Research source

To the matter-of-fact pakeha and the modernised Maori there is a very simple explanation of these fairy tales

Date of account: Published 1923
Source: Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand
Reference: Maori folk-tales of the Port Hills, Canterbury, New Zealand · selected passage 24
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-25

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

To the matter-of-fact _pakeha_ and the modernised Maori there is a very simple explanation of these fairy tales. The _Patu-paiarehe_ and the _Maero_ were simply the remnants of aboriginal tribes, such as the Ngati-Mamoe or the Waitaha or their predecessors, driven away into the heart of the mountains and the forests, where they lived a wild, secluded life, existing on the foods of the wilderness. The old English and Scottish belief in fairy people arose in much the same way, the very word “pixy” comes from the name of the Picts, who were driven into the hills and caves. Nevertheless, for those who like to preserve their Peter Pan fancies and illusions this theory may cheerfully be disregarded, and we may still, on days of mist and cloudy calm, imagine the little tribes of the rocks flitting out from their caves and hollow trees and raising as of old their thin voices in their _waiatas_ and piping their fairy sweet _koauau_ music on the level hilltop of Otehore or the dark rock of Tamatea’s Breast.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.

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