MAORI MEMORIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18929, 26 April 1933, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES.

INTERESTING .VIGNETTES.

(Recorded by “J.H.S.")

NQA MAHANQA—THE TWINB.

Twins were always regarded by the ftlaori in the light of a miracle. Subtle powers of insight were attributed to them, and even natural minded Maori maids never knowingly accepted the love <>'f a twin, lest his brother or sister might read her most sacred secrets, In which case her husband would be called upon to exercise the ruthless law of Utu (retribution). In our classlo literature Shakespeare and Byron were perhaps the only authors who dealt with the poetic side of the subject. Yet our ladies are always deeply interested in twins. Members of the Maori contingent who left Wellington In the early stages of the war were comforted and apparently justified In their belief in divine intervention on their behalf, because with them were these twins whom none could identify, one -from the other. Even their practical minded British brother soldiers and officers were deeply impressed when it (became, known that the twins had fallen at Flers wounded in precisely the same manner through the left lung. Their 'jf ' nurses, whether by fact or fancy, r emphatically declared that though beyond sight or sound of one another their medical charts coincided In every detail. When convalescing at a British sanatorium, the same singular oiroumstance-was noted by the medical men*.