The Māori Patupaiarehe in Polynesian Mythology

Record summary

George Grey’s Polynesian Mythology includes Māori traditions concerning the Patupaiarehe or Tūrehu, supernatural or fairy-like inhabitants associated with forests, mountains, mist and music. The material may matter for comparison because later UFO literature sometimes recasts such beings as non-human occupants or mountain entities. Grey’s work is a nineteenth-century colonial-era compilation of orally transmitted traditions, not an encounter report and not evidence of extraterrestrial visitation. Details vary by iwi and later retellings, making provenance and translation important uncertainties.