Kahukura and the Fairies.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XV, 11 October 1902, Page 927

Kahukura and the Fairies.

One of the most charming of Maori stories is that of Kahukura and how he learned the art of netting from the fairies. This is how the tale is told in Sir George Grey's Polynesian Mythology:—

Once ujton a time a man of the name of Kahukura wished to pay a visit to Rangiaowhia. a place lying far to the northward.near the country of the tribe called Te Rarawa. Whilst he lived at his own village he was continually haunted by a desire to visit that place. At length he started on his journey and reached Rangiaowhia. and as he was on his road he passed a place where some people had been cleaning mackerel, and he saw the inside of the fish lying all about the sand on th.*, sea shore. Surprised at this he looked about at the marks, and said to himself: "Oh, this must have been done by some of the people of the district.” But when he came to look a little more narrowly at the footmarks he saw that the people who had been fishing had made them in the night time, not that morning, nor in the day; and he said to himself: “These are no mortals who have been fishing here—spirits must have done this; had they been men some of the reeds and grass which they sat on in their canoe would have beep lying about.”

He felt quite sure from several circumstances that spirits or fairies had been there, and after observing everything well he returned to the house where he was stopping. He, however, held fast in his heart what he had seen as something very striking to tell his friends in every direction, and as likely to be the means of gaining knowledge which might enable him to find out something new.

So that night he returned to the place where he had observed all these things, and just as he reached the spot back had come the fairies too to haul their net for mackerel, and some of them were shouting out. “The net here! The net here!” Then a canoe paddled off to fetch the other one in which the net was laid, and as they dropped the net into the water they began to cry out, “Drop the net in the sea at Rangiaowhia and haul it at Mamaku.” These words were sung out by the fairies as an encouragement in their work, and from the joy of their hearts at their sport in fishing. As the fairies were dragging the net to the shore Kahukura managed to mix amongst them and hauled away at the rope. He happened to be a very fair man. so that his skin was almost as white as that of these fairies, and from that cause he was not observed by them. As the net

came close to the shore the fairies began to cheer and shout, “Go out into the sea some of you in front of the rocks lest the nets should be entangled in Tawatawauia-a-Tewete-weuia.” for that was the name of a rugged rock standing out from the sandy shore. The main body of the fairies kept hauling at the net, and Kahukura pulled away in the midst of them. When the first fish reached the shore, thrown up in the ripples driven before the net as they hauled it in. the fairies had not yet remarked Kahukura. for he was almost as fair as they were. It was just at the very first peep of dawn that the fish were all landed, and the fairies ran hastily to pick them from the sand, and to haul the net up on the beach. They did not act with their fish as men do, dividing them into separate loads for each, but everyone took up what fish he liked and ran a twig through their gills, and as they strung the fish they continued calling out. "Make haste: run here, all of you. and finish the work before the sun rises.”

Kahukura kept on stringing his fish with the rest of them. He had only a very short string, and making a slip-knot at the end of it when he had covered the string with fish, he lifted them up. but had hardly raised them from the ground when the slipknot gave way from the weight of

the fish, aud off they fell; then some of the fairies ran good naturedly to help him to string his fish again, and one of them tied the knot at the end of the string for him. but the fairy had hardly gone after knotting it before Kahukura had unfastened it and again tied a slip-knot at the end. Then he began stringing the fish again, and when he had got a great many on up he lifted them, and off they slipped as before. This trick he repeated several times, and delayed the fairies in their work by getting them to knot his string for him and put his fish on it. At last full daylight broke, so that there was light enough to distinguish a man's face, and the fairies saw that Kahukura was a man. Then they dispersed in eonfusion. leaving their fish and their net and abandoning their canoes, which were nothing but stems of flax. In a moment the fairies started for their own abodes. In their hurry, a* has just l>een said, they abandoned their net. which was made of rushes, and off the good people fled as fast as they could go. Now was first discovered the stitch for netting a net. for they left theirs with Kahukura and it became a pattern for him. He thus taught his children to make nets, and by them the Maori race were made acquainted with that art. which they have now known from very remote times.