A Treasury of Maori Folklore

Te Ao Hou, June 1964, Page 56

A Treasury of Maori Folklore by A. W. Reed A. H. & A. W. Reed, 42/- The purpose of this book is, in the author's words, ‘to put into simple, connected narrative form, and in a logical sequence of categories, the major legends and beliefs, with their more important variants, and thus to provide a volume of straightforward reading and easy reference’. This is a task which badly needed doing, and it is one which ‘A Treasury of Maori Folklore’ performs most successfully. It does not attempt to provide a complete collection; this would, of course, have been quite impossible to do. But it gives a remarkably comprehensive selection, told with clarity, a wealth of detail, and a minimum of theorising. As the author so rightly notes, ‘more can be learned about a super-normal creature such as the taniwha by reading stories of taniwhabaiting than by theorising on the origin of this strange belief’. The book is intended for the general reader. It is the result of much research, and is a considerably more ambitious volume than Mr Reed's earlier best-seller, ‘Myths and Legends of Maoriland’. This previous book was perhaps of especial value to children, but ‘A Treasury of Maori Folklore’ will probably be of most interest to adults (though bright children will also read it avidly). In recent years many of the books dealing with Maori mythology and legends have been intended for children, while others have been so superficial, and so badly written, that no-one with any real interest in the subject could be satisfied with them. It is an excellent thing to have at last a comprehensive collection designed for the serious reader who is not a specialist. It may be of interest to list the main chapter headings of this massive collection, as they give one an idea of the way in which the material has been organised. The headings are: Creation, The Maori Pantheon, Overworlds and Underworlds, the Maui Cycle, The Tawhaki Cycle, Tribal Atua, Patupaiarehe and Ponaturi, Supernatural Beings, Giants and Giant Birds, Taniwha, Legends of Earth, Legends of Ocean, Legends of the Sky, The Tohunga and Makutu, Legends of Love and Endurance. Some of the folk tales in the collection are composite in character, the narrative having been built up from different versions. This method has its dangers, of which the author is well aware, but in a collection intended for the general reader it is probably the best way of coping with the problem. When strongly contradictory versions of legends exist, this is explained in footnotes. A good bibliography is provided, but except in the case of contradictory variants, the sources of individual tales are not usually given. It is a pity that it was not possible to provide this information, as one is left with no way of finding the original sources of the story.