautiful beneath, the shining mass disclosing the plants’ form and structure. Mr Palmer wrote: “I know a species of fungus in Norfolk Island no larger than a shilling. It is sticky, and adheres to the skin. When we were children we adorned our eyebrows and faces with these fungi and played jokes on the Melanesians. They knew the species and called it mataiwenewene, but our jokes usually produced a scream, and they rushed off shouting * tamate,’ equivalent to the Maoris’ * taipo ’.” The word “ taipo,” used by Maoris of the present generation, has no place in the pure Maori language. It is accepted as meaning a demon or malignant spirit. A group of New Zealand insects characterised by a formidable aspect are sometimes called taipos, but they usually have their real Maori name, weta.